Sámara
On Wednesday, September 30, we made our way to the airport in Las Vegas and got ready to head out to Costa Rica. Our first flight was a short one (over and up to San Francisco in order to catch a connecting flight to San José), and we had a layover of just over 4 hours (no problem — we spent some time reading and doing school work). After an overnight flight with very little sleep, we arrived in San José at 7am and took an Uber to the TIG bus station. There, we had another few hours to wait before our bus departed for Sámara, so we enjoyed an empanada and did some people watching. The bus ride took about 6 hours, as there were many stops and lots of construction, but it was comfy and air conditioned, and it only cost about $10 each, so it was well worth it.

(View from the bus window… so much greener than our last destination!)


We arrived in Sámara and it was already dark (sunset here is around 5:30pm) but fortunately we only had a very short walk to our hotel, which was just around the corner from the bus stop. We ventured out about an hour later to grab a pizza nearby, and then fell into bed after a long 24+ hours of traveling.

Our first three nights, we stayed in Hotel Giada, which was very comfortable. We got to choose between several options for breakfast each morning, but our favorite option was the Gallo Pinto con huevos fritos (o revueltos), plantains, and fresh fruit juice. We walked around, visited the beach for a walk or two, and generally just rested for a day or two.

On Sunday, we moved into our residence at the Intercultura school. The room we are renting here is simple (just a hotel room sort of situation, with access to a shared kitchen) but the school’s gate opens right onto the beach. It’s pretty amazing to hear the waves all night, even with the windows closed & over the sound of the AC.

Speaking of AC, thank goodness for it! It’s currently Costa Rica’s rainy season – hot and humid, with rain just about every afternoon. Because it’s 85 and something like 90% humidity, it’s tough to cool off — we have spent some time in the water, and that helps, but since the ocean is almost the same temperature as the air the most refreshing part is probably the outdoor shower when we come back — no hot water at all here in Sámara, and we honestly don’t miss it!

On Monday we got to the school a little early to have a quick interview in Spanish and get sorted into our classes. Jackie was with one other student, and her classes consisted of lots of conversations about wide-ranging topics with María, her instructor, and working on the subjunctive tense. (Plus trying to remember a lot of basics that she’s forgotten over the years!). Jordan was in class with three other students, and her teacher Carmen worked with them a lot on the preterite tense. She’s feeling like a pro now! Lillian got one-on-one classes, mostly, because there was only one other kid at the school and his level was a bit different from hers. After a few hours of learning, she and her teacher Vivian would join up with the other student and his teacher, and they’d head to the grocery store to get ingredients to make fried plantains, for instance, or they’d go play soccer or get ice cream. It’s amazing to hear how much progress she has made just in this first week!

The week of classes sped by, with a salsa dancing class and a few trips to the beach and the supermarket mixed in. Today (Saturday 10/10) is our last full day here in Sámara, so we treated ourselves to an adventure and went horseback riding along the beach and through the woods for about 2 and a half hours. It was a fantastic way to see more of the area, and we got to see a group of howler monkeys (literally) hanging around eating leaves, plus lots of birds, flowers, ardillos, and iguanas. We did not, fortunately, see a crocodile as we were riding the horses across the river!

After changing into some cooler clothes, we visited a Soda (Soda La Perla) that is most easily accessed by walking across the beach — it’s a five or ten minute walk from our school along the beach at low tide, but if the tide is high it takes 20-30 minutes to walk along the roads to get there instead. We each had “casados” and fruta en agua (kind of like a smoothie) in what felt like someone’s family home, and left feeling full and happy. The food was delicious (and inexpensive — just over $6 for the casado, and around $2 for the smoothie)!

Happily, we thought ahead and wore our swimsuits under our clothes; the walk back was a bit wetter since the tide had come in somewhat, but it was pretty cool that our commute back home involved walking through the little waves along the shore carrying our sandals. We found a shady spot near the school to leave our things and spent an hour playing in the waves.

Tomorrow we catch the public bus back to San José (SUPER early — we have to leave our room at 3:50am to walk to the bus stop in order to catch the bus at 4am!) and then Uber to Heredia, where we’ll settle into our apartment at the Intercultura campus there. It will be nice to have our own kitchen, and even nicer to have two separate bedrooms and a living room, but we’ll miss the vibe and the beach here in Sámara, and we’ll miss our classmates and teachers, too!