Important Considerations of Immersion

Important Considerations of Immersion

With any trip to a foreign country, a traveler must consider a number of important issues to ensure a foreign trip is enjoyable, safe, and rewarding.  These issues would be true whether the traveler is in a Spanish immersion program, or simply is visiting a country for regular tourist activities.  In my case, I purchased the Lonely Planet guide for Costa Rica and found that its contents were very helpful in making preparations for my trip and knowing the potential pitfalls that could await me after arriving in this foreign land.  But having the book is not enough.  What I realized soon enough after arriving in Costa Rica was that certain experiences told me quickly what to look for in order to make my trip more rewarding.  In this essay, I will describe some of these issues from my personal experiences and make recommendations to help make your trip more rewarding.

Hotel Costs

The first issue to discuss is hotels.  In general, hotels in Costa Rica are less expensive than those in the United States.  Interestingly, with the exception of Panama, the other countries in Central America are much less expensive than Costa Rica.  So, Costa Rica is the most expensive Central American country for hotel costs, but is still a bargain for American travelers.  Having said that, a smart traveler will soon realize that there are many bargains out there.

After arriving in Costa Rica, I took the recommendation of someone I met on the airplane and went to a major hotel in downtown San Jose.  This hotel, the Holiday Inn, was $85 for the night.  I attempted to negotiate at check-in, but I believe that the desk clerk knew I was going to pay the price he quoted, being that I had few other options.  I paid the $85, thinking that would give me a basis of stability and comfort to get my trip off to the right start.  As it turns out, this first night was by far the most expensive night I spent in Costa Rica.

  
My second night was also in a hotel, near the school where I was to study Spanish.  Since my home stay arrangement would not start for one more night, I needed one night in a hotel the day before school was to start.  Here, the $29 rate was a real bargain, and frankly the room was almost as nice as the big-city hotel.  This gave me an early indication that I could find good values by shopping around.  For the next three weeks, I stayed with my host family and had no need for a hotel.  However, my final week in Costa Rica involved staying in different hotels every night while I traveled through the country.  

For the first night during this final week, in a torrential downpour, I asked at one hotel for their rates in the town of Puntarenas. With the quoted rate of $75 and no air conditioning for their rooms, as well as being a very hot day, I was simply unwilling to pay the price that was quoted.  However, at another hotel next to this hotel, a desk clerk offered me $60 for a nice, air-conditioned room.  I countered with my own offer of $50, and the negotiation was complete.  This room was very comfortable.  For the next two days, I stayed in Alajuela, a town near San Jose, because I wanted close access to the zoo and the Poas volcano.  The hotel I stayed in was $40 for the first night, but I considered the room to be too noisy, so hotel management moved me to another room for the second night.  In addition, my rate was lowered to $30.  After leaving this part of the country, I took a bus to the eastern part of the country where I had plans to visit the small town where turtles lay their eggs, called Tortuguero.  (More details on this will be discussed in the article entitled National Parks.)  I stayed in a town called Moin, which was at the base of the river by which I would be traveling in to visit Tortuguero.  A woman I met on a bus recommended a hotel called the Cocori.  This hotel was clearly the best value of my trip.  The rate was $20 included breakfast, and the hotel was on a fabulous, scenic shoreline.  With air-conditioning, a terrific restaurant, a few cold beers, and an incredible view, clearly $20 was an incredible price.  When I go back to Costa Rica, I will definitely stay again at the Cocori.   After arriving in Tortuguero, I had no hotel arrangements in advance, which was the typical scenario during my last week.  A local tour guide recommended a group of cabins which were next to the boat docks and the National Park.  These cabinas -- which is a Spanish word for cabins -- Were called the Cabinas Tortuguero, and were quite comfortable.  Although there was no television, the close proximity to the National Park and the beach turtles was very good, and for $20 I could not beat the price.

For the final night in which I had to pay for a hotel, I used a coupon which was in a tourist guide.  With this coupon, I stayed at the Morazán Casino Hotel in San Jose, which was the night before my flight back to the United States.  At $41 and far more amenities than the first hotel which was $85, I saved half the money and had a far better experience.  Interestingly, at the end of the next day resulted in me staying one more night in San Jose, mainly because our plane had maintenance problems.  We waited at the airport for nine hours without taking off while they worked on the airplane.   Finally, after announcing that we would not be returning to the US on that day, the airline put us up for free in a nice hotel.  However, I did not get to enjoy it because we arrived about 10 o'clock, and had to check out of 430 the next morning to make our flight.

