Costa Rica Immersion C: Bees, Market and Salsa lessons

Greetings All!

Although it is only our third day in Costa Rica, there is already so much to tell. After arriving in San Jose, the group spent the first few days getting adjusted to Costa Rica, doing Salsa and Meringue lessons, and practicing their Spanish skills in a local mall.

After leaving San Jose and a scenic drive over jungle covered mountains, we made it to Finca Pura Suerte, an ecological retreat and farm overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Pura Suerte is located in the heart of the jungle, and the group seemed to be getting used to the idea that there will be bugs/spiders/lizards/ants/bees present for the duration of our time here in the jungle. In fact, during one of our nature hikes around the farm with the owner, Drennan, some of the group got a face to face introduction to a hive of bees that would have preferred to be left alone. Although several students did get stung, no one was allergic to the stings. After applying a concoction that Drennan made, the bites were gone within a few hours and several of the students agreed that it makes for a cool story to go home with, although not one that needs to be repeated!

After the farm tour, a dinner of enucados (a Costa Rican version of an empanada made with Yucca) and a good nights sleep, the group woke up and headed out to a local farmers market in the town of San Isidro. The farmers market was filled with unknown fruits and vegetables, and to get everyone acquainted with all of the new ingredients, we gave them time to practice their Spanish by picking out ingredients for our Dinner. To see an outstanding video of our time at the market click here or go to youtube and search for walking tree travel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW__7-BvobY

Our final full day at Pura Suerte was spent doing a hike down to Niyaca, a three-tiered waterfall in the heart of the jungle with a giant swimming hole at the base. Although the hike was tiring, the group was in good spirits once they reached the base and we had a picnic lunch before heading back up and spending a sun-filled afternoon hanging out in our Jungalows (bungalows in the jungle).

The Immersion C program has the unique privilege of having a professional videographer team, Justin Weiler and Guru Khalsa, with the group to document the entire program. Justin is the Producer for Circle W Media, an avid traveler, and a great friend of Walking Tree’s and Guru is a freelance photographer based in San Francisco and has shot everything from weddings to editorial portraits of Barack Obama.

We will include snippets of the footage they are getting in the blog whenever the internet connection is good enough to upload, and are excited for you all to get a more in depth idea of our month in Costa Rica through their videos!

We will be heading to Manuel Antonio tomorrow to see sloths, monkeys, and to check out the white sand beach for a few days and will keep you posted as we can.

Until next time,

Paul and Flora
Immersion C Leaders