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INEX Summer University Costa Rica |
Online Diary ISU Costa Rica 07.2006DAY 1 - ARRIVAL, TOUR OF TIBAS - Saturday, 1 July 2006
Most of us arrived between the 28th of June and the 1st of July and we were welcomed by Fabienne and our host families.
From our very first contact with them, we could enjoy their kindness and the usual Ticos happiness that would soon be ours. Some of us had more time to get to know them than others: I was even able to make a first trip in the mountains around San José with my host family!
After a first meeting, we were able to visit San José and to make our first shopping cession. Four of us even went to a night club in San Pedro on Saturday evening.
If I had to make a first comment on our first impression of the city, I think everyone would agree to say San José is a great city, full of life, that we all enjoyed even without understanding its culture. We were all impressed by the ability of this people to honk every minute and to find their way in a city where streets have no names and buildings no addresses. We were about to learn about this different way of life a few days later with the San José sightseeing tour and the first meeting of all international students at ULACIT.
On Sunday the 2nd, we had our first scheduled activity: A trip around San José and a visit of the INBIOParque . In this wonderful place, we had a first insight of the overwhelming diversity of Costa Rican flora and fauna.
Our great guide has been able to show us the most beautiful and typical places of the city, getting us to start understanding Costa Rican culture.
We also had our first contact with Karla who we would like to thank again and to congratulate for her great job.by Henri Goirand
DAY 2 - INBIO PARQUE, TOUR OF SAN JOSE - Sunday, 2 July 2006
On Sunday the 2 nd of July we visited the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) of Costa Rica , which is a private research and biodiversity management center. At the institute, they gather knowledge on the country's biological diversity and promote its sustainable use. They believe that the best way to conserve biodiversity is to study it, value it, and utilize the opportunities it offers to improve the quality of life of human beings.
During our tour of the facility we were introduced to the many aspects and areas of Costa Rica , from the different forests in Costa Rica to the animals that live there.
More information can be found on their homepage: http://www.inbio.ac.cr/inbioparque/es/index_eng.htmlCosta Rica – this small country we are calling our temporary home – covers a mere 0.03% of the Earth's surface, but incredibly enough is also home to about 5% of the Earth's biodiversity. According to Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Costa Rica is one of the 20 most ‘biodiverse' countries in the world and the preservation of this biodiversity is of interest to almost everybody from tourist to biologists to average citizens.
Geography plays a starring role in Costa Rica 's amazing diversity. Millions of years ago, North and South America were separated by seas. About 3 million years ago, Central America began to rise out of the oceans, creating a volcanic land bridge between the two continents. Following, migrating species from both continents crossed this land bridge, producing many new species unique to the American tropics.
In 1989, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) was born, charged with the mission of “promoting a greater awareness of the value of biodiversity as a means to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of human beings.” In addition to their work of preserving the country's diversity, the institute also focuses on communicating and educating the public. One result is INBio Parque in Santo Domingo de Heredia in which we were introduced to Costa Rica 's many wonders for the first time. The parquet was made to bring tourists, as well as Costa Rican families, in direct contact with nature. The park's system of trails takes you through several life zones and habitats, from dry forest to rain forest to a lagoon and a farm. All with the explicit purpose of opening your eyes to the true wonders of nature and the necessity of preserving its diversities.
Afterwards, we were given a tour of San José and the near area.
We started by driving though Escazú, La Sabana, Rohmoser and made a stop at the central market where we also saw the National Theater and National Museum .
Following, we were shown the location of Universidad de Costa Rica, through Guadalupe and back to Tibas.by Maria Soerensen
DAY 3 - ORIENTATION MEETING - Monday, 3 July 2006
On Monday, we had our first meeting with all international students at ULACIT. After a great presentation of Costa Rican habits and it's undergoing cultural reasons, some of us had their first contact with the country's gastronomy while enjoying a great exhibit of the country's traditional dances.
