Mi Horario en Costa Rica

5:45—Wake up, get ready, eat breakfast

6:45—Leave the house, walk to Saint Clare

7:15—Arrive at Saint Clare, get ready for the day

7:30-2:40—Teach English and World Studies classes to 74 5^th grade students, depending on the day

2:50—Leave Saint Clare, walk home

3:20—Arrive home, rest, eat a snack, grade or plan

7:30/8:00—Eat dinner, take a shower, read, grade

10:30—Go to bed

Of course, this schedule varies depending on the day (the classes are in half an hour periods and the schedule is random, sometime giving one block of English, sometimes two, sometimes three in a row). For example, on Wednesdays from 4-5, I teach a free beginners English class (mostly) to adults at the local library, a ten minute walk from my house. On Mondays, from 2-3 (I have the last two blocks free on Monday), I will teach a private English lesson at the student’s home. On Thursdays I get out really early and do different things (usually getting a treat at the mall, which I pass on the way to the school, doing weekly shopping, and eating lunch at home before doing grading and such). 

There isn’t anyone else here in this program and I haven’t met anyone (including Costa Ricans) anywhere near my age, aside from high school students. Another girl from a different program will be coming to stay in this homestay on the 11^th of March and a girl from my program will be coming on the 24^th, so I’m excited for their arrival and the prospect of some company. I hope to explore San Jose and more of Costa Rica with them.

Arrival in Costa Rica

In order to get to Tres Ríos, Costa Rica, from Mérida, Mexico, I first had to go back through Houston. I left before the crack of dawn (4:45 AM) from my homestay house and arrived at the airport shortly after 5 for my 7:10 flight. Since the line was short for both check-in and security, I had a lot of time to wait around near the gate (Mérida is a small airport; the only snack stand was charging 46 pesos for a 300ml bottle of milk that could be purchased at Oxxo, a convenience store, for 11.50 pesos). Luckily, JC was on the same flight as I was, so I at least had some company. Once we touched down in Houston, JC and I left together to go through customs. Unfortunately, we were separated as I was just passing through on my way to Costa Rica and JC’s final destination was the US. I spent the rest of my (short) time in the airport going through security again, finding an ATM, and trying to get my ticket changed for my return trip (I was originally scheduled to go through Newark (and Chicago) before getting to Louisville, but a flight change made it so that I would arrive in Newark at 3:15 when my flight out of Newark left at 3:00—this was something of a problem, in my opinion), which took a ridiculously long time but was eventually accomplished. From Houston, I flew into San José, Costa Rica, which is a beautiful and bustling city of 3 million that is also the capital of Costa Rica. From there, I went through customs for the 2^nd time that day and quickly found my homestay mom, Emilia (we’re twins!). We then took a prearranged taxi to Tres Ríos, which is 30 kilometers from the airport (though only 12 kilometers from the center of the city). It took us over an hour to get to Tres Ríos, partly due to traffic. I thought our taxi was going to break down on the highway (we came to a complete stop at least three times!), but we did make it. Helpfully, none of the streets around here have signs with names (I didn’t even know the address of this house for a few days), so unlike in Mérida, I cannot find anything based on an address.

Travel in Mexico

I was lucky to be able to do a fair amount of travel throughout the Yucatan with my group on the weekends. 

The first weekend visit was to Izamal, a small town founded by (or taken over by, anyway) Franciscan monks, who started a monastery/church and painted the entire town a sunny golden yellow. Along with the church, which is built on top of Maya ruins (subtle statement about religious superiority, no?), there is also what could qualify as a “pyramid” built by the Maya. I got to climb it, which was interesting as part of the “stairs” were more like a cliff wall. The view from the top was great, of course, but the climb down could reasonably be called treacherous. My group ate at Kinich, a restaurant specializing in Yucatecan food. I had Poc Chuc, which is a fabulous pork dish that anyone going to the Yucatan should try. After eating, we decided to head to Cuzamá, a small town with three cenotes, which are big fresh water underground cave things. Because we ended up taking the long way (total derecho leads everywhere, apparently), we arrived quite late and were only able to see one of the cenotes, but the visit was still worth it; the 30 minute ride in a horse led cart on tracks was just the icing on the cake. We also took the long way back thanks to total derecho, so we arrived in Mérida quite late as well. The cenotes are a must see, so I was glad to have the chance to go.

