Nikki's Adventures: San Joaquin de Flores

We went to Spanish school for two weeks. I stayed with a lovely family who had two boys (8 & 11). My mama tica (Costa Rican Mum) was the sister of the Kincaid’s mama tica. They lived next door. School went from 8am until 12pm. We would either have lunch at school or at a soda (local café) down the road. We would then either hang around school and do our homework and study or go on an organized trip and then I’d try and speak Spanish to my family. They were very patient; I used my dictionary and hand signals a lot and I generally had a ‘I don’t have a clue what you are saying but I’ll smile anyway’ smile on my face. It was full on and brain overloading but a great experience.

The organized trips we did:
A guided tour around Heredia (the closest town to San Joaquin). The highlights were the local market with its gruesome meat section (blood and onion sausage, pig heads, and basically all the inside bits of animals that should be thrown out and not eaten), and the ice cream shop. I got the everything one which had ice cream, fruit, slushy, condensed milk and some sweet powdery stuff. In fact I actually got two because the ice cream girl couldn’t understand my Spanish.

An afternoon trip to Sarchi, which is an artist’s town - They have their own style of painting and have used it to decorate bridges, rubbish bins etc. They are also famous for the carts that they make, which are also painted. In the center of town they have the largest ox cart in the world.

For my birthday the Kincaids took me on a river boat trip. We saw birds, iguanas, bats, vultures eating a dead cow in the water, a caiman, monkeys and a sloth.

Two nights in Puerto Viejo: It’s a surfy town on the southern Caribbean coast. We hired bikes, swam, walked and sampled the local fare and there was also a surf competition which added to the entertainment. We liked it so much we’re going back again before we do our volunteering with the turtles.

White water rafting: We went on our last Saturday with our families. The scenery surrounding the river was amazing, the rapids were class three and four, and they gave us a tasty breakfast and lunch.