A few administrative explanations and formalities later, we were able to spend the rest of the day relaxing in San José , San Pedro or with our host families, before to go dancing raggaeton during a great live session in the famous bar El Cuartel de la boca del monte.
by Henri GoirandDAY 4 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 4 July 2006
After having spent a nice evening in El Cuartel , trying to get used to the Salsa and Raggaton moves, we met at 9.00 am in front of the cafeteria of the ULACIT, looking forward to our first lesson.
Milton Clark, the very likeable, experienced, 50 year-old Costa Rican professor, introduced us in the world of "Organizational Behavior", including some "funny" personal stories.
12.30 - 13.30 pm , time for a break.
After a typical Costa Rican lunch, we continued studying.....
Karla, the beautiful teacher of the Spanish-beginner-class thought Maria, Marie-Therese, Stephan, Henry and me patiently the basics of "Espagnol". Due to the fact that all participants had never learnt Spanish before and were extremely influenced by French, German, English and Italien , our first lesson became really fun.
3.30 pm, end of University-Day II, we got a free afternoon.
Henry, Stephan and me decided to go to the San Pedro Mall, getting to know San Jose a little better.
Eventually our short-trip ended with having drunk a couple of the homemade Costa Rican beer named "Imperial", driving home by cap and falling tired asleep at 10.00 p.m.by Forian Huethmair
DAY 5 - ULACIT & CINEMA - Wednesday, 5 July 2006
On Wednesday we had classes at ULACIT. In the morning we were supposed to have Global Marketing but our teacher didn`t turn up as he thought we wouldn`t have class before next week. Therefore we had morning off and some of us went to San Jose . From 1.30 to 3.30 we had Spanish. After Spanish we had Global Marketing till 5.00. We directly went to San Pedro Mall to see a movie. We had a hard time deciding which movie we were going to see and finally we decided to split up. Some of the girls went to see Cars in Spanish, which they really liked. We others had to see Poseidon, since it was the only English movie. It was about a big cruiser that sunk. I didn`t like it since it was quite boring and predictable. I think some of the others did like it. After the movie we went home because we were really tired.
by Marie-Therese Lamberg
DAY 6 - ULACIT - Thursday, 6 July 2006
Thursday was a typical University day. We had Global Marketing from 09.00 to 12.30 with Francisco. We discussed the S.R.C and its importance in global marketing. Later on, we made a small marketing research at Ulacit University .
In the afternoon, we had Spanish until 3.30 p.m. In the evening, we went to the Giros Bar in Tibas.
by Stephan Reif
DAY 7 - DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 7 July 2006
At 9 o'clock the Global Marketing class with Professor Francisco Matamoros started. The expressions the students brought to class, which they collected at their tico families were: “brete” which means work, “la presa” which means traffic jam, “tuanis” which means something like too good, and “roca” which means an old person but in an unrespectful manner. Francisco wanted us to bring a new typical Costa Rican expression to class every morning.
From 10 till 12:30 we had the Organizational Behavior class with Professor Milton Clark. During this class we mainly discussed the Systems theory, input, transformation and outputs, etc.
Around 6 o'clock some of the students met up at the Pizza Hut, to eat a pizza together before the dancing classes.At 7 o'clock we had our first dancing classes in salsa and merengue at Academia de baile Ole in Tibas. First the teacher showed us how to dance it, and after that we had to dance in pairs. The dancing classes were a lot of fun! After the dancing classes we went to the bar close to Parque de Tibas, to have a drink.
by Sipora Suripatty
DAY 8 - RAFTING - Saturday, 8 July 2006
Wet-wet-wet - a real experience!
We started our day at 6.30 at our meeting point and went to the Pacuare River for river rafting. On our way we stopped to have breakfast and after a little more driving we got there to start our day.
The weather didn't seem that nice at the beginning, it was raining when we started our tour, but later the sun came out and burnt some of us in a very bad way. (-it still hurts!)
