Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion trip in Costa Rica: We all know that Spanish immersion is the best way for adults to learn Spanish. It’s intensive and the nature of taking time off work and traveling abroad eliminates your day-to-day distractions and obstacles to improving your Spanish.
We weren’t sure if we would be able to get back to traveling in 2021 or not (due to the pandemic) but we put a team of healthcare professionals together who guided us on how to run a safe and ethical immersion trip in the midst of COVID.
Fingers crossed 🤞🤞🤞 we’re now able to get back to running Spanish immersion programs in Latin America two times a year.
Here are some highlights from each week of our program this year:
Week 1 Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion Trip in Costa Rica:
In week 1 we…
- Got everyone settled into their host families with some survival Spanish for sharing a home with someone else
- Got oriented to our week 2 volunteer project (educational games for underserved kids not able to attend school & vaccine education for a group of influential women)
- Took a public bus trip to the Central Market in San José (capital city of Costa Rica)
- Saw an active volcano up close… it was a beautiful crystal-clear day and we could see the crater and its fumaroles
- Participated in a gourmet chocolate tasting at SIBU Chocolate and learned the history of chocolate from the ancient peoples of Latin America to today.
Week 2 Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion Trip in Costa Rica:
In week 2 we…
- Returned from our beach weekend trip and headed straight into our afternoon Spanish classes
- Got oriented to CEDCAS one of our favorite community groups to collaborate with.
- Took Wednesday as a prep day for our Thursday volunteer work.
- Put together educational games with 20 kids who can’t attend school right now (COVID), and don’t have an online learning option.
- Worked with a small group of influential adults in the community to dispel some urban legends about the COVID vaccine. We put on a workshop about the benefits of the COVID vaccine, how it works and what it does, and the risks of not getting vaccinated.
- Went back to Sibu, our favorite chocolatier in Costa Rica for another chocolate tasting.
- Took a weekend excursion to La Fortuna to see the volcano, walk through the canopy of the rainforest on hanging bridges, fly through the forest on ziplines and soak in the volcano’s thermal pools.
Week 3 Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion Trip in Costa Rica:
In week 3 week…
- We started off the week returning from our weekend excursion in La Fortuna (see week 2 video) and went straight into our afternoon Spanish classes.
- On Tuesday the educators and general Spanish learners continued the educational games workshops with local children who don’t have access to in-person nor online school options at the moment.
- On Wednesday and Thursday everyone worked on their “Retos Personales”. These are personal challenges (or professional challenges) that each student identifies individually and goes about taking the time to accomplish it. It’s a really rewarding and empowering experience.
- Then we headed off to Tortuguero to see the green sea turtles laying their eggs at night. It was a wonderful weekend full of adventure and seeing zoo-quality wildlife up close :).
Week 4 Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion Trip in Costa Rica:
Here’s what happened in week 4…Another successful week on Spanish Immersion for Adults in the books! So far we haven’t had any COVID interruptions to our programs and we are nothing less than extremely thankful for a safe trip to date. Here is what happened in week 4 of our adult Spanish Immersion program…
- We returned from Tortuguero on Monday (that’s the place where we saw turtles laying their eggs).
- Then on Tuesday we took another trip to to Café Britt to learn about the process of growing and roasting coffee
- Wednesday we took a trip into San José and visited the Artisan Market and then went to Barrio Chino for lunch
- Thursday we took another small group off to the Chocolate tasting (because it’s so amazing and some people still didn’t have the chance to go)
- Friday was a free morning to hang out, explore, study and relax.
- Tomorrow (Saturday) a small group of us head off to the Osa Peninsula for snorkeling, scuba diving, national park hikes and some beach time. Check back in on the week 5 video to see how it went!
Week 5 Summer 2021 Adult Spanish Immersion Trip in Costa Rica:
Week 5 was an adventurous week on the summer Spanish immersion program for adults! A small group of us went to the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a place called the Osa Peninsula over a long holiday weekend. The Osa is hard to get to, pretty wild, and totally worth the trip :).
- A couple of us got our PADI Open Water scuba certification
- The rest of the group snorkeled out at Caño Island and hiked through the Corcovado National Park to see all sorts of fun animals and reptiles
- The Pharmacy students on APPE rotation worked in their pharmacies in the mornings and then had their Spanish classes in the afternoons
- The other folks on immersion had their mornings free to explore & study and then take their Spanish classes in the afternoons.
So happy to see this! Good luck everyone. Hola to all the wonderful folks at the school.
Great to hear from you Peg! Hope you’re enjoying summer in the NE 🙂
Let’s say you are unable to leave the U. S. Are there opportunities for immersion in NYC?
Great question Ope, we don’t sponsor any immersion programs in the US, however we’d be glad to connect you with a private instructor for 1:1 lessons if that’s interesting to you. Email me if you’d like more information.
What is the cost?
Hi Ope, the cost varies depending on the type and length of your program. Take a look at the type of Spanish Immersion program that best fits your interests and you can see the costs and inclusions for each trip.