Liberia night arrival on way to CPI Flamingo
 

I'm leaving for the language school at Playa Flamingo next Sunday, a week from today. My flight arrives in Liberia at 7:30 Sunday night, and the school has arranged for a car to take me to their apartments - which I guess are actually near Playa Potrero. As a person in their mid-40s, an apartment is a better option for me than a homestay.

I'm hoping for some advice on what I can/should be able to get before leaving Liberia and what can wait for Potrero. I assume that, with customs, I probably won't be out of the airport before 8 or 8:30. First, food: Would the grocery store in Libera be open? If not, would someplace near the apartment in Potrero still be open for me to get some dinner? Also, is there an 'adequate' grocery store in/near Potrero?

Second, money: Is there an ATM to get colones in Liberia or Potrero?

Any other advice on CPI/Potrero would be greatly appreciated!

Cheryl

There are a couple of little "supers" (mini markets) in Potrero and a couple of good little restaurants: Marco Polo for Italiano and El Castillo (newly remodeled) for sandwiches and delicious bakery items.

You'll be able to get anything you need in Flamingo, particularly--where the school is. CPI, I presume? You'll enjoy it--very good school! I'm going back again this summer. Are you staying at Cabinas Isolina? Cool little place. Check out Ladies Night (Wednesday) at Las Brisas for fun! Go with a group. . ;)

There are ATM's (I use the bank) in Flamingo, but not sure about Potrero, doubt it. Plenty of ATM's in Liberia, but doubt it will be necessary for you to spend any time there stocking up or whatever. . .

Well, duh--you only mentioned CPI twice--and once in the thread title! :)

3 years ago when I first studied at CPI, students (using their CPI ID card) were able to hang out at the huge pool on the hotel property at Flamingo Beach Resort. I really enjoyed that and so did everyone else. We all would get together over there and had a great time. Not sure if FBR still allows that or not--probably depends on whether they are full up or not at the time.

There is an excellent salon and masseuse there at FBR--Chris and Caroline--they own the shop. He does hair (George Clooney look alike), and she does the body work. Very sweet, both of them. She gives one of the best massages I ever had--and he's great if you need a cut or color while you are there. They are French, but speak fluent Spanish and English.

Yep, CPI! I haven't heard the name of the apartment (CPI just refers to them as 'theirs'), but the pics looked like it's in Cabinas Isolina. Any thoughts? Thanks for the restaurant & entertainment recommendations. If not FBR, maybe people will hang out at the apt. complex pool......

Are there actually places to mountain bike or hike near there????

Cheryl

Don't know much about the mountain biking, but there is some good hiking in the Rincon de la Vieja area, a couple of hours away. I'm sure you were thinking of something closer--just not sure what it would be. At any rate, you do need to arrange to get into the national park at Rincon de la Vieja--nice day trip.

You'll meet (and bond) with a lot of other students, and some will, of course, be staying at Cabinas Isolina. My daughter stayed there for 3 weeks in 2004. Loved it. When I studied there in 2003, my 3 other classmates stayed there, and they all thought it was great. CPI (or any language study, probably) is cool in that age is no barrier to friendship. Sometimes there are some younger kids away from home (often alone) who really enjoy the companionship of someone older.

Our daughter was pregnant with morning sickness (the heat on the coast wasn't a pleasant thing!), and she grew very close to a woman about my age from New Zealand--they did everything together. I'll be forever grateful to that lady for the friendship, understanding, and encouragement she offered!

Also, I can't imagine a better staff than CPI offers--at least at the 2 campuses I'm familiar with. Are you studying in San Joaquin as well?

there are 2 large supermarkets- supermercados- in Liberia!

http://costa-rica.typepad.com/playa_...ome/index.html

There are several little stores in Liberia as well as some big ones and right around the main square in town are some nice restaurants. There was also a little store in Potrero-I shopped there with my homestay hostess. Meals were included so I didn't really have a need to go to a store. If I recall there was a tiny one where we waited for the school transport and then a slightly larger one closer to the beach.

