March Blogs – Adventures with Clay in Costa Rica

Blog #10: Jaco & Colombia!

Hola chicos,

I have quite a bit to write about in this blog as I just returned from a week-long trip to Colombia! Before I write about that, I want to update you all on my life since my last blog.

End of March/Early April

During the last weekend of March, I got the chance to go to the beach in Jaco! Jaco is one of the most popular beaches that people go to from San Jose, and my friends and I wanted to soak up some time at the beach. As is the theme of this trip, the beach was beautiful and the waves were great too!

I really had the time of my life playing in the waves and soaking up the warm sun. We had a really great lunch too that I enjoyed. I honestly just had a great day overall. We had to wake up very early to catch the bus, but we had just the right amount of time to enjoy the beach to then return back to San Jose.

Last Week of Classes

This week was quite an emotional one if I’m being completely truthful. A lot of change happened this week: many of my friends who were here for 12 weeks (I’m here for 17 weeks) left a week ago to head back to the United States. On top of this, my classes were finishing up, which meant I had several final projects to complete.

My gender and sexuality class after our last day of class.

It really started to hit me that a lot of my friends were leaving when we went to the final goodbye dinner on Thursday (March 30th). It was our final, celebratory moment for our program to enjoy the time we had together and celebrate the past semester. The restaurant that we went to was absolutely stunning. It sat on top of the mountainside with a view that was absolutely stunning to witness. Enjoy the pictures I took from our dinner:

We all celebrated the last day by going out for a little bit and having fun at one of the nearby clubs. I got to see some other friends who didn’t go to the dinner while we went out, so I got to give them final hugs and thank them for making the time in Costa Rica just that much more special for me.

Once I got back to my homestay, I finished up packing and went to sleep in preparation for leaving early the next morning to Colombia!!

Friday (March 31st)

We left for Colombia this morning! We arrived in Cartagena and spent the afternoon getting ourselves settled at our hostel. We spent a considerable amount of time waiting to get through customs and traveling to our hostel.

One thing I immediately noticed about Colombia was the driving. I thought that Costa Ricans were aggressive drivers, but I quickly learned that Colombia was far worse than Costa Rica. I’d never seen such organized chaos in my life. You could not pay me anything to drive in Cartagena, because I’d be an absolute nervous wreck.

Once we got to the hostel, we went out to dinner and got to meet some of our hostel-mates. More on that in a bit.

Saturday (April 1st)

Today was our first full day in Cartagena, and we spent the day exploring the city and what it has to offer. We first went to a beach that was really beautiful. The locals were telling me how the beach was like their version of Miami, and I could absolutely see why. While I’ve never been to Miami, the buildings, atmosphere, and the weather all seemed very much like what I’ve heard about Miami.

The view from the beach along the coastline.

After spending time on the beach, we did a walking tour of the city and got to see some notable landmarks on the tour. The city is super picturesque and was really beautiful to see with all of the old colonial architecture.

After our walking tour, we headed back to the hostel and got ready for our night out. We ended up going to a really awesome rooftop bar that was one of the highlights of the trip. The music was fun, the atmosphere was inviting, and we got to hang out with some of our hostel mates! Here’s a picture of my friends and I at this bar:

My friends and I with our balloon animals, courtesy of Olivia.

I want to take a moment to talk about our hostel mates. They were SO much fun to chat with and were honestly one of my favorite parts of the trip. The first group of people we met were some peace corps volunteers in Colombia who were happening to stay at the same hostel as us. I got to talk with one of them for a couple of hours about their experience, and it was so eye-opening to hear her explain her life and why she chose to do the Peace Corps. After talking with them, I have much more interest in potentially joining and serving, so we’ll have to see where life takes me.

I also want to shout-out the other hostel mates I met: Geraldo from Chile and Pablo from Argentina. I appreciated them both so much because, to be frank, I really didn’t have a lot in common with them. They’re both super athletic/into sports, straight, and very much “bros”. Yet the both took the genuine time to actually want to get to know me. Through my limited Spanish, we were able to communicate with each other and they adjusted the way they spoke to make sure I understood what they were saying. Both Chile and Argentina are known for having some of the hardest Spanish accents to understand, yet they both adapted the way they spoke to accommodate me, and did their best to communicate with me. We also went out with them and they both were SO much fun to dance with at the club. I just have a lot of respect for people who, even with someone like myself who is completely different from them, make the effort to talk with me and get to know me. These interactions honestly just fueled my passion for learning the language and served as a reset-button to help me realize why I decided to come here and spend time learning Spanish. I’m honestly so grateful I met all of them during my trip as they really were the inspiration that I needed to motivate me to practice as I continue to learn the language.

