A Short Stop in Costa Rica

During our travels, Laura and I spent a few days in Costa Rica.

One of our friends was traveling with us and her visa in Honduras was about to run out, so we needed to leave the country for a short time. Costa Rica made sense, so we went there for a few days before continuing on.

While we were there, we also took time to look at language schools. We are planning to return over the summer to study Spanish, and it was helpful to see a few schools in person and get a feel for how things work on the ground.

Costa Rica is known for being stable and welcoming to visitors. It does not have a standing army and has invested heavily in education and environmental protection. A large portion of the country is protected land, including national parks and wildlife reserves. You can feel that focus on nature almost everywhere you go.

Another thing Costa Rica is known for is its food, especially fresh fruit. That showed up in a small but memorable way for me: the coconuts. In Costa Rica, they peel off all the outer skin, leave just the bottom part of the coconut, and stick a straw in it. Clean, simple, and easy to drink. The best coconuts I’ve had.

Laura with a fresh coconut in Costa Rica

Our time there was short, but useful. We handled what we needed to handle, gathered information for the future, and slowed down just enough to notice where we were.

Sometimes travel is about plans and logistics. Sometimes it’s about small details, like how a coconut is prepared.

This stop had a bit of both.

— Mark Edgington

This article also appears on Medium where you can learn more about Mark Edgington’s ongoing work.