Have you ever dreamed of going on a wild adventure? Join Andrew and Suzanne, and live vicariously through Suzanne as she shares stories about her tropical excursion to Costa Rica.

Fun fact

With its rainforests, waterfalls, national parks, and volcanos, Costa Rica is a country rich in diversity. Although it only accounts for about 0.03% of the world’s surface, the country contains about 5% of the world’s biodiversity, or variety of life. This biodiversity can be traced to the country’s various ecosystems and climate zones. From margays to glass frogs, Costa Rica is bursting with species.

Expressions included in the learning materials

* Cha-ching

* The inner circle

* To be in sync

* To be snippy

* To live through someone/something

Sample transcript

Andrew:           Today, we’re gonna do a Chatterbox episode. And this is where we have a natural conversation about a topic that we find very interesting, and we think you will find interesting too. And today, we have a good one. We are going to talk all about Suzanne’s trip to Central America.

Suzanne:        Woohoo!

Andrew:           Because, Suzanne, you recently visited Costa Rica.

Suzanne:        Yeah, I did. I wanted to sing, “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion …” But yeah, I was in the jungles, the mountains, the rainforest, the waterfalls, the coast of Costa Rica.

Andrew:           Right on. This is a country I’ve always wanted to visit ’cause it seems so beautiful, but I’ve never had the chance yet. So I’m gonna have to live through your stories here.

Suzanne:        I will make them absolutely divine so that you go there soon, Andrew, because I think you would really love it there.

Andrew:           OK. Well, today, we’ll find out all about it, but let’s start at the start.

Suzanne:        Yes.

Andrew:           It’s always, you know, a nice place to begin. So why did you go to Costa Rica?

Suzanne:        I went to Costa Rica because two of my friends were getting married and decided they wanted to get married in a small wedding, and they wanted a destination wedding.

Andrew:           Hmm.

Suzanne:        So at first they wanted Mexico, but they chose, oh, this really beautiful place in Costa Rica on the Pacific coast.

Andrew:           So, on the west side of the country?

Suzanne:        Yes.

Andrew:           OK.

Suzanne:        And in fact, if you see a map of Costa Rica, on the Pacific coast, there’s also a spot where you … There’s a little bit of a peninsula, so we were on that west side of the peninsula in order to have the wedding. So we actually had to take a ferry. So we rented two big 4 by 4s because you’re driving on some roads that are not always paved, and up mountains and down mountains, so you need a sturdy car. And we put the car on a ferry, and then took the ferry to this peninsula. Then once we got off the boat, we drove another hour to this location for the wedding. The wedding was in the middle of the vacation.

Andrew:           Mmhmm.

Suzanne:        So the first part of the vacation was in the inland part of Costa Rica, in the mountains. So it was sometimes cool, and sometimes really, really rainy because it was the beginning of the rainy season.

Andrew:           So you said that you went for a destination wedding.

Suzanne:        Yes.

Andrew:           And so correct me if I’m wrong, but a destination wedding occurs when a couple wants to get married somewhere different, somewhere far away.

Suzanne:        Yeah.

Andrew:           Like you said, Mexico or Hawaii.

Suzanne:        Somewhere other than their home. Somewhere other than where they’re from.