As you can imagine, we had a long night out, and we definitely had a slow Sunday after sleeping in.

Sunday (4/2)

Today, we did one of my favorite activities of the trip: the mud bath. We went to this old volcano that now has a mud bath in the middle of it. It took us about an hour to reach the volcano and we quickly realized, once we got there, that this tour we did was definitely more for locals than for gringos like ourselves. We had to walk barefoot across many pebbles and dirt and climb the splinter-producing stairs to reach the mud bath. It was worth it though – the mud felt so good and it was super relaxing to spend that time in there.

A picture of us as we descended the steps to get washed off

We spent another 30 minutes here getting rinsed off, dressed, and then departing back to Cartagena. We enjoyed the evening having dinner and celebrating the last night in Cartagena before we set off for Medellin the following day.

Monday (4/3)

Our flight left swiftly at 11:30AM and we headed to Medellin – yes, the Medellin that Pablo Escobar once ruled back in the 90’s. We arrived, got settled at the hostel, and then made our way to do an art and graffiti tour in Comuna 13 – a once guerra-dominated-now-tourist location that educates people about the neighborhood’s troubling past and how it has drastically changed over the last several years.

To put it simply, the government came in and killed a lot of the drug cartel head members. The government made peace agreements with other cartels to not bother the neighborhood anymore. After this was done in the 2000s, the government began to pour investments into the neighborhood by implementing escalators so that people living in the hillsides of these neighborhoods wouldn’t have to climb 500+ steps everyday just to reach their homes. As our tour guide explained to us, houses were cheaper the higher up they were, so many elderly folks who were poor would only be able to afford them and were forced to live high on the hillside. Because of this, it made leaving their houses super difficult because it meant having to make the climb back up.

If you look closely, you can see people boarding the escalators to move up “floors” of the neighborhood.

I didn’t know what to expect with this tour before it started, but I was honestly so moved by it. The tour felt so authentic because our tour guide relayed stories from his family that lived through the trauma that ensued for so many years before.

Our tour guide took us to his grandma’s house who unfortunately passed away due to COVID in 2020. He told us the story of how she survived all of those years, and even lost a couple of her sons to the drug gangs. What made me the most emotional, however, was when he showed us a picture from his phone of her back in 2019. Throughout everything that she had experienced – the pain, torture, and the true ugliness of life, she still had a smile. She still was somehow happy, content, and just seemed like the warmest person in the world. After her passing in 2020, the community painted a mural on her house.

The tour also was so profound because it enabled me to see the complexity and juxtaposition of this neighborhood. For example, we passed by a little basketball court where some kids were running and playing, and our tour guide told us that that spot used to be the public execution location – front and center for the entire community to see to instill fear in the community.

Another example of this juxtaposition – as we climbed higher and higher on the mountainside, as I already mentioned, that’s where more and more people who lived in poverty, well, lived. Yet as we climbed, the views got even more breathtaking. We could see the entire city, and even were able to watch part of the sunset from the hill.

The picture doesn’t do this view justice.

It just was so thought-provoking to think about how this community, who had undergone such awful trauma, also had this undeniable beauty to it that, until recently, no one besides the community had ever seen before. This tour truly opened my eyes to Colombia and just made me fall even more in love with the country, and I was so glad I decided to do this tour.

After we ended the tour, we headed back to the hostel and prepared for our long day ahead of us.

Tuesday (4/4)

Today was the day that we had planned our tour of Guatapé, the 2nd most colorful city in the world and the famous Guatapé rock.

We got up very early, and arrived to Guatapé around 10AM to begin our trek hiking up the rock. We didn’t realize it until we arrived, but we ended up hiking over 700+ steps to arrive at the summit of the rock. While we were definitely exhausted from our hike, the views were obviously stunning and amazing to see in person.

We spent a little bit at the top of the rock, and then made our way down before heading to the town of Guatapé. We arrived, and our tour guide told us that the town was actually inspiration for “Encanto”. After seeing the town for a bit, I could definitely see how the town had inspired that movie.

