The Independent School
Six days, 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 head east toward the Turrialba valley, stopping at a roadside soda for your first meal in the country. We reach Sitio Mata by late afternoon, where the host mothers are waiting. Students move in with their families, placed with your range of Spanish levels in mind, and the first dinner is at home.
Day 2
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 evening is a bonfire with the families.
Day 3
The morning is waterfall rappelling with our specialist guides, and there is a parallel activity back in the village for anyone who would rather not go over the edge. In the afternoon there is a soccer game with students from the local school, which is usually where the language stops feeling like an assignment. 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 4
We leave the highlands 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 5
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 6, 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.
