A family program, in the town we come from

How it started

The program began in 2018. The idea was my stepfather’s, Edwin Meyers — he is the reason this program was created, and the reason it is still running today. He founded it together with my mother and Doris Zamora, who is still our head teacher. The thinking was simple: a student who lives with a Costa Rican family, studies every morning and spends the afternoon out in the community will learn far more, far faster, than a student in a classroom in the city.

I’m Ángel B. López Duarte. I was born and raised here in La Fortuna de Bagaces, and I helped out from the beginning in small ways. For personal reasons within the family, I took over the running of the program, and today it’s me who answers your message, plans your weeks and meets you when you arrive.

My mother, Patricia Duarte, looks after students once they’re here — host families, meals, activities, and anything you need while you’re in town. Doris Zamora is in charge of the teaching.

That’s the whole point of this place. You’re not booking a product. You’re coming to a small town where the person organising your stay grew up, and where your teacher, your host family and your activity guides all live within a few streets of each other.

The people you’ll learn from

Your afternoons are led by people who have done this work their whole lives, and who are used to explaining it slowly, in Spanish, to someone who is still learning.

• Patricia DuarteCo-founder, and the person in charge of students on the ground: your host family, your week, and anything you need while you’re here.
• Doris ZamoraCo-founder and teacher in charge. She runs the level call before you arrive and shapes your plan.
• Alfredo “Leña” BriceñoGuides the forest and volcano hikes around Miravalles — rivers, wildlife, and the names of everything you pass.
• Fernando RuizRuns the village grocery. Students work with him on stock, prices and serving customers, all in Spanish.
• RoxellaLocal artist. Students carve and paint wooden masks with her, and take them home.
• And the whole townYour host family at dinner, the neighbour on the next porch, the man who sells you bread, the children playing football in the plaza. Some of the best Spanish you’ll learn here comes from people whose names aren’t on this list.

Where you’ll live

This is the part of the program that does the most work — twenty hours of class a week against the hundred or so waking hours you spend in Spanish in someone’s house. Every student stays in a home here in La Fortuna de Bagaces, with a family we have known personally for years. Not every house can be a host house — we keep a few selected homes, we visit them before a family joins, and most have hosted many students already.

You get your own bedroom, a bathroom that is often private and sometimes shared with the family, and three meals a day, usually eaten with them. There is a laundry room you are free to use, though washing is not something the family is asked to do. The kitchen and the rest of the house are open to you, like anyone who lives there.

Usually there is one student per family, so every conversation at that table is yours. Couples, friends and families travelling together can stay in the same home. Classes are a short walk away, and there’s a bicycle if you want to get around town on your own. Students come back to La Fortuna de Bagaces years later, and often it is the host family they came back to see.

• Matched, not assigned. We place you with a family that fits your interests, what you eat, and whether you want children around.
• Almost nobody in these houses speaks English. Hard on day two, and the reason it works by week two.

Where the money goes

What you pay stays here. It goes to the host families who feed you, the teachers who write your material, and the guides, farmers, cooks and artists who spend their afternoons with you.

Being in a rural town is also why the program costs what it costs. We’re not paying city rent or agency commissions, so the price buys teaching and time instead of overheads.