Hotel Boyero near the Pan Am hwy has a 24 hr restaurant if you are staying around Liberia for the night.

I would assume there is an ATM at the airport. I haven't used it for international flights but have been in it several times for in country flights. There is an ATM in Flamingo at the bank. It wasn't working so I got to watch the better part of the movie Pretty Woman while waiting in line.....going to the bank can be very different LOL. Many of the banks that I have been in did show movies. When I went to CPI they would gather up travlers checks from the students and take them to the bank for us to be cashed. Have some small US bills with you and you should be okay.

CPI has a pool at the Flamingo campus so I am surprised they had an arrangement with a hotel to use their pool. Nice to have a choice. Don't know about mountain biking but you can rent bikes. The road is pretty rough between Potrero and Flamingo but you can see some good birds and monkeys.

I did my favorite homestay in Potrero. I was the first student for those people and they were a lot of fun. She had been a teacher so helped me a lot.

It's true that CPI has a pretty little pool at its Flamingo property, but the FBR pool is so nice and big with that swim up bar and friendly bartenders--no one spent much time at the CPI pool. All that may have changed by now.

I attended classes there the first year they were open. There was no pool yet nor was there an arrangement with the hotel. No big deal, we had the whole Pacific ocean to play in and all the beaches in Potrero! I have only been back to that area once to show my husband where I had been when we were staying at Los Innocentes. My husband doesn't like beaches but I imagine I will make my way up again someday by myself or with a friend. There isn't much to do and it is quiet which is just what I like at times.

Guanacoste, thanks! If the supermarkets in Liberia are still open, I'll try to hit them on the way out. From there, what 45 minutes to Potrero (so no freezer food, right)?

Suzie, yes, I am concerned that it might be TOO quiet, so I have booked the second week at CPI San Joaquin. I'm really hoping that there ARE some mountain biking trails around there, or maybe some place to hike?? What did you find to do?

Shillmac, Rincon was the site of my favorite couple of days on my first trip to CR a couple of years ago - probably 'cuz it wasn't all built up like the really popular spots. I was thinking about trying to get up to Santa Rosa for a weekend, but it doesn't seem like there's ANY place to stay nearby.

We wanted to go to Santa Rosa this past summer also. Didn't make it--again. The locals don't speak so highly of it, don't think it worthwhile, but I expect I'd enjoy it. They take a lot for granted having always lived in the middle of such a place! :)

I've stayed at San Joaquin also. It's a great little town. You'll have to get out a ways to go hiking, though. Where are you staying? Homestay? With whom, do you know? Maya or Lorena or someone at the school will be able to guide you to the nearest hiking area. . .

And the drive to Potrero from Liberia is closer to an hour or an hour, 15 minutes.

Just revisiting your post and thinking that your best hiking near San Joaquin might be Volcan Barva--it's very close. I haven't done that sort of thing around San Joaquin, but think it would be a good option.

I was pretty determined to learn spanish so I spent 3 1/2-4 hrs a day in class and about another 3-4 hrs studying. I had already spent many years just traveling in CR so was more interested in uping my experiences a notch by living with local people and trying to finally speak to them in their language. I did most of my homework just sitting on the beach with other students and about an hour or so with my homestay family helping me smooth out some rough spots. The class in Flamingo didn't work out well for me because they were still building the campus. There was construction noise and we were in a closed room with just a fan in 90 degree temps to keep the dust and noise out. I probably would not have done it at that time had I known. It is much nicer now. One girl went to the beach alone and her Tevas were stolen. One day I went snorkeling. Some people went out to look at the turtles. We had a bonfire on the beach one night with the whole school. Someone had brought a guitar. I picked up a couple of bottles of some liquor. I love to hike and even though I didn't do any real hiking there or in San Joaquin, my legs got a real workout going to and from school. My biggest problem in Flamingo was that I was given afternoon classes so didn't have time to really get out to tour much in the morning. The day we went snorkeling I had to stay in damp clothes all afternoon because I didn't have enough time to get to my homestay to clean up before class. Considering the horrible heat in the classroom it was probably a good thing.