First, we were split up in two boats and or guides gave us all the instructions so that we knew how to paddle and we were also introduced to the safety instructions in case one would fall out of the boat.
Then we started our tour. The scenery was really beautiful, on the left and right side - rainforest, inbetween some lodges for overnight-stays and some little houses where Costa Rican people are living close to the river. Inbetween a canyon there were some bridges, some very nice waterfalls and we could also see butterflies, beautiful birds,.and also a snake.
Everything went right.until.level 4 (out of 5). Somehow the boat with Fabienne, Henri, Marie-Therese, Katharina, Alexandra and me flipped and we were all in the water, also our guide! It was quite hard getting from under the boat up to breath some air. Fabienne hit her belly, Marie-Therese lost one of her contacts, Katharina couldn't see anything because of her contacts, Henri lost one shoe, Alexandra hurt her hips and myself - I hit my head when the boat flipped and was floating by taking Alexandra's hand until finally another boat was taking me out. We were all rescued by eather other boats or our safety-kajac that was on our side all the time. Finally we were all safe and got in our boat again, and not even our guide could tell us how this could have happened. We were all quite happy to have a lunch break at one of the river banks where we could rest a little and enjoy really good food.
After lunch we had to paddle quite a lot more with another level 4, but we managed to do it without flipping another time.
In the other boat, Stephan jumped into the water one time to save the boat with Sipora, Florian, Maria and Merlijne from flipping.
It was a really tiring day with a lot of action (maybe a little too much), but also a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it (except the flipping J ) and would all do it again!by Clara Kirschner
DAY 9 - POAS VOLCANO AND LA PAZ WATERFALLS - Sunday, 9 July 2006
On Sunday we went to the Poas Volcano and to the La Paz Waterfalls. We met at 8.00 am at the Parque Tibas. In the morning the weather was very nice. We stopped at a coffee plantation and our guide advised us to buy some coffee there. We took some good pictures at the plantation. Later we had breakfast at a restaurant. They served us the classic- Gallo Pinto with cheese and platanos and also a very tasty strawberry juice. After the breakfast we drove to Poas Volcano. We went to see the crater and we were lucky since it was not cloudy and we had an amazing view. From the crater we walked to the old crater to see the crater lake which is very beautiful. We took some nice pictures and also went to the volcano museum which was very interesting. There was a tourist shop and our guide told us that we could buy some very nice stuff there. Afterwards we drove to La Paz . After we arrived there we went to see the butterflies which were very beautiful. The garden was very nice and we also watched the humming birds. We tried to photograph them but it was very difficult because they are moving so fast. We had lunch and coffee and then we went to see the snakes. There were some very big ones. Later we went to see the toxic frogs. Then the weather turned and it started to rain heavily. So visiting the beautiful waterfalls was a wet experience. When we returned to the bus, we finally got the result from the World Cup. In the evening Fabienne, Henri, Kathrin, Florian and I went to a Mexican restaurant to have dinner.
by Marie-Therese Lamberg
DAY 10 - ULACIT - Monday, 10 July 2006
The 10 th day started like a common Monday.. Most of us were a little bit groggy due to our rainy and exhausting trip to the Poás Volcano and the wet La Paz Waterfalls. In addition to that, we had to append the missed 1hour 30 class from the first week to our Spanish lesson at 3.30 pm..so we had to stay until 5 pm!
But because of the great support of the ULACIT Cafeteria providing the delicious Costa Rican coffee, and the pleasant anticipation to a nice dancing evening at our Mondays-favourite bar El Cuartel , we left university after a 8 hour studying-marathon at 5 pm happy and relaxed.
From 5 pm - 10 pm we had time to talk to our host-families, have dinner together, stock up on some energy and get ready to meet as usually at the Parque de Tibas at 10 pm.
Stephan, Merlyne and some American friends of them had already reserved a nice huge table for all of us in the back area of the pub and had ordered a big bottle of Guaro, when we arrived.
