Spanish, Surfing, and Yoga in Jaco Beach

Perks of Week 1: Surfing, yoga and Spanish every day thanks to School of the World in Jaco Beach 

Where I am:

I have so much salt water up my nose! The waves are crashing all around me but thanks to my surfing instructor Carlos, I’ve learnt to turtle my way out of it and paddle out to catch my next wave. To think I could catch a wave in my first week of surfing has blown my expectations out of the water and I’m having a blast! 

For the next three weeks, I’m living at School of a World – a place designed for people who wanted to learn something new during their vacation. It started as a smaller one building school in 1997, but the Californian owner had a great vision to design the newer addition that makes up the entire school today. Every day, I have a mix of spanish classes, surf lessons and yoga. If I wanted to add photography classes, that is an option too. I’ve never felt better in my life. 

When I arrived on Sunday, I was greeted the lovely front desk staff who gave me my schedule and a tour of the place. When you walk in, there is a small family room and pool to the right surrounded by bushes with pretty purple flowers. There are a mix of single and double rooms throughout, all with their own bathroom and fridges. There is a big communal kitchen that looks out onto the garden area with hammocks. Around the corner from the kitchen are the two open concept Spanish classrooms that stay cool when classes take place in the middle of the day.

I am in a double room with a kickass girl named Hillary from San Diego. We met within 5 minutes of me arriving and bonded over burritos at Taco Bar in town (more to come on the town of Jaco next week). Everyone at the school is super friendly and has an interest in learning more about yoga, Spanish or surfing so it makes for fun days. There are currently people here ranging from 18-40 years old from the US, Switzerland, Holland, and some other fellow Canadians.

Yoga: Taught in a bright room in the school, two local instructors come and teach a vinyasa class every day. 

Spanish: Local teachers teach classes everyday and everyone is broken up into 4 sections. Currently I’m in level 3 but I am learning everything for the first time so it’s pretty difficult. There is a focus on grammar and then in our labs we focus on speaking. Slowly but surely I’ll increase my vocabulary and grammar! My Spanish teacher Lida is from Venezuela and on Friday we made arepas from scratch. Muy Bueno! 

Surfing: this school is the best place to learn surfing because the instructors are knowledgeable and clear in their instructions. They teach you good technique from the start so that you can continue to work on catching waves right from day 1. This was my first week surfing and I caught real waves all week! It is so much fun. Lara from Switzerland and Anna from Boston are my surfing buddies so we are always watching out for each other. 4 o’clock surf allowed us to catch this sunset every evening.

I’m so happy I decided to stay here for a month. I’m looking forward to relaxing this weekend and catching the local surf competition at Hermosa beach on Saturday.