On transport day between San Joaquin and Flamingo we went to Rincon de la Vieja and hiked and swam there. (I ended up back there 2 1/2 weeks later with my husband) We stopped on the way to pick up sandwiches for a picnic lunch. That night we stayed in a place in Liberia. Some went to a disco for an hour, we all went to dinner together. I love to dance but decided I had a hot date with my first hot shower in a week. Still happy with my decision as there was no hot shower at my next homestay either. Next day we spent swimming at Playa Conchal before heading over to the school and our new homes for the week. There is something to be said for staying at a campus for more than one week. You at least have the weekends to do longer tours in the area such as Santa Rosa. I think you will find that most hiking will take awhile to get to from Flamingo. Too bad Los Inocentes is still closed. That is a lovely place to stay (hope they aren't closed because they are building a mega hotel) and you could get a taxi to take you over to Santa Rosa. We hired one from there for the day to go to Rincon de la Vieja and then Liberia for lunch. We then went to a little restaurant right near the northern border where we could see Lake Nicaragua before heading back to Los Inocentes. Driving is fairly uncomplicated around there compared to some areas if you think you might want to go that route. My husband speaks fluent spanish and prefers to hire people so he can talk to them and most likely learn more about local stuff than we would on our own.

I started out in San Joaquin. Learned to Salsa dance and do some Costa Rica cooking at the school. Went into Heredia several times via public bus. Did mostly city stuff. I loved walking to the campus in San Joaquin. There were rainbows over towards the mountains daily. Huge flocks of parakeets in trees around town and almost always a soccer game to watch for a little while.

I then went to the Monteverde Campus where I really did some hiking. Had a hot water suicide shower there at a pension. Yikes! My son was living there at the time so I didn't do a homestay. I actually enjoyed this campus more than any because I really like the Monteverde area. It felt good to get out and hike and to see the green lush cloud forests. My profesora in Monteverde was the sweetest one. I was the only student in her class so she really geared the class to me rather than a lesson plan like the others. I was a beginner and most of the other students had had spanish before so I actually ended up with private lessons in both Flamingo and Monteverde but didn't have to pay for private. They test you when you arrive to put you in the appropriate class.

Overall my experiences with CPI were good. I studied spanish for 3 semesters here at home at a local university afterwards and got a lot more out of it in probably the same amount of class time. What I got out of it over and above the classes with CPI, such as the homestays and wonderful students I met, were worth every dime. I would consider going back now that I have more of a base. It was fun meeting other students from all over the world. Even met a couple from my home state of CT. The people at CPI were very nice and very helpful most of the time. I was very disappointed when Friday late-morning rolled around in Flamingo and they informed me then that they weren't going to have a transport going up to the Monteverde campus so I was on my own. My son was expecting me Sat. morning and I had no way to let him know I might not be there until late Sat or even Sunday because of local bus schedules and because the lousy public buses they were using for that route kept breaking down. I ended up just paying for a private transport in order to get there.

I would get an email off to CPI about the mountain biking and hiking and they could possibly have some ideas for you when you get there. I have well over 3,000 road miles on my bike here at home but haven't done any mountain biking down there. It is becoming quite a popular sport there and many tour companies are offering it now. The private driver we use a lot does a lot of mountain biking but always further south so I can't ask him for ideas for you. The Potrero area is not paved but you could ride to Pan de Azucar. Not exactly mountains but definitely rough roads. There are some hills in the area. I suspect your best chance would be from SJ. It would be cooler as well.

Your time to leave is almost here! Have fun.

Ouch! I hadn't even THOUGHT about how afternoon classes would limit your ability to do ANYTHING else. I'll think about heading over to see the turtles again. Thanks for mentioning some of the things to watch and watch out for!

Cheryl