Everybody was very motivated to dance and drink of course..thus we all got us some drinks and went straight to the dance-floor. It was really fun and I (Florian) felt fine to that moment! But after a couple of drinks (mainly Guaro Coke) my stomach started to argue because of not having eaten anything for dinner.... so I went back to our chill-out area, got a glass of water and relaxed. But the annoying feeling of being drunk didn't want to vanish and the color of my face became brighter and brighter. So I was forced to lie down on the couch to have a chill while the others were dancing and having fun!.....
Eventually, after a 1 hour challenge to stay down, when I had achieved to fully recover again, the group decided to go home..
So, on the whole I may say that this was not the most productive evening for me, but it was fun though.
by Florian Huethmair
DAY 11 - COOKING CLASSES - Tuesday, 11 July 2006
We had our classes again until 3.30, after that some of us went to San Jose to do a little shopping, others stayed at university to write a couple of e-mails. We all met then at San Jose at the "cafe" and went together to the LOGOS School to start our cooking class. We had 3 nice instructors who told us what to do. (Actually it turned out that they did a lot more of the cooking than we did). Some of us prepared the "ensalada", some prepared the "arroz con pollo"/rice with chicken and some prepared a typical carribean drink which turned out to be VERY sweet. The "postre" was "platanos dulces" - really good. We had a lot of fun and a great time cooking Costa Rican food. Of course the beans on the plate could not be missing! After enjoying our dinner, some of us went to a nice bar where we had one or two drinks and enjoyed the evening of our day.
by Clara Kirschner
DAY 12 - ULACIT - Wednesday, 12 July 2006
Another regular day of class in Ulacit... seems boring, no? Well... It wasn't!! Francisco, always in a great shape, had us to spend a very interesting AND funny class. Regular lunch in the cafeteria, regular Spanish classes, and still a lot of fun, thanks to the all group, our American fellow students at Ulacit, and our teachers!!
A regular day in Costa Rica is still a nice day...
After class, some of us went to the computer lab to work, check and send e-mails, or just to chill. Some others went home to spend some time with their great host families, I even think some went shopping in San José.
Later at night, me and the other guys met at the park to go have dinner in a good seafood restaurant which had been recommended to us: La princesa marina. It was good, but we expected something better... We had to discover this place was some kind of cheap seafood fast food, that we enjoyed anyway: it's quite unusual to get so cheap shrimps, that were still quite tasty. There we talked a little with the waiters, to know what club he would recommend to us. He proposed us several, and we had our taxi driver to chose the best one for us. We ended in an empty expensive tourist club, whose name I can't even remember, and went home after just a few Imperials. Still, we had a great relaxing time talking and chilling, and anyway none of us was really in a great "party mood", so it all happened to be what we needed.
Another "regular" great day in Costa Rica!!
by Henri Goirand
DAY 13 - ULACIT - Thrusday, 13 July 2006
In the morning we had Marketing class with Francisco who gave us the assignment to think of a product from our homecountries and then work out a questionnaire in order to make a small survey on whether the product could be for the costarican market. Then we had to interview people around campus, which was either done in english or spanish. In the afternoon we had classes of spanish where my group were listening to Shakira songs in spanish in order to practice grammar - this was quite a fun way to do it. After classes ended most people headed for the computer labs to write emails and to work on the assignment we had for the organizational behavior class the following day.
by Alexandra AhlgrenDAY 14 - DANCING CLASSES - Friday, 14 July 2006
The day began extremely well, we were finally allowed to hand in our First Partial Exam for Organizational Behavior! Yay! After a week of hard labour (almost) everybody had managed to write at least something down that could pass for an answer, and we could ´proudly´ present it to Milton.
