Guanacasteca.
De las cantautoras de la caliente provincia de Guanacaste, Guadalupe Urbina
es una de las más conocidas. Con sus canciones de paisajes y personajes
de esa zona ella sonó hasta en Europa. Archivo La Nación.
Discovery Channel:
The Discovery Channel
recently came to Costa Rica to film their Travel series "Passport to Latin
America". In a departure from their usual tourism-based themes, Discovery
decided to showcase Latin American Culture through Intercultura's language and
culture program. The program, due to air in September 2007, shows Intercultura's
Spanish, cooking and dance classes, as well as an excursion with students and
staff to explore the local nightlife...
LA NACION, 5 DE MAYO, 2006
Caliente
Sámara
se llena de arte...
Una de las playas más conocidas de Guanacaste tendrá este fin
de semana música, pintura, bailes típicos, danza y mucho más.
Por Oliver Pérez.
Guanacasteca.
De las cantautoras de la caliente provincia de Guanacaste, Guadalupe Urbina
es una de las más conocidas. Con sus canciones de paisajes y personajes
de esa zona ella sonó hasta en Europa. Archivo La Nación. |
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Nicoya, Guanacaste. Los nicoyanos tienen mañana y el domingo una cita con el arte en playa Sámara. Ahí se realizará el II Festival de Arte.
El festival,
organizado por el Centro de Educación Artística Interactiva (CEDAIN)
de Nicoya y el Centro de Idiomas Intercultura de Sámara (CREAR), comenzará
mañana a las 2 p.m.. con una exhibición de pintura y esculturas
de Helga de Noth, además de arte y artesanías a cargo de Carlos
Vargas y Anais Morera. El menú también ofrecerá mañana
cuentos y música por Olman Briceño, Karol Cabalceta y Eleazar
Escobar, y para que la boca se haga agua, habrá degustación de
comidas típicas hechas en cocinas solares.
Suena, suena. El segmento musical empezará a las 7 p.m. con la representación
de Guadalupe Urbina, Max Góldenberg, Patricio Torres, María Prétiz,
Esteban Monge, además de artistas trovadores nicoyanos.
Este tipo de actividades están pensadas con el objetivo de fortalecer
la formación cultural, promocionar el cantón y ofrecer eventos
culturales, sin fines de lucro, a la comunidad.
La entrada es gratuita, pero sí se estarán recibiendo donaciones
que serán invertidas en los centros de educación creativa (arte,
música y danza), sin fines de lucro. El tipo de donación puede
ser monetaria o bien en material didáctico.
El II Festival de Arte se desarrollará al aire libre en el Centro de
Lenguaje y Cultura Intercultura, Playa Sámara, en unos hermosos jardines
que se ubican frente al mar.
Los productores del festival recomiendan llevar sabanas para que se puedan sentar
en el césped; en el lugar se tendrá a la venta comidas y también
bebidas.
El 2006 ha sido un año generoso en términos de mostrar talentos
en lo que a Guanacaste se refiere. Para muestra un botón: a finales de
febrero Nicoya vivió el I Festival de Arte, que también mostró
parte del talento regional de esta zona.
El cartel de ese festival fue similar al que este fin de semana recibirá
Sámara, pues actuaron La gran Nicoya, los trovadores nicoyanos Adrián
Sanchún, Carlos Loría, Alberto Flores, Son Guanaco, Gabriel Loría
y la reconocida cantautora guanacasteca Guadalupe Urbina.
Sábado 06: Cómo, dónde, cuándo:
Qué. II Festival de Arte. Fecha. sábado 6 de mayo. Dónde:
Centro de Lenguaje y Cultura Intercultura, Playa Sámara, Guanacaste.
Costo: gratis, pero quien lo desee puede hacer una donación de dinero
o de materiales didácticos. Actúan: Guadalupe Urbina, Max Góldenberg,
Patricio Torres, María Prétiz, Esteban Monge y más.
Greensboro News and Record :
What I Did On 'Mi
Vacacion'
GREAT ESCAPES
http://www.print2webcorp.com/news/greensboro/travel/20030929/p1.asp
and
http://www.print2webcorp.com/news/greensboro/travel/20030929/p4.asp
Students Learn Latin Dance Moves
An occcasional column of readers’ travel experiences
Spanish language schools appeal to travelers who like to learn as well as look.
BY LEE GIMPEL
Special to the News & Record
Recently, I made a foray to Costa Rica to study at one of the many Spanish language schools there. In do doing, I unwittingly became part of a growing number of language school traveler-veterans.
Language schools in foreign countries are enjoying trememdous growth and popularity. This is not exactly surprising, however, given their affordability, opportunity for a cultural experience and accelerated learning curve. I wanted an enriching experience on vacation, instead of just lying on the beach.
Typically, classes meet for four hours per day, but this formal learning is augmented by interactions with a local host family, field trips and day-to-day general activities that require one to converse in the language you’re studying.
My fellow students, I found out, had a variety of motivations. Business people enroll to better their language skills with clients or international coworkers. Doctors and nurses want better communication with patients, and prefer to learn in an accelerated class instead of in weeks or months of night school.
In addition, people who come to a country to volunteer — be it through conservation, medical or religious programs — often start with language training.
Different locales offer different environments; a school in Cancun has a different feel from one in downtown Madrid or rural Guatemala. Countries also have unique accents, from the Italianesque Spanish of Argentina to Spain’s lisped Castilian, so the language one learns is slightly different.
My search for a school took me to San Jose, Costa Rica, because of its secure government, good infrastructure, low crime rate and neutral accent. It’s also one of the most beautiful places on the planet, where nearly a quarter of the land is protected, allowing birds like the toucan and resplendent quetzal to flourish.
The school where I chose to study, like most schools, offered a number of ex-tras in addition to classroom instruction. These included seminars about local food and customs, group excursions to points of interest around the country, and Latin dance classes to anyone who wanted to muddle through.
On my own excursions, I sampled other aspects of Costa Rica’s famous scenery. One of my first visits was to Monte-verde Cloud Forest, one of the most famous nature preserves on earth. The entrance to the park sets the tone; a garden of hummingbird-friendly fl owers and feeders where, at any time, dozens of the little iridescent birds can be seen and felt whizzing around.
Outside the park, I took one of Costa Rica’s famous zip line courses. A zip line consists of a pulley on a wire that one hangs on to while crossing streams, canyons and the like.
The course I visited, Sky Trek, consists of 11 lines between 25 and 130 meters high and 25 to 750 meters long. Moving more than 30 mph, the pulley zips you through the clouds that’re always cloaking the forest canopy, sometimes taking you within an arm’s reach of the mosses and orchids that envelop the trees.
Although zipping across a wire span of nearly half a mile from one mountaintop to the other is not an everyday experience, it’s surprisingly peaceful, once you get comfortable with the idea of what you’re doing.
The warmer, coastal rain forest came to life on an outing to Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific Coast. On a brief stroll through the park, I saw both monkeys and sloths. But, while some beaches are known for their unique, rocky shores or rare black sand, Manuel Antonio’s beach is characterized by dozens of lazy, wizened iguanas.
As a result of such atmosphere and opportunities, it is no wonder that language schools are flourishing here. Participating in one gave me an experience that was not only educational, but unforgettable, too.
Lee Gimpel is a freelance writer who lives in Greensboro and has visited nearly 40 countries.