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SPECIAL SERVICES AT CPI
OPTIONAL PRE-PROGRAM ORIENTATION
One of CPI's representatives, ISLS, offers a Pre-Institute Orientation Program, which is available to all CPI students before they begin classes. The program objective is to give students the easiest possible transition into Costa Rican culture. This may be of particular interest to those students who are only planning on studying in Monteverde or Flamingo, and who would otherwise not have a chance to experience the San José area. For more information click here.
MONDAY ORIENTATION FOR NEW STUDENTS
On the first day of class, after students have taken their written Spanish placement exam, the CPI student coordinator holds an orientation to help students adjust to their new surroundings. Topics include cultural issues, local customs, information about homestay families, how to get around town and safety tips, as well as general information about CPI - our daily schedules, classes, and the tours and extracurricular activities offered during the week.
BILINGUAL OFFICE STAFF
Whether your main objective is to learn Spanish or combine language study with a vacation, our goal is to assist you with every aspect of your stay in Costa Rica. Each CPI campus has at least two bilingual (English and Spanish) staff members available to attend to your needs, questions, and concerns.
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
Transportation
CPI offers free airport pick-up and drop-off for students who
are living with homestay familes. We also provide free daily transportation
to
the school for those students living more than a 25-minute walk from the
school.
Mail Service
CPI makes trips to the post office three times per week; if
you wish, we can mail your letters and post cards for you.
E-Mail
You may send and receive e-mail via the CPI Internet account.
However, since our server can be quite slow, we recommend using the local
Internet cafés in Heredia, Monteverde, and Flamingo. These cafés
are inexpensive (between $0.75 and $3.00 per hour, depending on the location)
and are usually open until 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. every evening.
Activities
In addition to the planned excursions described below, we offer
weekly school sponsored activities. These include: Latin cooking and
dance classes, afternoon soccer matches between CPI and local soccer enthusiasts,
movie nights, and visits to museums, galleries, theatres and discotecas.
TOURS COORDINATOR
CPI tours coordinators arrange afternoon and weekend excursions at each CPI campus, and are also happy to assist students with their travel arrangements within Costa Rica.
At CPI Heredia, afternoon tours include trips to Irazu Volcano, Poás Volcano, the Orosi Valley, Lankaster Gardens and Cartago, a boat tour along the Sarapiqui river, a horseback tour of Barva volcano, a visit to the butterfly gardens in Guacimal and Sarchi, and a city tour of Heredia or San José.
More about tours at CPI Heredia
In Monteverde, students can take a night tour of the Monteverde reserve, do SkyTrek, the exhilarating zipline through the rain forest, hike along the trails of the Santa Elena or Bajo de Tigre reserves, ride horseback through the fincas surrounding the rain forest, hike to the San Luis waterfall, or visit the local hot springs.
More about tours at CPI Monteverde
CPI Flamingo organizes many afternoon beach activities, including snorkeling, scuba diving, and sailing expeditions, surfing, sea kayaking and fishing trips, horseback riding, and visits to nearby beaches such as Playa Tamarindo and Playa Conchal.
More about tours at CPI Flamingo
On the weekends, CPI organizes trips to Manuel Antonio National Park, Volcán Arenal, Limón/Puerto Viejo, Monteverde, Cartago, Rincón de la Vieja National Park, Montezuma, and Palo Verde National Park. The cost of each tour includes round-trip transportation, a bilingual guide, accommodations, entrance fees to national parks and local tourist attractions, and breakfasts. If planned tours do not interest you, our tours coordinator is available to assist you in making other arrangements.
We can customize our programs to meet your needs. CPI can help you design a program for special groups such as high school students, Spanish teachers and professionals in a variety of fields. For more information regarding special seminars designed for specific professions, please reference the pull-down menu below