We spent a little bit of time here before we took a boat ride around the reservoir that can be seen in the photos above from the top of the Guatapé rock. We learned a bit more about Pablo Escobar and actually got to see one of his famous estates where he had many parties and such.

After our boat ride, we departed back to downtown Medellin, and recovered from our extensive day of hiking.

Wednesday (4/5)

This was our last full day in Medellin, and I unfortunately was beginning my bout with a cold that is still affecting me a bit to this day. We were all pretty tired and really didn’t have a ton of energy to do stuff, so we opted to explore the city of Medellin by using the metrocable – Medellin’s own public transportation.

If you would have told me that Medellin, in Colombia, had one of the best public transportation systems in the world, I don’t think I would have believed you. But after using it for several hours, and I can confidently say that Medellin has one of the best public transportation systems. It uses a mix of lightrails, trains, and (my favorite), gondolas to transport people to different neighborhoods across the city. We of course had to take the gondola since it seemed super cool, and I’m so glad that we did. Once we reached the final station at the top, we got this absolutely incredible view of the town of Medellin:

You can see the gondolas on the right of the picture.

I can safely say that Medellin, Colombia, is one of, if not, the most beautiful cities that I’ve ever visited in my life. The city sits in a small valley, but a lot of the city is also built on the mountainsides. You can be walking in the middle of downtown, only to look up and see this absolutely gorgeous mountain with buildings sitting atop of it. It was so lush, green and literally felt like we were in a movie. The motto for the city is “the city with eternal spring” because the weather is always like spring with the greenery and mild temperatures. I couldn’t get enough of just how beautiful this city was, and taking this little tour on the gondola (which was their public transportation) was just the icing on the cake. I took pictures from the gondola also since the views from inside were also stunning as well.

After our time on the public transportation, we headed back to the hostel, had dinner, and packed up to leave Colombia the following day.

Thursday (4/6)

We headed back to Costa Rica from Colombia. My cold unfortunately got worse and I was very glad when we finally made it back to San Jose. I luckily took medicine before our flight, but even so, I was pretty miserable as we ascended and descended as my sinuses were trying to kill me.

Once I arrived at my homestay, I spent the rest of the night relaxing and resting.

Easter Weekend

I wish I had something exciting to report, but I spent the entire weekend recovering. This cold has really made me rest up, as even going on a walk was enough to tire me out and make me take a nap for a bit. I think our travel and my lack of sleep during our trip exacerbated whatever virus I got and my body has forced me to take time to rest and prepare for the beginning of my final Spanish class for April. I start that class tomorrow and I’m sure will have more updates for you all in bit. In the meantime, take care, and ¡pura vida!

Blog #9 – Parque Diversiones, Hacienda la Chimba, and More

Hola chicos,

These past weeks haven’t been the most eventful of ones I’ve had since I’ve been here, but I wanted to still write and provide some more reflections I’ve made since being here as well as update you all on some of my latest adventures since being here.

Reflections

As my time here in Costa continues to dwindle as early May approaches, I waft through the feelings of homesickness of the United States with also appreciating even more the time I’ve spent here.

I’ve been thinking about how this experience will impact me once I arrive back to the U.S. and have some time to reflect. And I genuinely don’t know if I’ll have the words to describe it. I already know that I’m going to miss so many things from my life here in CR: my host family, my friends, Spanish, the weather, and more. I’ve been even more sentimental recently as a lot of my friends leave next weekend, so we’ve all been rushing to spend time together and cherish the final moments that we have together.

I also have been reflecting deeply on how much I take for granted that I live in a country (the U.S) where my native tongue is spoken. Being here has really given me the appreciation of simple interactions I used to take for granted easily – whether it’s going to a restaurant and being able to fully converse with the waiters/waitresses, or trying to understand my program director as I practice Spanish with her, or whether it’s trying to decipher all of the billboards posted around the city. I never realized how difficult it could be to do all of those things until I’ve been here. Having to navigate and live my life where language barriers/communications happen often gives me this sense of appreciation that I can, in fact, speak a language fluently. I also have such a greater empathy for immigrants, refugees, expats, or frankly anyone who uproots their lives to live in another country that doesn’t speak their native tongue.

