Summer in Costa Rica

Hello friends. I've just recently returned from spending the holidays and quality time with family in Florida. I returned home to Costa Rica and have a new appreciation for the great summer weather here. I was in the States for the cold weather that shocked even temperate south Florida with record low temperatures. The last few days of the "corona commercial" style beach lounging with friends, sunset surf sessions, and overall "pura vida" lifestyle have been great reminders of why I moved to Costa Rica in the first place! Great weather, warm clear seas, great waves, and happy people.

I've been pretty slack about updating the SOTW blog... no good excuse really except that I've been busy launching a couple of other projects that also included writing blogs, and I always prefer to be outside enjoying the great weather to sitting at a computer writing. Despite my aversion to stopping the adventures long enough to sit down and write, being trapped inside during the cold spell in the States resulted in my latest project. It is a review blog site, that is a culmination of my experiences from starting School of the World and my continued passion for travel and learning. The genre of "learning vacations" is growing, and the School of the World is a model school that has inspired a lot of travelers and educators around the world. On the new site I interview interesting travelers and other learning vacation school owners, agents, and students and give news from inside the industry. You can check it out at: http://learningvacationsreview.wordpress.com/ You can also receive updates by following the School of the World on twitter or facebook.

I brought back a new flip camera for the school, so I hope to get some video uploaded to the site as well as some video blogs in the near future. I figured it was a great way to add another dimension to the info available on the website for those of you that haven't been to the school yet. I frequently hear people say that they love our site but that the location is so beautiful that the posted photos don't do it justice. In future blogs and videos I'll try to give you a little more insight into what the School of the World experience is like. Until then stay warm (f you are in the northern hemisphere's winter) and we'll catch some great waves and toast to a pacific sunset for you. Hope to see you all soon!

-Zach McDuffie

November Report

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." -Ganhdi

Hello friends and School of the World family. We have been busy with some exciting new projects here at the school. We have been taking advantage of the quieter off-season months to make renovations and improvements on some of our older guest rooms and shared areas. We have also completed the new photography "digital darkroom" and remodeled the yoga studio. The kitchen dining area has been upgraded to teak chairs and tables and looks really beautiful.

In addition to the interior design upgrades we are also working on adding a new learning vacation program for 2010. We are developing a "video for web" program that will teach introductory level video shooting and editing techniques. This course will help students understand the fundamentals of storytelling through video production, with an emphasis on preparing their own video shorts for web based applications (such as posting your new videos on facebook, blogs, etc.)

More news and photos to come soon...

Costa Rica Weather Report

The weather in the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica consists of two seasons.  The "dry" season begins in mid-December and runs through the end of April.  The "rainy" or “green” season begins in May and runs through the first weeks of December.

The dry season typically produces lots of sunshine with little rain. The benefit to this is guaranteed sunshine every day, great water visibility (for snorkeling), and cooler nights (less clouds to blanket heat to earth). The rainy season typically produces sunny mornings followed by afternoon clouds with a chance of showers. The benefits to this season are lush scenery and better surf conditions. The intermittent cloud cover this time of year decreases the wind (and chop) on the surface of the ocean, and the rivers form better sand bars where they meet the ocean (better wave formation).

The School of the World maintains a weather center, located on top of the school, which records the daily high and low temperatures as well as the amount of daily rain.  The air and water temperatures remain fairly constant throughout the year due to the fact that we are so close to the equator (10 degrees north latitude).  The high temperature for the year 2009 (through October 15th) was 92.5°F and was recorded on April 9th, and the low temperature of 65.4°F was recorded on February 18th.  The mean maximum temperature has ranged from 85.3°F in September to 89.6°F in April and the mean minimum temperature has ranged from 71.2°F in February to 76.6°F in August.

The water temperatures range from 80°F in the green season months to 82°F in the dry season months.  The water temperatures are a bit warmer in the dry season due to less cloud cover.

In the months of January through April of 2009, we recorded a total of 5.73 inches of rain, with 4.12 inches of that coming in April.  The rainy season thus far has been anything but rainy.  So far for the year 2009 we have recorded 92.54 inches of rain (January to October 2009), which is almost half of what we received for the year 2008 (approximately 170 inches). What this means for travelers is that they are encountering beautiful weather every day with only light rain a couple of times a week (and usually at night). It is a mixed blessing to have a such a light rainy season- in the short term it means that we are enjoying ideal weather (a perfect mix of the two seasons), but in the long term it could cause water shortages during the next “dry” season.

Helping Third World Entrepreneurs

"Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning." - Bill Gates

Today’s blog is not so much about the School of the World, but about an interesting organization that has been brought to my attention recently by a fellow surfer/ traveler/ entrepreneur, and friend, Johan Sirgurdson, founder of United Surf Camps.

It is not easy to start a business in any country, but financial challenges make even small dreams much more challenging in the third world. Every successful entrepreneur has had some help along the way, in one form or another. An organization named Kiva is helping the working poor in remote parts of the world launch their business ideas by connecting them with people that want to help. Check out their website at www.kiva.org