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JUL/AUG 2019
ADVENTURE TRAVEL|
A SEMESTER IN COSTA RICA
BY KEATON GREEN
I spent the first Semester of my senior year studying abroad in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I
have spent the last 17 years of my life living in Sisters, Oregon, which has been great, but
I felt as though it was time to explore more of the world before I started the next phase
of my life. I knew I wanted to be somewhere that was Spanish speaking and easy access
to good surfing. During the end of my junior year I got accepted to the Education First
(EF) school in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, which is an international Spanish immersion school
where we studied Spanish and Costa Rican culture.
I would be living with a local family who did not speak English and going in I had very little
Spanish speaking abilities. I departed for Costa Rica in the middle of September with
a few swimsuits, a backpack, and enough money to buy a surfboard once I got there. I
arrived at the Liberia airport after 18 hours of travel and was picked up by a middle aged
man who did not speak English. He grabbed my suitcase, threw it in the back of the
van and motioned for me to get in. After two hours of driving and a few wrong turns, we
ended up stopping in front of a small house with metal bars covering the front walkway
and the windows. The driver opened my door, gave me my luggage, pointed to the house,
and drove off.
I looked around and saw a large field with a few small local children playing soccer, some
men drinking beers in front of a local restaurant, and stray dogs playing in the middle of
the street. I walked towards the house and was greeted by an older women dressed in
a pink shirt and wearing a dress, she introduced herself as Lucia Rodriguez. We quickly
realized that she did not speak any English and I spoke almost no Spanish. Lucia showed
me to my room, which consisted of two twin beds, a dresser, a fan, and a clothing hamper.
At this point, I laid down on my bed and was feeling slightly uneasy, wondering what I had
gotten myself into. The next day I got picked up by a bus in front of my house that had
other kids on it that were in my same situation, I started talking to them and quickly had
made new friends from all around the world.
As the time progressed I began to feel more and more comfortable. I got used to eating
rice, beans, and plantains for almost every meal, cold showers, no air conditioning, and the
constant spiders crawling on my bed, trails of ants on my walls, and waking up to mice
being trapped under my bed. It was much different than home, it almost felt more “real”.
The school I was attending was called EF which is an international Spanish immersion
school. We had five hours of school each day which included Spanish language les-
sons that covered writing, grammar, and speaking along with lessons about the culture
of Costa Rica and other Central American and Spanish speaking countries. At school, I
made many friends from countries around the world including Denmark, Norway, Ger-
many, and Switzerland. School was great, but with great surf breaks within minutes it was
hard to go to class at times. As soon as possible I bought a surfboard which would end
up being what I spent almost all of my free time on. There was about five breaks within a
twenty minute walk of the school I was attending, so before school, between classes, and
after class I was able to be in the water in no time.
After the first few weeks at school I was learning more Spanish which made life at home
much more comfortable. I was finally able to communicate with my host family. I started
to learn more and more about their lives which was very interesting. Lucia, my host mom,
spent her Sundays making homemade ice cream and would sell it in single serving por-
tions by the bag throughout the week (think of a bag that you bring a fish home in from
the pet store). Every Sunday morning, a local farmer would bring large tubs of fresh milk
to the house and I would help him carry it to the kitchen counter. From there, Lucia would
start the ice cream making process. Once she had all of it made, she put it in one of the
four freezers that were in the house and sell it throughout the week. When people would
come buy ice cream, they would yell through the window, knock on the door, or just walk
straight into the house to buy their bag of ice cream. It was also very cheap, about 500
Colones which is equal to around 80 cents.
My host father was named Ronnie, and spent most of his time walking around shirtless,
making food and playing cards with friends from around town. He did odd jobs around
the town, when neither my host mother or father had work, they would spend their time
playing cards together or watching soccer. In the small house I was in, there was five
other family members, including Lucia’s husband, son, daughter-in-law and their two kids.
In Costa Rica, along with many other Central American countries, it is very common for
many family members to live in one house, partly because it is tradition and also because
the average income for a local Costa Rican is about $6,000 per year, so they can’t afford
to have their own house. As time went on, I was able to make great relationships with
everyone in the house and become especially close with my host mom, Lucia.
Before Costa Rica, I had not spent much time surfing in the ocean
except for a handful of trips to Mexico, previous trips to Costa Rica, and
in Hawaii, but I have spent countless hours at the Bend Whitewater Park.
I talked to Travis Yamada, the owner of Cubicle Surf before I left on my
trip. He said if I could stand up on my river surfboard on the wave, then
once I got to the ocean I would have no problems, especially since I had
spent so much time on the river wave. Once I got in the ocean, Travis
was right and after standing up on the river wave, with a bigger board
and bigger waves in the ocean, it felt as though I had done it a million
times before. Within a week of being in the ocean, and learning more
about how the waves worked, the surfing bug bit me and all I wanted to do was be in the
water.
During my four months I was able to take many trips and surf many breaks along the
Northwest coast of Costa Rica. Before I went to Costa Rica I had researched some
places that were thought of as some of the best waves in the country. One break that
was at the top of my list was called Witches Rock, which is an A-Frame wave known for
being hollow and creating barrel after barrel. It is famous for being featured in The End-
less Summer and is known by surfers worldwide. I was lucky enough to befriend a local
surfer who knew a guy with a boat that could take us out to the break. I gathered a few
friends and other surfers and we were able to get out to the wave and have a full day
of beautiful, fairly uncrowded, consistent 6-9 foot sets. It was a day that I will remember
for the rest of my life and the best day of surfing that I have ever had. I was able to surf
many other spots including Playa Grande, Avellanas, Playa Negra, and Langosta which
all provided many good times.
I had an absolutely life changing experience in Costa Rica. I was introduced to a com-
pletely different way of living, which was simple, inclusive, and very family oriented. It
seems as though our culture here is to make as much money as possible, fit the most
into our days, and have as many material things as we can. The lifestyle of most Costa
Ricans is different. The majority of Costa Ricans don’t make nearly as much money as
we do here, but they are still some of the happiest people I have ever met. They are more
focused on friends and family than they are on “stuff” and are welcoming to everyone.
This way of life is something that I hope to continue throughout my life and share with
friends and family back at home. I learned to appreciate the ocean and surfing in a whole
new way. I made friends from around the world, and was able to become part of a Costa
Rican family which was very special and something that I will cherish for the rest of my
life.
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