Part of the pyramid we climbed

Our whole group in the cart with our drivers

The second weekend trip was an overnight that included many different sights. We first traveled to Chitchen Itza, an ancient Maya ruin sight including a large pyramid (closed to walking because of a fatal accident) and the largest ball field (speculated to have been purely ceremonial because of the dimensions). Chitchen was an amazing sight but the hawkers were everywhere and it was quite crowded with tourists. We went on a guided tour (mostly in English, partly in Spanish) that was very informative and the tour guide was a very nice indigenous man who also taught us some phrases in Maya. The next stop was Ik Kil, a lovely cenote with a nice buffet restaurant attached. We swam in Ik Kil and at one point (for about 15 minutes) had the entire cenote to ourselves. The only down point was that I slipped on the stairs and banged up my foot, knee, and hip. The bruising was pretty bad, but it didn’t put a damper on the rest of the trip like a twisted ankle would’ve. After spending a good amount of time at Ik Kil, we continued on to Valladolid, a small city in Yucatan. Valladolid was somewhat similar to Mérida, just much smaller and less crowded. We were in a great hotel on the centro with a good restaurant. The students (including me) spent some time exploring the centro and the surrounding area; Brittany and I went on this ridiculous tour/party bus, but we couldn’t convince Eric and JC to accompany us (spoilsports). In our defense for riding this very touristy bus, we were the only foreigners on it. After dinner, our whole group (including the professor) went out exploring Valladolid and ended up at a karaoke bar, where we watched a group of Mexicans from Cancun party like it was their last night on earth. Since the karaoke was in Spanish, I did not know any of the songs, but it was still and interesting and somewhat entertaining experience. I’ll have you know that I only had a Coca Light (by the way, Mexico is obsessed with Coke, way more than the US; it even costs more than Pepsi in some cases), which made the experience even more interesting. After going back to the hotel at an early hour of the morning, I still got up early and spent my time waiting for Eric reading one of my textbooks. Since Eric and I were way ahead of Brittany and JC, we had time to go out and sit in the square afterwards (my first time trying one of the S-(or love-)chairs, which was surprisingly very comfortable. This reminds me about a part of the previous night in the square and a bird POOPING ON MY HEAD, which was not a fun (or funny) experience despite the fact that Eric couldn’t stop laughing at me. JC and Brittany were a bit more sympathetic since they had also had bird poop incidents just moments before. Anyway, on Sunday we headed out to Ek Balam after doing a bit more exploring in Valladolid. Ek Balam is another ancient Maya ruins sight but is unique in the fact that it includes an observatory (the Maya were literally hundreds of years ahead of the Europeans when it came to astronomy). There was also a palace that we got to climb (the stairs were definitely not made for European-sized feet), which also had an amazing view from the top. After Ek Balam, we were back on the road to Mérida.

Chitchen Itza

The third weekend was left up to us to use how we wanted, so we all ended up going with Brittany to Uxmal, another ancient ruin site. My British coworker Ruth and Eric’s friend from home Lindsey came with us and we all had a blast, though catching the bus back to Mérida was a bit of a hassle (when they say 3:00 they don’t really mean 3:00). Uxmal also had a pyramid we could climb, so we did climb it and then took a bit of a snack break on top, which was cool. Uxmal was much less crowded than any of the other sites, which was nice, and we took ourselves on a tour (helped by Eric, who had previously seen Uxmal).

Overall, I did what I think is a fair amount of traveling in the less than a month that I was in Mérida. I would recommend any of the above sites to anyone visiting the Mérida region.