The first day, I got to know the town and even got to visit a cow farm! The owner of this farm is very good friends with my host dad. I learned a lot about how to take care of cows. As my host dad was driving me around the town, we stopped on the side of the road to pick up mangos. Guanacaste is known for their many different types of mango trees. It was incredible to see all the mangos on the ground! We picked through all of them to find the ones that are the most edible.
Later on that night, I went to a baile. This is where live music is played and everyone is encouraged to dance. There was cumbia, merengue, salsa, and bolero. Thanks to the dance class I took during this semester, I was able to dance fairly well and keep up with the locals.
The second, third and fourth day, I went to different beaches. Guanacaste is known to have the most beautiful beaches throughout all of Costa Rica. The beaches were pretty packed since it was Semana Santa. From where my host dad's family house was, each beach was around an hour to an hour and 30 minutes away. We would leave first thing in the morning, around 9 am, and wouldn't come back until 8 pm. The last day, I didn't do much but relax since we had to leave the next day at 3 am for the bus.
My favorite part during this time was meeting more of the host dad's family. Everyone in his family travels back to their home town during Semana Santa. In total, he has 3 sisters and 3 brothers and each have their own family. As you can imagine, I got to interact with lots of new faces! I even met a cousin who just got back from studying abroad for a year in Germany. Everyone was super nice and welcomed me in right away.
