The Independent School
Nine days through Bajos del Toro and Blue Falls, June or July 2027
Key Information
This is Costa Rica and our dedicated Team
Let yourself enjoy Costa Rica with our team, living with local families and practicing Spanish in daily life. Along the way, enjoy Costa Rica’s wild beauty with highlights like rafting the Pacuare River and soaring through the rainforest on ziplines. This program blends Spanish immersion and cultural exchange, with just the right touch of adventure.
Day 1, Arrival
Your flight lands at Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose. Our team meets you at arrivals and we drive north into Bajos del Toro, a cloud forest valley that most itineraries never reach. Orientation and a welcome dinner once everyone is settled in.
Day 2
The whole day is Blue Falls Canyon, working down through a chain of waterfalls with our specialist guides, rappelling the drops that call for it and walking the ones that do not. There is a parallel route for anyone who would rather not go over the edge. This valley stays quiet because it sits off the standard circuit, so the group usually has it to itself.
Day 3
We head south after breakfast and stop at Monkey Park, a rescue and conservation project we work with directly, where students spend the morning in the animal care side of it rather than looking at enclosures. It is also the spot where the Arenal volcano shows itself, standing clear across the valley. We leave after lunch and reach Sitio Mata around coffee time, with the host mothers waiting. Students move in with their families, placed with your range of Spanish levels in mind, for dinner at home.
Day 4
A full day in the village. Community members walk you through Sitio Mata in the morning, and then the host mothers lead a cooking class, working through a Costa Rican meal that the group sits down and eats together. In the afternoon we visit the Nortico farm and follow cacao from the pod through to chocolate you can actually eat, with a tasting of the fruit that never makes it as far as a grocery store in Kansas. The homestay closes in the evening with a farewell dinner and a dance party with the families. No lesson, no choreography, just the send off the families throw for every group that stays with them.
Day 5
Breakfast is at home with the families, and then we leave the highlands and drive down to the Caribbean coast, arriving in Puerto Viejo in time to feel the change. The afternoon is yours to land in it. This is a different Costa Rica from the valley you have just left, in language, food and music, and students tend to notice that on their own without being told to look for it.
Day 6
Snorkeling on the reef and paddleboarding in the calmer water, with instruction for students who have done neither before. The rest of the day is with the BriBri, the indigenous community of the Talamanca region, in their space and on their terms.
Day 7
We leave the coast in the morning and raft into our lodge on the Pacuare. The river is the only way in, which is rather the point: there is no road and no gradual arrival, you are simply somewhere else. After dinner a naturalist guide takes the group out on a night hike, when the forest turns into a different place entirely.
Day 8
A full day at the lodge. The zipline course runs through the canopy and the Tarzan swing goes out over the creek, and the afternoon leaves room to be somewhere with no road and no signal. The last evening is the closing circle, where the group puts into words what the trip actually did.
Day 9, Departure
We leave the valley by vehicle rather than by raft, as you asked, and drive to the airport. Finishing on this side of the country means the last morning is a short run rather than a race across it. We get you there with time to spare, say our goodbyes, and send you home. See you next time.