Overall, I was very pleased with hotels in Costa Rica.  They all had hot water, which was not the case at my private residence, and everyone except for one had a really good cable system, with many movie, sports, music, and documentary channels.  In addition, most of the hotels had casinos and included breakfast as part of the rate.  For those of you traveling in Costa Rica -- and I'm sure this is true for other Latin American countries -- I recommend negotiating for a good rate and insisting on good service.  You will get it, and you will enjoy yourself that much more.

Internet Cafes

In this day and age, most of us need access to the Internet almost on a daily basis.  With checking e-mails, doing Internet research and other projects, having computer access is imperative.  In the future, it is possible that a person will be able to take their personal computer on a trip and access the Internet wirelessly.  However, hotels and common areas do not have wireless access like they do here in the United States.  For that reason, for now, visiting Internet cafés is the best way to stay in touch with people back home.  In fact, with the exception of Tortuguero, I found Internet access in every place I visited in Costa Rica.  For this discussion, I will mainly focus on the town of Quepos, where I lived for three of the four weeks.  .

In Quepos, on my second day I found an Internet café that was 600 colones for 45 minutes of usage, which is about a $1.20.  This café had an Internet access speed which was too slow for my use, and so I never returned.  I tried two or three other places in town and finally settled on the most expensive Internet Café in town, which was 1000 colones per hour, or the equivalent of two dollars.  This café had high-speed Internet and I could often conduct all of my business in much less than an hour.  In fact, it was quite common for me to send an e-mail to a friend back home and receive a reply in the same session online.  The only drawback was that the e-mail browser was in Spanish, but then again, what better way to practice my learning than to read in Spanish while on the Internet.  So for those of you wanting to work online in Costa Rica, you can relax, because the country is wired and ready for your business or personal Internet use.

ATMS

In days past, when any of us traveled, the watchword was taking enough travelers checks for our trip.  Those days are over, thank goodness.  Nowadays, in Costa Rica and any other Central American country, ATMs are everywhere.  A person can carry just enough cash needed for a couple days without fear of being robbed, and will find ample opportunities to replenish the cash supply.  In fact, only 100 yards from my school in Manuel Antonio was one of these ATMs.  Interestingly, I noticed from the beginning of my stay that an armed guard stood close to the ATM, but I did not see that phenomenon in other locations in my travels.  Perhaps there had been a robbery at this particular ATM. At this ATM and in others, you are given the choice of receiving money either in dollars or colones depending upon your preference.  I noticed that many businesses, including restaurants and hotels would accept dollars.  However I was not in Costa Rica to spend money in US dollars, and I made it a point never to spend dollars during my stay.  I would often take out about 25,000 colones worth of cash, which was about $50. The fees for withdrawal transactions were minor, and when I returned to the United States I found that these transaction fees were about two dollars per hundred dollars taken out.

High Season and Rainy Season

One of the first things a person learns after arriving in Costa Rica is that there are really two seasons, one is dry and one is wet.  In fact, those of the names the locals use to describe the two seasons, since there is no reason to describe a season as “winter”.  Interestingly, because of the country's proximity to the equator, the best time to visit is from January to about June.  This is the period that is called the high season, and the country at this time is filled with tourists and students learning Spanish.  If I were strictly a tourist and not a Spanish student, I might be disappointed if my stay was during August and September when there was much more rain.  However, luck was with me because the rainy season meant that there were fewer students at my school, which means that I and other students would receive more individual attention.  In fact, I was the only student in my three-week class when the normal number would be between four and eight.  I believe this really helped me learn much more Spanish by getting this type of individual attention from my professor.  The downside of course to visiting in August and September was that I did face a lot of rain.  Typically, although it could rain at any time, the afternoons tended to be wet.  Similar to the type of weather one might experience in Florida, it could be sunny for the entire morning and then start to cloud up by 1 p.m. At that point, the downpours might begin and the rain might continue for five or six hours.  I would estimate that five days out of every seven were like that for me, although some days it only rained for an hour or so.  I kept an umbrella with me at all times and it came in handy.  Luckily, my weekend trips to the Manuel Antonio Park were without rain, and my last week only had a couple days of rain during my bus trip through the country.  But nonetheless, travelers should be aware that the rainy season can last up until December, and they should plan accordingly.

  
TV and Cable

For those of you who like television, you won't be disappointed with the offerings in Costa Rica.   In the private house I stayed at for three weeks and at all of the hotels except for one, I found the cable system to be clear, filled with excellent channels, and very entertaining.  Interestingly, about 25% of the total channels were in English with Spanish subtitles.  So, tourists who do not speak Spanish will find movie and news channels in English and can enjoy a television "taste" of home.   For me, I tended to watch the Spanish programs because I wanted to learn more Spanish, but I would sometimes rely on English subtitles to facilitate that learning.   However, whatever your preference, you will find that the cable system in Costa Rica is excellent, and you will never be without television entertainment.