These past few weeks, I’ve also had the opportunity to meet and hang out with some locals, which has been a very interesting experience. They could speak English well, but our conversations have mostly been in Spanish, which, again, has given me such a more complex understanding of how we use language in our daily life. I never realized how many dichos (sayings in english) that I use in my daily vernacular. Likewise, Spanish also has its dichos, and when locals use them, I understandably don’t understand exactly what they are saying. Again, these conversations have humbled me because they not only show that I still am not as proficient in Spanish as I wish I was, but that language and communicating is such a beautiful gift that we all take for granted. Of course the locals will explain it to me, but, if I’m being totally honest, it can get a bit frustrating at times knowing that I can’t fully communicate the way in which I’d want in all settings.

On the flip side of that, I also feel so proud of myself and accomplished that I can even form relationships with people while using another language than my native tongue. I’ve continued to grow my relationship with my host family, and knowing that I’ve created this special relationship with an 82 year old señora in a language that is not my native one es muy chiva (in english = is really cool/awesome). When I have those moments when the language flows off my tongue and I can fully understand what locals are saying, I feel a sense of deep accomplishment – like the work I’ve put in to learn the language is actually paying off. It’s almost like a challenge that I embark everyday – like a 1,000 piece puzzle that I’m trying to solve. There’s so many moments where I try to fit pieces together that don’t fit, but when that moment comes when two pieces fit together, it’s such a rewarding feeling that encourages me to practice more.

Unrelated to Spanish, I’ve also had some fun days that I wanted to share in this blog from the past weekend:

Saturday (3/18)

Today was the day that I got to do one of my bucket list things here in Costa Rica: go to their amusement park. As many of you know, I am a huge rollercoaster/theme park junkie, so getting to visit a theme park in *Costa Rica* was definitely on my bucket list.

The first thing I immediately noticed was how cheap it was to enter the park. We bought a bundle of 4 tickets that cost around $50, meaning it was about $12 per person to enter the park. In other words – it was super cheap. That theme continued within the park, as I saw options to get theme park food combos for $6. It was truly wild to me how cheap everything was.

My friends and I had a great time. The park had a couple of upside down rollercoasters (one of them shown below), but what I loved about the park was how quaint it felt. In one area of the park, it had these really cute, old buildings that were super fun to explore.

This was the old-building section of the park…. they had several restaurants and other shops in this area.

My friends’ and my favorite ride was this spinning rollercoaster that had these wicked turns. It caught us off guard and we had such a fun time riding it.

We spent more time riding the other rides there and really just had a great day. One thing I found super interesting was that we saw a thunderstorm nearby (with lightening) that was approximately 3-5ish miles from the park. We thought, when we saw it, that everything would close down. But nope. Everything continued as normal as if it didn’t exist. This included the *water* rides that still had quite long lines for them even as lightening was imminent. The thunderstorm didn’t actually hit us directly so nothing happened, but I found it very interesting and a bit funny that the park continued to operate even with lightning nearby. This definitely wouldn’t have happened if we were at a U.S. theme park.

After our busy, I returned home, had some dinner, and prepared for the next fun day.

Sunday (3/19)

My friend Yesenia and I went to Hacienda La Chimba, a finca (like a property/estate) that had a famous hiking trail that we wanted to go on. We made our way there and began our trek through the trails.

I don’t think either one of us realized how difficult the hike would be. The hike ended up taking over 2 hours to complete, which consisted of mostly incline hiking. Neither one of us are in the best shapes in the world, so we definitely were huffing and puffing and had to take many breaks during the hike. Fortunately, however, there were many spots along the route where we could take breaks and take in the spectacular views.

As we continued our hike, we grew more and more tired, but persevered! It was a very sunny day that also happened to be really warm. After reaching 4 kilometers, I was questioning whether or not I could still continue the hike. We cheered each other on, and upon kilometer 5, we got to witness the view that everyone talks about.

This photo is definitely a favorite of mine.

We definitely spent at least 5 minutes trying to take in the views and attempting to document the moment. I was so glad that I got to experience this moment with my friend, Yesenia.

We had the option to continue the hike for an additional 4 km, but we were so exhausted that we headed straight back to the main lobby area, enjoyed some gelato, and made our way back to San Jose.

I spent the rest of the day recovering and rehydrating from our strenuous day.

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I’m going to end this blog entry here. I’m going to the beach tomorrow and this week is the last week before a lot of my friends leave, so I’m sure I’ll have a lot to write about. Until next time, pura vida!

