These have been my first three days with the GMI program in Costa Rica. It has been exciting to meet the people I am going to be working with for the rest of the year. My first day getting an Uber was a little bit of a struggle as I didn’t know where to find the Uber driver. However, being Spanish my native language has been very useful, although, there are some words I don’t understand very well I am able to communicate and learn from the Tico culture. Looking at the mountains and the culture in general reminds me a lot of Colombia which makes it very special. Selina Hostel has been a very interesting experience so far because there are a lot of tourists from a lot of parts of the world. Moreover, sharing rooms with the guys from the program has pushed me to be more organized something that is going to make me grow a lot for the next two months.
During the first days, we have already found a gym to work out with my roommates close to the hostel. Furthermore, we have been tasting different traditional foods in places such as Lolitas, Barrio Escalante, and the farmers market. One plate that was really good in my opinion was the tico bowl that had rice, plantains, beef, and vegetables. Also, I enjoyed the time in the farmer’s market because we were able to taste very fresh fruits that we are not able to find in other markets in the United States.
On Sunday, we went to a Starbucks coffee plantation (Hacienda Alsacia) that was 40 minutes from the hostel but it was definitely worth it. We learned everything about how the coffee that we drink every day is made and learned to appreciate how hard people work to make just one cup of coffee. Also, being from Colombia, one of the biggest coffee exporting countries in the world, I learned that climate change has affected directly coffee producers and that is why there is a decrease in coffee production in the world. The experience was awesome but coming back from the coffee plantation was a struggle because one of the roads was closed so there were not many Uber drivers accepting trips to go back to San Jose. I’m thrilled to keep going with my Costa Rica experience and tackle new experiences every day.