Somehow everybody was extremely tired today, and it appeared to have something to do with the Tico-beds, the Tico-waking hours, the thinnes of the Tico-walls and the Tico-clubs. In my case (Merlijne) it had something to do with the Tico-grandmother. My family had left on Thursday for a long weekend on the beach, and ´abuela´ came over to take care of us. She had a different understanding of ´taking care´, which was; waking people up at 5.30, to make sure that they didn´t have to get up, and repeatedly waking up just to be sure. When hopefully telling her that for the next morning she didn´t need to come over to make us breakfast, and that we could just eat cereal she replied: No, I´m coming over and I´m making gallo pinto and you´re all gonna eat it. And that was that...
The rest of the day passed rather slowly, as almost all days with classes do, but there was one thing that kept everybody awake: The second dancing lesson! (and maybe the weekend as well) And a fun one it was! From now on we are all experts in dancing Salsa, Merengue and last but not least Swingdance! After that much excercise it was time for a drink, en lucky for us: the cocktails had umbrellas in them! Those kept us busy for at least 20 minutes. After a while Marie en Florian left for a club together (woohoo, what happened there?), and some more whiles later everybody left, and half went out and the other half went home, to sleep (or try to), because tomorrow: We go to Cahuita!!!by Merlijne Wagenaar
DAY 15 - PUERTO VIEJO - Saturday, 15 July 2006
We all met up at Parqué de Tibás at 8am. For some people this time was really early as they had been out the night before, nevertheless nobody overslept. My respect, folks! ;)
So we were ready for our first trip to the Carribean Coast and were very much looking forward to spending 2 nice days on the beach. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not that good and our teachers and host families meant it could be raining all the time but we wanted to go to the beach and nothing could stop us. :)
In a comfy minibus our journey took us first to Puerto Limón, where the principal port of the Carribean coast of Costa Rica is situated. After a nice walk through the streets and the market, we had lunch at a typical Carribean restaurant. Once again the special menue was “arroz, frijoles y pollo”, which some of us really can't see anymore. However, it tasted really delicious. The brave people of the group checked out a typical Carribean juice called “agua de zapo” (water of the frog), which had a very strong taste of ginger and we jointly agreed that it tasted terrible, but it's always nice to try something new.
After lunch we started our way to Cahuita with an exciting busride in slalom style because the bus driver tried to avoid the many big holes in the street. While driving this crazy style he even had and eye to discover monkeys in the trees next to the street, so he stopped and let us make some nice pictures of them.
When we arrived in Cahuita our first stop was the hotel, where we would stay those 2 days. It was a really nice, clean place with a beautiful little jungle garden with exotic flowers between the bungalows, a swimming pool and a jacuzzi. However, everybody was keen on lying down on the beach of Cahuita National Park and as the weather was nice, we spent the next couple of hours at the beach, relaxing, riding some wild waves and enjoying our time off.
Afterwards some of us had a nice chill-out time in the jacuzzi with a yummy cocktail before we headed off to Puerto Viejo for dinner and going out.
by Petra Wally
DAY 16 - CAHUITA - Sunday, 16 July 2006
Our day started with breakfast at about 10am, which meant we could sleep a bit longer this day – que rico! We had a hiking tour through Cahuita National Park planned in the morning, but unfortunately a heavy rain crossed our plans. So some of us went back to sleep again and others decided to make a little shopping tour in the town of Cahuita. We could convince our nice bus driver to give us a ride to the town and on the way there we discovered a 3 toed sloth sooo close on a tree that we could almost touch it - really incredible.
At noon the rain was gone and we were quickly ready for going to the beach again. The beach of this National Park is really natural. It's not like one would expect a normal beach at a tourist place – no - it's pure nature, very few people and just a very nice experience being there. After about 4 hours relaxation, it was time for our journey back to San José although I think we all would have prefered to spend more time “en la playa”.