Showers

If you are a big fan of hot showers, you might be in for a big surprise.    Although it is true that hotels generally have hot water, in some cases a device attached to the spigot provides the hot water.  This device heats the water as it is leaves the pipes and flows out toward the bather.  Larger hotels have central hot water systems like those in the United States, but I learned that heating water is a very expensive proposition.  It is for that reason that private homes in Costa Rica generally do not have hot water.  For you Spanish immersion travelers who are staying with local families, you will need to do what I did, which was to just grin and bear it.   Interestingly, this is your chance to take those short showers that your parents always asked you to take!   In my case, I would jump in the shower like a swimming pool, take care of business, and be finished in less than two minutes.  Ironically, within a week a person gets used to the cold water situation and it is not generally a problem after that.  However, I did enjoy returning to hot showers during my last week in the country after three weeks without  having such a luxury.

Calling Cards

Aside from computer communication, a traveler can also talk via telephone to the United States because pay phones are very abundant.  For approximately 3000 colones - which is about six dollars -- a traveler can talk for approximately 20 minutes to the United States.  During my four weeks in Costa Rica, I bought about five calling cards, and did find it convenient to carry one with me in case I needed to make a call.  Typically, the store to buy these calling cards was the pharmacy, but they could be purchased at other establishments as well.

Taxi Cabs

Taxi cabs are abundant in Costa Rica, and the Spanish immersion traveler will find they are generally a very good value.  During the couple days I was in San Jose, both at the beginning and at the end of my trip, I took several taxi rides and never paid more than three dollars.  Taxi cab drivers are very accommodating and do a good job speaking English if necessary to ensure you get where you want to go.   However, I would like to caution the traveler in that I did learn that often taxi drivers have commission arrangements with local hotels so that they try to steer you towards certain hotels.   In my case, it happened one time, but I did not like the look of the hotel that I was driven to, and asked the driver to wait outside.  After examining the room and hearing the rate, I opted not to stay at this hotel, and requested the driver to take me to another place.  I gave him more specific criteria, he made some phone calls, and I found a hotel which was more to my liking.   In another case, I already knew where I wanted to go, and I was firm with my directions so that the driver knew he would not be able to change my mind and take me to another place.   But, I consider this to be a minor issue, and I think other Spanish immersion travelers would probably agree that by and large the taxi drivers in Costa Rica are great and will take you where you want to go.

Safety Issues

No discussion of important considerations of immersion can be complete without some mention of safety issues.  Unlike the United States, which has considerable trouble with liability and lawsuits, Costa Rica has less general concern about such matters.  That may be one reason why I quickly realized that certain elements of the transportation and maintenance infrastructure are not generally safe.   By not generally safe I don't mean dangerous, but they could be dangerous in some circumstances, and the first example I would like to mention are sidewalks.   Many times in every part of the country, I found that more sidewalks would be helpful to promote traditional safety.  In fact, on the road to Manuel Antonio, many buses and cars speed around corners and the traveler by foot must stay extremely vigilant in his or her ambition to walk on that dangerous road.   Also, many of the sidewalks I experienced were in some state of disrepair, and in one occasion I slipped and almost fell due to a slippery, wet surface.   I might recommend wearing bright colored clothes for those of you who like to go out late at night.   In addition, I stayed at two hotels that had ongoing construction projects, and these hotels did not possess any safety warnings to keep patrons out of the construction zone.  There were simply no warning signs or barriers to entry, and thus someone not paying attention could find himself or herself falling and experiencing a broken leg or far worse.   On another occasion, I walked up a tower at the end of a trail and found the tower infrastructure to be in great disrepair and very unsafe.   I believe management of this small park area would have been well served to fix the problem or not allow people to climb the tower.   At the National Parks I visited, some appeared to be very safe and similar to US parks and some appeared to have safety concerns.   Many trails were very slippery and did not possess adequate warnings to travelers that falls could be possible, and the walkways were potentially dangerous.   

Finally, from the balcony where I was staying for three weeks, I watched for two hours a demolition project at a house across the street where construction debris was broken down and removed from the housing site.   Interestingly, all of the workers wore flip-flops and had no shirts on, and were carrying heavy objects made of wood and metal.  Naturally, for a similar project in the United States, one would find gloves, possible long-sleeved shirts, and metal toed construction shoes.   Overall, I am not implying that Costa Rica is an unsafe country, but instead mention that there are pockets of safety issues that Spanish immersion travelers need to be aware of and take appropriate precautions.  After all, a safe visit to a foreign country will be a more pleasant visit!

Hopefully, the reader will have gained some valuable tips to make his or her immersion experience more rewarding.  A trip to a foreign country will be a great experience for you if you keep in mind there are important considerations of immersion.

Eric, All rights reserved, 2007