Pura Vida

We have now finished our first week of classes. So far:

• Molly has worn Sadie's dress
• Sadie has worn Molly's swimsuit
• I forgot to give Sadie dramamine before the camp boat trip, which had a very predictable outcome
• I left my children unattended in a foreign country so I could go running on the beach (multiple times)
• We rode in an unlicensed taxi, and the driver had to jump up and down on the trunk to get it to close
• The world has failed to fall apart

I think there is something to this whole "pura vida" thing!

This trip is turning out to be very different from what I expected (not that I was really sure what to expect), and it seems that we are a bit different from what the school was expecting. For starters, the adult classes follow the surf. This week that meant that I had Spanish in the mornings, with surfing lessons in the afternoons. My lessons go until 3 but camp lets out at 2, so they have been bringing the girls down to the break to watch my lessons. Next week the tides will have shifted such that the surf is better in the mornings, so they swap the classes (surf in the morning, Spanish in the afternoon). This is awesome, except that I am apparently the only person in history to take full advantage of the class offerings while here with kids and no spouse. They are improvising childcare so we can all get the most out of our time here, which is much appreciated.

The Spanish classes themselves are great. My lectures and course materials are entirely in Spanish.  I am probably getting more out of these lessons than I got out of my high school and college courses.  Molly and Sadie are "full immersion" as well, as the camp counselors are primarily speaking Spanish to the kids.  Molly is learning some basics - alphabet, numbers, grammar.  A boy from her school is in the same class that she's in, and he says they have already covered the first month of material from his first Spanish class in Austin.  As for the "conversational" part, the entire adult camp blew off two of the ten lessons this week so we could watch the CR-England and US-Germany World Cup matches. We talked about the games with our instructors (entirely in Spanish) so I guess we did have those classes after all.

Molly and Sadie had their first surfing lessons yesterday. Both of them liked it so much that we stayed at the break after their camp let out and I checked out a couple of boards for us to use. I put them each on a few more waves before we walked the boards back to the shop. Here is Molly on her ride of the day -

Sadie looked similar on hers. As for me, I am slowly getting the hang of it. By which I mean I am standing up on maybe 10-15% of the waves I try.

The condo here is as nice as advertised. As a bonus, howler monkeys come into the trees just behind us - here's the view from our balcony.

I've also seen monkeys walking around while I was going to classes, with one passing just behind me on the trail. The condo has some other resident wildlife, including iguanas and tarantulas...

We plan on relaxing this weekend - farmers market, maybe some more surfing, walking on the beach, etc. Next week the girls will be going on a canopy tour, and they will go to another town to play soccer with the local kids.

The Adventure Begins!

We have arrived in Tamarindo after three packed days.  So far so good, although it seems that we will be keeping a casualty list.  So far:

• Molly's snorkeling mask (shattered in transit)
• one waterproof camera (now waterlogged)

On Thursday morning, Kathleen dropped us at the Austin airport and we had an uneventful flight to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Leaving the airport was somewhat of an ordeal - it took a while for our luggage to arrive, and then there was a long line to get a SIM card for my phone.  An hour later, we exited customs and were pleased to find that our host had not yet given up on us.

We stayed at a guest house that is used by a number of language schools in the country.  Very pretty, if somewhat spartan accomodations (the three of us shared a room with bunk beds about 18 inches away from a double bed.  I think this was actually a four-person setup).  The couple that runs the guesthouse showed us around, and Sadie helped the owner pick some tangerines that he uses for juice.  Turned out there was another family (mother and daughter) from San Antonio staying at the guesthouse, but the girl was 15, going by herself to a teen language camp in another part of the country.  They were very nice, and the girls enjoyed playing Spot It together.

On Friday we went to Tortuga Island.  This involved a two-hour bus ride to the coast and a two-hour catamaran ride through the Bay to reach an island with a nice beach.  We opted not to take the snorkeling boat tour because it looked like 45 minutes in the water with no way to bail out if Sadie wasn't comfortable.  Instead I rented an inner tube and floated Sadie out so she could just look in while I propeled us around with my fins.  This was where we discovered that Molly's mask had seen better days, so we took turns snorkeling and got to see some parrot fish, angel fish, and other species on the smallish reef/rocks that were just off the beach.  By the end, Sadie asked if she could borrow my mask and swam around by herself without the tube - apparently she loves snorkeling now, so we have a late-breaking addition to the casualty list:

• one dislike for snorkeling

As a side note, Friday was also the day that Costa Rica was playing a match in the World Cup.  There was a TV on the boat, and the crew kept adjusting the antenna to try to keep signal. We arrived at the island just as they scored what turned out to be the only goal in the game and the crew went nuts, sounding the horn and shouting to other boats in the area.  Once we got situated on the island, they dragged the TV up onto the beach and set it up under the canopy where we were having lunch so they could watch the rest of the game.  When "La Sele" won there was another huge celebration, as the team will advance to the next round for the first time ever.

Also, Sadie and Molly found a pig to play with on the island.

On Saturday we had a whirlwind tour of Costa Rica in which we saw:

• An active volcano (geyser activity, not lava)
  
• The cloud forest (and a sloth!)
  
• The oldest coffee plantation in CR, Doka Estate (Sadie recommends their House Blend; Molly will stick to chai)
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• An old church (with metal walls)
  
• an oxcart factory (powered by a water wheel)
  
  
  
  

It was all very interesting, but Sadie had some difficulty with the altitude - Poas (the volcano) is at about 2500-2700 meters - but she toughed it out and got to see everything.

When we returned last night we met some new arrivals - a group of ESL teachers from Washington and NC/SC.  Molly charmed them with her knowledge of YA lit and gave them some recommendations on the latest books to read.

We are now checked into our condo in Tamarindo, and it is very nice.  There are howler monkeys and iguanas in the trees outside, and several nice families who will be attending camp with us.  Stay tuned as our adventure continues...