Costa Rica Restaurant Review

As anyone who knows me is likely to verify… I like to eat! Occasionally, you can find a comment someone has made about a restaurant they liked (or hated) in Costa Rica, but until now, there has been no central repository of information, recommendations or general commentary on where to get a good meal in Costa Rica. I am going to TRY to change that!
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I Have Arrived!

I have arrived in Costa Rica and it´s beautiful! We stayed in at hotel called Bougainvilla our first night, and it was great. They had a wonderful garden, and good food. I would recommend it to anyone who asked.

I came to Heredia yesterday and met my Tico family, and they are very nice. I have two parents, a sister, and a brother. They are very understanding and patient with my awful spanish. They even tell me it´s pretty good, although I can tell they’re just being polite.

I started to pick some classes today, and I will find out Friday which classes I´m actually in. We are finishing out the week in Heredia, and then we are headed to Monteverde for a week of fun.

This is what I´ve learned so far:

The driving here is crazy! Everyone honks all the time, there aren´t any visible lines on the streets, and people seem to make up lanes and rules. Every time I´m in a car, I´m afraid for my life!

If someone invites you over for coffee, they probably don´t mean it and are just being polite. Unless you have a set day and time, don´t expect to actually have coffee at their house. By the way, the coffee here is the best I´ve ever had.

Also, you can’t flush toliet paper because the pipes are too small and often get clogged. You have to throw it in the trash, which is difficult to adjust to since I’ve been not thinking about where I put my toliet paper for about 20 or so years now.

One last thing for those of you who have ever wondered, the keyboards are different here.

That´s all for now folks.

And THIS is a note from ME, the Admin!

And to Christin’s parents… I hereby beg your apology. Your daughter is alive and well and living in Costa Rica!

Costa Rican Frogs Wiped Out?

EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA – Disease induced by global warming is to blame for a mass extinction of frog species in Costa Rica.

I stumbled upon this copyrighted article the other day, and have been trying to verify the facts a bit before I wrote this. Sadly, neither the University of Alberta nor the magazine Nature seem to make any reference to this important information. I am presuming there is only one Nature magazine.

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Packing

As it turns out, packing 6 months worth of stuff into 2 suitcases is hard. It took me 2 days to get everything together.
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Extra Charge Coming for Cellular Internet Service

Up until now, if you really didn’t care too much about using a GSM phone here in Costa Rica, you could at least feel good that when you phone DID have service, you also had free Internet access so you could check emails and do some browsing. That will soon begin to costa (sorry… I had to!) money.
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Host Family Gifts

So my friend Becky, who has studied abroad before, says to me, “You’d better not show up empty-handed. Your host family would appreciate it if you brought them a gift. ”

“What kind of gift should I bring?” says I.

“Something American, something that would represent where you’re from.”
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Preparation Catch-up

Since many of you may be wondering about what sort of preparation goes into planning to study abroad, I thought now might be a good time to give you a run-down on everything I’ve done for this trip so far.

First, I researched study abroad programs, then applied to the one I was interested in. Many people hedge their bets and apply to more than one program, but I knew that I met all the criteria and the application process is fairly time intensive, so I opted to bet all my chips on one hand.

After waiting forever to find out, I was finally accepted and even offered a small scholarship. Then came the real work.
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University Admittance Here is Tough

In the US, it is the private schools.. the Harvards, Yales, and others that are tough to get into. In Costa Rica, however, there are only three public universities and those are the ones where the competiton for entrance has become tough indeed.
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Hola todos!

Hola todos!

I’m Christin, and I’m leaving for Costa Rica in just 3 short days.

I’ll be flying from Port Columbus airport in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. through Miami, Florida, U.S.A. into San Jose, Costa Rica. I have a 10-hour layover in Miami (I hope the bar is open early), so expect to hear more from me then!
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Chagas Disease in Costa Rica

Never heard of it?

Me neither! However thanks to alert reader Julie Becker, I now know we have another nasty thing available in Costa Rica.

After doing a bit of research such as checking with the WHO and the CDC, and, of course, asking my wifey to check the CAJA hospitals and physicians here in Costa Rica, I found out that:

A. Chagas Disease does exist here, but

B. You’re going to have to live in some pretty nasty places to get it!

Your chances of catching Chagas disease are truly remote unless you’re into living adobe style.

Because it is pretty near impossible for the average person to get Chagas, I almost decided against adding it to RCR. In fact, unless you’re a Peace Corp volunteer or living with the indigenous people of CR, you’re pretty safe. Still, as I want our section on Disease in Costa Rica to be as complete as possible, I have added Chagas to the list of things that can be a downer while visiting or living here, including all, and probably more than you ever wanted to know about this disease.

So you travelers planning on switching your reservations from The Four Seasons to a some mud shack or adobe, better read about the whole thing in the section on diseases.

Those of you who prefer a somewhat higher standard of accommodations, well you can pretty much ignore this whole post.