Blog #8: Osa Peninsula and Reflections

Hola chicos,

A few days ago marked the halfway point of my study abroad trip, and I genuinely can’t believe it. Time truly feels like it’s flying by and I keep waiting for it to slow down, with no avail.

I wanted to write a bit about my academic experience here in Costa Rica, as it’s incredibly different than the United States. Firstly, I’ve noticed that most of the homework for my classes here are presentations. The university uses a competency-based model where grades are given based on the quality of work turned in (and presented on), not on how many details you can remember for a test. Overall, I really like this emphasis because it enables me to show what I actually know, not what I don’t know (which is how I feel many tests work in the United States).

I just finished my intensive Spanish class, and it was very bittersweet for that class to end. On the one hand, I have considerably less work to do, with more free time to catch up on other homework and relax. On the other hand, I really miss my class and I loved my professor – she was the absolute sweetest. On our last day of classes, my classmates and I got her flowers and a card, thanking her for her kindness and for being an awesome professor:

I’ll be taking another intensive Spanish class in April, but my other classes will have already been completed, so I’ll only have Spanish during that month. I have a feeling that once April rolls around, I’ll be looking forward to having a more structured, routine-based schedule again where I’m practicing the language.

I also really want to again highlight how incredibly grateful I am for my host family. I currently write this blog as I recover from a bout of a stomach virus that really tried to kill me last night. Not only do they repeatedly cook and clean for me, but at my worst of moments, they bent over backwards to help me and make sure I was as comfortable as possible. At 11:30PM last night, after my fourth bout of getting sick, my host family made (in that moment) an electrolyte serum that helped me stay hydrated. They also not only adjusted the food they gave both my roommate and I (we both got the virus at the same time, lucky us!), but they even cooked us an extra meal because we both simply didn’t have the energy to leave the house.

I always feel that people’s true colors come out in the worst of moments, and while I always knew that my host family cared a lot about me, their willingness to bend-over-backwards, late at night, while I feel awful is a true testament to their genuine kindness.

On a completely different note, I got to visit the Osa Peninsula last weekend, located on the western, pacific side of Costa Rica. Here’s a little run-down of my trip:

Friday, March 3rd

We departed my university at 1:30 in what ended up being a 6+ hour drive to Sierpe, the name of the town that we stayed in for the weekend. We arrived, and I immediately noticed the oppressive heat/humidity of the area. I was so thankful that we had air conditioning in our room because being in that area reminded me that we were in the tropics.

We had dinner at the main restaurant in town and prepared ourselves for a busy next day.

Saturday, March 4th

We had an early wake-up today of 5:30AM to eat breakfast in preparation for our big day. Since we arrived at night, I couldn’t get a good sense of what the town looked like until we woke up the next day to this:

After boarding our boat, we embark along the river and shoreline until we reach the Pacific ocean. I remember thinking how everything felt so tranquil and calm as we rode along the river.

A view of the Sierpe River and our boat that we rode on for the day.

Once we made it to the Pacific Ocean, we headed towards la Isla del Caño (Caño Island), a remote island off the coast that has some of the most biodiversity in all of Costa Rica. When we arrived, our tour guide had to get off the boat and get a permit from the person working at the island just to let us snorkel around the island. This island is really restrictive, so not many people have visited it before in their time at Costa Rica.

La Isla del Caño in all its glory… it was stunning to see in person.

I’ve had the opportunity to snorkel several times in my life, but I’ve never snorkeled where I’ve gotten to see so many fish and corals in my life. The water was also crystal clear, so the views were simply stunning to witness. I felt like I was living in a nature documentary. I wish I had my own photo of what it looked like, but here’s a good idea of what it looked like:

Scuba Diving Tour, Cano Island, Protected Underwater Reserve, Drake Bay, Costa Rica diving, scuba diving tours

After snorkeling for a while, we departed to an island right near the main coastline and had lunch. This island was, as I’ve said so many times, extremely beautiful to see. There were even black sand beaches at this particular island – my first time ever experiencing them!

After spending time on the island, we did a mangrove tour where we saw several species of wildlife, including several birds, monkeys, sloths, and more. Enjoy these monkeys that we spotted in the mangroves:

After our mangrove tour, we departed back to our hotel and rested for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, March 5th

We departed back to San Jose on another 6+ bus ride. Upon return to home, I spent the rest of the day resting up for the upcoming week and spending time with my host family.

That’s all I have for now, so until next time, ¡pura vida!