Costa Rica’s stone balls join World Heritage

Costa Rica’s iconic stone spheres have been recognized for their value to World Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), bringing more international attention to the southern region’s mysterious past, as well as its contentious future. No one knows who made a single one of the preColombian stone spheres, let alone why more than 300 were sculpted to near geometric perfection more than 1,000 years […]

Amazing corn

We loaded our plates with fresh empañadas, cheesy tortillas and sweet chorreadas, unwrapping huge banana leaves to reveal steaming tamales filled with  veggies and meat. We ohhed, ahhed and salivated over the tamal asado, a sticky sweet cornbread that frankly put me over the edge of satisfied, too full to try any more typical Costa Rican dishes made from maize, the star ingredient in […]

¡Oé, oé, oé!

When Costa Rican player Marco Ureña sent a third point into Uruguay’s goal during Saturday’s World Cup game, a nation of spectators already thought to be the happiest people on earth became the most elated people on earth. No one expected the Costa Rican team to hold its own against Uruguay, let alone trounce the 2010 semifinalist team in a 3-1 upset. We watched […]

New adventures

Welcome to our new blog! Here at Academia Tica we  pride ourselves on high caliber in-classroom instruction, while our students and staff remain active participants in the community outside school walls. For us, language learning is not just about traveling, passing a test or getting a new job — it is about cultural understanding and friendship most of all. This […]