Because of the heavy rain in the region the main road was closed so it took us about 2 hours longer to arrive again at Parqué de Tibás and our “home sweet Tico homes”.
by Petra Wally
DAY 17 - ULACIT - Monday, 17 July 2006
We had classes in Global Marketing from 9 till 10. Homework for today was to analyze the market and investment opportunities of Limon. So Francisco asked us what in our opinion - besides investing in new and good roads from Limon to Puerto Viejo – would be a good investment.
After that we had classes in Organizational Behavior from 10 till 12:30. Milton explained to us about the “Decision Theory”.
At night a few students went partying at a club.by Sipora Suripatty
DAY 18 - ULACIT - Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Tuesday was a normal day at ulacit where we had organizational behavior with Milton Clarke where we continued working on a minicase concerning decisionmaking, about an airplane crash and the decision that would mean life or death - most did not do very well - in fact Maria would have been the sole survivor of the group. At lunch people were discussing and preparing for the international evening the following night. In spanish classes Clara and the teacher got filmed for the local news doing a story on exchange students at ULACIT and then we were just practicing everyday conversation in spanish. After classes most went shopping and preparing food for Wednesday nights event.
by Alexandra Ahlgren
DAY 19 - INTERNATIONAL EVENING - Wednesday, 19 July 2006
After another interesting lesson of Global Marketing with Prof. Matamoros, and lunch at the cafeteria at ULCIT, we started our preparations for the international evening. It should be a nice evening where all our host families, teachers and guides can get an insight into our European culture and spend a nice and funny time with us.
Luckily, la familia Solano “borrowed” us their kitchen so we could prepare different dishes of the nationalities of our group easier. However, still it was a challenge to cook in such big dimensions, as we expected about 60 persons to come. The Austrian people made “Kaiserschmarrn”, the Dutch people “Boerenkool”, the Danish “Frikadelle”, and much more to serve our very special guests.
Then at about 7.30pm, when the families already arrived, we started our program with some powerpoint presentations, so the Ticos got some information and saw pictures of our countries.
After that we started serving our dishes, which the Costa Rican people ate with excitement and we often heard the words “que rico es esa comida”, so we knew that they liked our food :).
Finally, we sang a typical Austrian song “I am from Austria” and danced the Viennese Waltz and a French Can Can together with the Ticos. We also played a really funny Dutch game, where people from the audience had to eat pieces of a cake off of a string, and the winners either received a T-shirt in the typical Dutch color “oranje” or an interesting book about the Netherlands.
All in all, the evening was quite fun and we hope our Tico families enjoyed it as well.
At about 10pm our guests left, and we had to clean up the room and bring back all the dishes we had borrowed.
After that it was time for a nice house party where we celebrated our successful international evening, played some funny drinking games and simply enjoyed a happy time in our multicultural group of Dutch, Danish, French, Costa Rican and Austrian people.
by Petra Wally
DAY 20 - ULACIT - Thrusday, 20 July 2006
This Thursday was kind of rough. Most of us were pretty tired because of the fantactic international evening the night before. But still Marketing with Franscisco was a lot of fun and therefore we stayed awake. In the evening the ones who could resist the temptation to go to bed a bit earlier, went to a great Peruvian restaurant in Tibas. Where we spoilt ourselves with the delicious ´´Leche Tigre¨¨. Later on at night, already asleep, I was kidnapped by my fellow American roommates and forced to go with a bunch of loco gringos to the castro bar. What a night! I felt in love with gauro and a girl, whose name I can't remember, once again!
by Stephan Reif
DAY 21 - ULACIT - Friday, 21 July 2006
That was our last day of real class before the final exams on Monday. Therefore we all worked quite a lot. But still as always we were able to have fun! The guys and I went to finish the marketing paper at my place, where I have an ADSL internet connection, and it turned out to be a very nice evening with my family who invited the guys to stay for dinner. We had this very good bottle of French wine I had brought for my family with good Costa Rican cheese, and a few beers (Imperial !!!). Best conditions to work afterward... Our families are all so nice!
