Shanti

Each year I can be off work for one week for continuing education. (I'm a nurse.) I'd like to use this time to work on my Spanish. However, there are only a few Spanish language schools that offer continuing education for nurses. Two are in Costa Rica (Arenal and Turrialba) and three are in Mexico (one in Veracruz and two in Cuernavaca). All else being equal, which of these locations would you recommend? Thanks for the help

suze

Shanti, This is absolutely off the top of my head with no personal experience (other than reading Mexico travel forums obsessively!) people don't seem all that fond of Veracruz.

MichelleY

I have only been to Arenal for fun. It has a lot to offer in hiking, zip lines, hot springs, wildlife. At the foot of the volcano.

uhoh_busted

My daughter has done programs in Costa Rica, and is fluent in Spanish. She said it gave her the best background and accent. I highly recommend Costa Rica.

Shanti

Thanks for the feedback. Costa Rica has been on my wish list for a long time.

TrvlMaven

Are you looking at CPI School in CR? Great programs there. IMAC in Mexico is another. . .many locaions.

hopefulist

Are you specifically needing university credit or are you just looking for a program that focuses on medical Spanish? Nearly every Spanish school I have attended in Honduras and Guatemala offers programs for medical personnel and instruction is nearly always 1-on-1 and much less expensive than in Mexico and Costa Rica, especially in Guatemala.

volcanogirl

We've been to the Arenal area several times and love it. There's a big volcano there that dominates the landscape and is pretty, no current lava flow. There are tons of adventure activities like the ziplines at Sky Trek, white water rafting with Rio Tropicales, etc. And nice hikes at the waterfall and the Hanging Bridges. You can visit natural hot springs like Tabacon or Eco Termales in the evening. The Proyecto Asis animal rescue center is a nice way to get up close with monkeys and sloths. There's also a big, beautiful lake here.

Shanti

In order to get time off from work via continuing education leave the Spanish program has to provide CEUs (continuing education units) for nurses. Which means it has to have a program approved by a US state Board of Nursing. Which is rare. Just offering a program oriented toward health care professionals isn't enough unfortunately.

The school near Arenal is ISLS (Institute for Spanish Language Studies).

Arenal is sounding nicer and nicer.

volcanogirl

The town itself is small with restaurants and hotels scattered along the main road, and there's a church, and a park. The real beauty is when you get a little bit away from town. It's really lush and green; we've seen toucans and howler monkeys there. The waterfall is gorgeous, and you can swim there. The people are very friendly. It's a tourist area, so most everyone is fluent in English, not sure if that's good or bad. One of the tour guides told us that when they go to school, they teach them that American love it when you joke around with them, so they're always cracking jokes. Don Rufino is a good place to eat. Here's what Tabacon looks like.

http://tabacon.com/costa-rica-resort...springs-1.html

There are some waterfall pics on this site.

http://www.arenal.net/la-fortuna-wat...costa-rica.htm