#2 Samara

You are one of the intrepid ones.  Because you’ve been checking this Blog site, wondering: “Where’s Michael? Where are these photos he promised?”

Well, I did safely arrive at Liberia Airport on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, en route to Samara, a tiny hippie-vibe beach town that’s a comfortable 2+ hour shuttle bus ride from LIR on a 2-lane road that passes by lots of woodland and farmland, lots of roadside produce stands and just 2 traffic lights.

But since my arrival I’ve taken few photos. And I’ve not posted any… until today, ten days into my Costa Rica visit. That’s because I’ve been preoccupied.  

I’ve been in Student Mode, not Tourist Mode.  My days have been spent at the Instituto Intercultura, a Spanish language school that attracts students from the world over. Americans are in the minority among the Swiss, Swedes, Germans, Dutch and Canadians. I was in the further minority in that I was enrolled for just a single week’s instruction. Most students stay for 2-3 weeks at a time, some for 6 weeks or longer. 

The language school is located on Samara Beach. Yes, literally, right on the beach. Break time between classes can be spent dipping one’s toes into the warm Pacific waters or sipping fresh coconut water – still in the coconut  – purchased for less than $1 from a beach vendor. At each day’s end, the school provides a variety of non-academic offerings including Tica (Costa Rican) cooking, yoga, and Latin dance.  I did 2 of the 3.  Guess... 

My professor, Andrea, was responsible for just 3 students: Frederik, a very bright 23-year old German business school graduate;  Lily, a 50-something Canadian holistic medicine therapist from New Brunswick; and me. Some students stay in the dormitory-like residences on campus. Some stay in local hotels or apartments. Others, like me, find accommodation in local home-stays, enjoying a deeper immersion into Costa Rican food, culture and everyday conversation. My host was Emilce, the septuagenarian head of a household that includes her daughter and her school-age grandson. The daughter staffs the bus station ticket window across a passageway from the house. 

I like Samara. It’s a comfortable mix of relaxed locals and atypical tourists, definitely not the tour bus crowd. Many of the older touristas are penny-wise seasonal residents.  Many of the younger ones are surfers. 

The photos I’ve posted here illustrate the storyline above. As such, they are more ‘postcard’ photos than the type of ‘artsy’ photos that I had imagined I’d be posting on this Blog.  As I now shift from Student Mode to Tourist Mode, we’ll just have to see what sorts of photos get posted.