Later, we met with the boys to go in El Vertigo. Everyone being quite tired or still busy working, there was only the three of us. Even if Stephan hurt himself in the stairs while going to the club (before we started to drink!!) we were able to have a lot of fun, because the ticas were so nice... This night club is really a great one, and it felt good to hear something else than raggaeton for once.
Unfortunately, we were to meet at 7 the day after, so we went to bed quite early.
One more very nice day in CR!! Pura Vida!!
by Henri Goirand
DAY 22 - CANYONING, ARENAL VOLCANO, TABACON - Saturday, 22 July 2006
Wet again!!
What a day! As every Saturday we were picked up by the microbus at 8am. We were told to go canyoning – but what is canyoning?Well we found out that it is real fun; but you definitely need a big breakfast before (lunch was at 3pm and the activity was really exhausting) and that you should bring two pairs of sport shoes with you to Costa Rica . Some extra cloths are also very fine. Why? Because you get wet in Costa Rica so often: This can be caused by the daily rain or some fun outdoor activities … So keep that in mind!
The hotel we checked in was really nice: “Tierras enamoradas”. A unique hotel, located in the middle of the rain forest. Amazing! After the check-in we directly went to the canyoning. We were equipped with a helmet, a gear for abseiling and glows. The first challenge was the abseiling of a 20m high rope directly into a waterfall. How exiting! Then three more followed. We were really walking or better abseilings a waterfall. This was kind of a challenge since the stones were quite slippery. So I can recommend long shorts for this activity in order to protect your knees.
After this exiting two hours we were “flying” like “Tarzan and Jane” through the jungle on a huge swing. That was real fun! But not enough! Also the way back was an adventure! We went back on horses… I had the smallest one so I could not go so fast but I could see Stefan in front struggling a bit with his “race horse” J
What is also to mention: Thanks a lot to Maria! She had her camera with her rapped up in a special bag. So we have pictures of this amazing trip!
But still not enough for this day … Finally we had lunch at 3pm and could change our wet cloths. And then: The most relaxing part of the day: “Tabacon hot springs ”. This is a 5star hotel/resort in which a little river, with small basins, flows. But this river is not an ordinary river – it is spring-fed by the volcano “Arenal” and therefore the water is quite hot (39 degrees Celsius). In the beautiful setting of the resort we enjoyed several cocktails while bathing in the hot water. This was really really nice and extraordinary! One recommendation again: Order the BBC Cocktail J
After two hours bathing in the hotel we had a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant. But everybody was happy to get in the bus and back to the hotel finally since we were all so very very tired!
What a day!
by Katharina Pfeil
DAY 23 - CANOPY - Sunday, 23 July 2006
The day started nice and easy with breakfast at 10.00 am. Unfortunately the breakfastbuffet was already over, so they just had to serve us everything they had. No problem, bring on the pancakes, eggs, bread, fruits, cheese and fruit juice! But we needed our big breakfast, because there was a heavy day ahead of us!
Around 11.00 am we left with the bus to go on our Canopy-tour. We were so happy to be able to wear that comfortable gear and gorgious helmet again. After all the canyoning on Saturday we could handle anything, so we swooshed away through the rainforest, very professionally. And hurrah! There was another Tarzan-swing! That was so cool, Clara even managed to do a (sort of) Tarzan-yell, very junglely. We could´ve swung there all day, but it was time to go on. At one moment we were in a 50 meter high tree, and we had to go down a 203 meter line, that was a little too scary for some people, but everybody was brave enough to make the jump. After a few hours we were finally coming out of the rainforest, ready for lunch, ready to take the gear off...but no! There were like four more lines waiting. So we dragged ourselves up a few more high towers (except for Maria, Alexandra and Sipura), and went down the ridiculous high tower and long line, whatever. The last line was over 700 meters long (or so I´ve been told) and extra tension and excitement was added when it started raining. But we lived. We lunched. We went back to San Jose.
by Merlijne Wagenaar
DAY 24 - ULACIT - Monday, 24 July 2006
Today started as any other day with the exception of it being our last as students at ULACIT. Our first class was Global Marketing with Professor Francisco Matamoros. Our final exam in this course was to give a presentation of an export product as well as a market evaluation of the country we wished to export to. Afterwards, we had our Organizational Behavior class with Professor Milton Clark were we had the second part of our exam in this course. It was a busy day!
