Another day of quiet adventures for our 5 travelers along with some tastes of home. We can tell we’ve settled into ‘living life in Liberia’ mode rather than ‘vacation’ mode because we’re taking fewer photos to share.
This morning the kids scratched their itch for video games with a little Minecraft and then we headed out for lunch at Burger King. Originally they’d requested that perennial favorite McDonald’s but once they saw the advertisement for the toy from Burger King, they shifted allegiances very quickly.
Liberia is the largest city in this part of Costa Rica at about 50,000 people. San Jose is the largest city in the country at 330,000 and then it pretty much drops to 6-7 cities this size. It is not as American-ized as we’d thought (feared?). No Starbucks to be seen. But there is a Walmart and four American fast food chain restaurants – McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell.
What’s a little interesting is that those four chains are on four corners of the same intersection. It’s where the main road in from the airport and beaches crosses Route 1, a major north-south route through Costa Rica. We’re not sure whether most of the clientele for these places is turistas like us or locals. We may never know – Brian and Tiffany are not planning to spend many meals there surveying the crowds but we think the kids have other ideas. The McDonald’s has a cute little shake shack in the parking lot which we’ve never seen in the States and we will certainly try.
The afternoon was familiar – a booming thunderstorm and more Spanish school. Today was learning the words and phrases you’d need if you had to go to the doctor as well as homework conjugating verbs.
After class ended, we stayed after to participate in what they call ‘Spanglish’. The school teaches English as a second language as well as Spanish as a second language so twice a week they get learners from both sides together to practice. The first 30 minutes were having a random conversation in Spanish and the next 30 minutes were talking in English. We chatted with a very nice guy who takes pictures for a local tour company and is learning English to help him in his job. His skills were way better than ours but it was great to practice with someone besides each other and el profesor.
After a quick dinner and the last of the chocolate cake, we’ll say goodbye to the day with some reading and tunes. Buenos noches!
5 Adventures Together 