Puerto Viejo is a sleepy coastal town that Emily Eagen, Emily Howell and Shaun Sellers decided was the best place to drop out and hang out. Horses wander in the streets, surfers smoke marijuana on the beach and the bars are open late.
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Study abroad explodes
The 2000 edition of Peterson’s Study Abroad weighs 41/4 pounds and is 1,141 pages long. The bible of study abroad, it describes more than 1,700 programs in 97 countries, from anthropology in Argentina to public policy in Zimbabwe.
It’s thorough, it’s huge and it’s only half of the programs operated by U.S. colleges and universities.
The number of Americans studying abroad has more than doubled since 1985, with about 114,000 going overseas in 1997-98, the last year for which statistics are available. There were 2,973 in Costa Rica alone, the eighth-highest total of any country. The tiny country, with its diverse topography and climates, hosts about as many Americans as the entire African continent.
Americans studied botany in Costa Rica’s rain forests, marine biology along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, anthropology among the native Indians, and Spanish in the old-world capital of San Jose.
The number of U.S. students in Costa Rica jumped 130 percent in six years in the 1990s, lured by a low cost of living and year-round perfect weather. Many Costa Ricans speak at least some English, and the health care system is first-rate.
Costa Rica also has another major selling point, offered in effusive travel stories and fawning guidebooks:
“Costa Rica is the safest country to visit in Latin America,” according to the Lonely Planet guide to Costa Rica, a guidebook the Antioch women took with them on their airplane flight.
“Of the many attractive tropical countries to choose from, Costa Rica stands out as one of the most delightful in the world. There are not only tropical rain forests and beautiful beaches, but also some surprises.”