Following our lunch break we had our Spanish courses and were afterwards given our diploma – stating we had completed a Spanish course at ULACIT – at a small private ceremony.
Later in the evening the group meet up to celebrate the successful ending of our courses and to talk about the following day's trip to Manuel Antonio at the Pacific Coast .
by Maria Soerensen
DAY 25 - FINALLY - BEACH AGAIN ! - Tuesday, 25 July 2006
One last time – we were picked up at the park by the microbus quite early on Tuesday morning in order to go to one of Costa Rica 's finest beaches: Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio.
The trip to Manuel Antonio was rather long (5 hours) but we had breakfast and lunch on the road. We were accompanied by our very nice tour guide Yuaner (this is how it is spelled guys ;-) ), what made the journey real fun.
In the afternoon we checked in at our hotel “Tres Banderas” but then immediately headed to the beach. After some group intern discussions, we split: One half of the group went to the national park and spent some awesome hours at the beautiful beach and the other half went shopping and then back to the hotel early.
Taking a shower and getting ready for dinner this night was not that easy since a thunderstorm caused a total electricity break down. So we had to get ready without showering but with using candles … What an experience!
We finally had dinner at a good Mexican restaurant and then went dancing. First we were in a salsa club, where Yuaner showed us his very own and very special interpretation of salsa. Then, we went to a discotheque further downtown which was rather empty but still great fun … After a few “guaro con coca” we all rocked the dance floor! What a night!
by Katharina Pfeil
DAY 26 - MANUEL ANTONIO - Wednesday, 26 July 2006
After a amazing evening including some Salsa and Merengue sessions with our cool busdriver, who introduced us in the local Pub and Disco scene, we went to the wonderful beach of the Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio again and spent actually almost the whole day there, sitting around, chatting, reading, swimming in the warm ocean......
At about 5 o'clock, we decided to get something to eat at a nice looking beach restaurant, which was more or less a public grill station. We checked our emails at an Internet cafe and bought some souvenirs at one of the several street vendors, when we finally met our busdriver at the meeting point, who took us back to the hotel.
Back at our hospice we took a short nap and decided afterwards that we have to go out , checking some new bars again.....
No sooner said than done.....our travel guide, I sadly forgot his name, and our busdriver brought us to a nice kind of half open-air Salsa bar, where there were a huge bunch of other exchange students from the United States and one girl from Austria, with whom we had a lot of fun. We danced, drank and checked out almost the every pub and disco in town, when we eventually fell into our beds at about 6 o'clock....... !!
by Florian Huethmair
DAY 27 - GOOD BYE - Thrusday, 27 July 2006
Thursday was the last day of our program. We were in Manuel Antonio. In the morning we all had breakfast at 9.00. At 11.00 we went to Manuel Antonio. Some of us went to the beach and th others looked around the shops and went to a café. Unfortunatley the weather was not to nice, although it was better than the day before. Around 12.30 we left Manuel Antonio and went back to San Jose. First we got stuck in a traffic jam so it took us longer than expected. Later we stopped at a river were we could watch crocodiles, which was very interesting. We stopped at a tourist shop were and some of us bought stuff. The weather was not to good and it started raining again. We stopped at a restaurant to have lunch which was quite nice. We arrived in San Jose around 7.00. Carla was waiting for us and gave us presents from ULACIT. We all went home to our host families. At 8.30 we met at the Parque Tibas to have dinner. We went to a very nice restaurant and had some good mexican food.
by Marie-Therese Lamberg
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