I will be in Playa Flamingo for one week to learn spanish...is there a lot of thing to do around there...any nice excursions to do???? please help me

Are you studying at CPI? If so, the school will offer all kinds of things for you. I remember some of the students really enjoying their sunset dinner cruise. I'm sure that is still in the offerings. You can do a little day trip into Tamarindo, check out Potrero (there's a fun little bar called Las Brisas that has Ladies' Night on Wednesdays). Have a great time!

good base for sportfishing thoi not cheap!
potrero is nicer beach cos tho flamingo looks nice:

http://costa.rica.typepad.com/photos...acastejpg.html

its polluted!

CPI does offer some things and there are tour places right by the school. We went to Conchal one day, did some snorkeling another, went to Rincon de la Vieja. Some people went to see the turtles. The school had a fun bonfire night on the beach in Potrero when I was there. Will you be doing a homestay? I really enjoyed mine and it was located in Potrero. I was the first student to stay in their home. The school offered cooking and salsa dancing classes in the other schools. Don't remember if they offered them in Flamingo as well. It is a very pretty campus.

Yes I'm going to CPI...Flamingo...monterverde and Heredia....
thanx for all the good tips....very appreciated

All three locations? Good for you! What a great time you will have! Are you doing a week at each one? IMHO, you couldn't have chosen a better school. Great people, excellent locations, all of them. Enjoy!

You will have a great time. I adopted a young girl from Holland for the time I was at the school. She was so sweet and lonely, everyone thought I was her mom. I still have a birthday present that one of the guys gave me. I learned to salsa with a med student from Calif. The students are from all over the world and you just become a big family.

My favorite professora was up at the Monteverde campus.

My daughter, on the other hand, was the adoptee of a wonderful woman (about my age) from New Zealand. DD was in her first trimester of pregnancy, feeling awful, and "Julie" took her under her wing and mothered her. She bought our granddaughter her first item of clothing--a tiny little undershirt. The two still stay in touch. That's the CPI experience for sure. Never fails. It's probably true, to some extent, of all language schools. Learning a new language is hard work, exhausting, and stressful. My take is that the experience promotes some interesting, and valuable, bonding. The people you will meet is the best part of the whole deal!

can you give me some information about the school, how to enroll, etc...I got tempted. English is my 5th language, but the in use the 2nd. I might learn Spanish too.

www.cpi-edu.com

Centro Panamericano de Idiomas

Might as well learn one more!

I will be bringing a group of high school students to CPI this spring. I was wonder if you could answer the following questions; how easy is it to take a surfing lesson in Playa Flamingo? The other question is we are doing a homestay in Monteverde for a week and my concern is what will the students do at night? Normally, there is a lot to do when we have traveled before in Mexico (oaxaca)at night. Gracias

Not a whole lot to do in Monteverde at night. There are some night hikes. I suspect the school itself will have some activities. I didn't do any of them while taking classes there because my son was living in Monteverde at the time so we went out hiking every day. That area is pretty spread out so, unless you are close to town, you probably won't be near much.

I really don't think the waves in Flamingo are big enough for surfing. Boogie boarding maybe.

theres no surf un flamingo and the beach lost its blue flag award 3 moths ago due ti effluent and pollutants in the water, so dont swim in it for too long.
in monteverde do the cloud forest night tour, best time to see wildlife!
OR go to bar amigos

Shillmac, thanks for the information about CPI.

You are welcome--hope it works out for you!

SrFlojo--30 minutes away is Tamarindo. You can arrange surf lessons there.

I'd still like to hear more about the sea pollution at Flamingo, Guanacaste. Can you be specific about the pollutants and what caused them? What is being done, etc? Thanks!

i was there 10 weeks ago and it was in the local papers that theyd lost their bue flag award mainly down to water quality issues!
dont remember exactly what was in the water, but after reading it i wasnt swimming there!

We just booked a week at Flamingo Beach Resort for the end of Feb. Any news on the pollution? We wanted to snorkel!

You'll be very close to a lot of beaches. Some very nice ones, all within an hour, some within 5-20 minutes. Flamingo Beach is very hard to beat for fabulous sunsets. I'd probably still get in the water, but then I don't spend much time in the ocean water anyway as some do. We've spent a lot of time at this resort and always enjoy ourselves there. It's a nice area from which to explore an hour north and an hour south.

Snorkeling might be better down around Conchal or up toward Playas del Coco. You know, for snorkelers, the Pacific Coast of CR is always a little disappointing--it's not Belize or Cozumel!