TROPICAL IMMERSION: A YEAR IN COSTA RICA AND BEYOND
Everyone knows that Costa Rica is a paradise. But how does one find one's way around when streets have no names and houses have no numbers? When does one shake hands, and when does one kiss one's friends? "Tropical Immersion: A Year in Costa Rica and Beyond" is the wry and very personal story of a year in Costa Rica, the overland journey there and back, and side trips to Nicaragua and Ecuador. The book appeals to people who want to know the real scoop on Costa Rican culture, who are curious what it's like to live among the Costa Rican people like an insider. It details navigating the rough, narrow, busy Costa Rican sidewalks and learning to see doing so as a sport, eating fruit that smells like bodily fluids and discovering that it tastes delicious, and learning to respect "reckless" Mexican bus drivers, whose driving could be described by the uninitiated as "terrifying"— by deciphering their clever use of turn signals. The book offers a feast for the senses: rich, earthy aromas, warm wind on the skin, the bitter taste of dust in the air, the sound of birds, insects, children laughing, mothers calling their names, and laborers working the land. Its focus is not sightseeing but "culture-diving"; not ogling or conquest, but participation and integration.
It is part travelogue, part cultural primer, part memoir, part romance and a treatise on the being present, wherever one is.
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Tropical Immersion
Lengua Rica
P.O. Box 792
Olympia WA 98507
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What readers are saying about Tropical Immersion: A Year in Costa Rica and Beyond
"Ethan Rogol is a talented writer and this is a Great read. He is open and honest about both the good and not so pleasant portions of traveling in this beautiful country. He… used public transportation to the fullest.
I learned about the book on his website while I was looking for a Spanish teacher in the Tacoma WA area. Ethan is an amazing teacher of what appears to be his native language but is not. He has a different style that works very well.”
-- Patricia M.
"I enjoyed Ethan's book about his travels in Central America. Learning about the people and local customs in the locations he visited was fun."
-- Luci K.
"Tropical Immersion is uproariously funny and tender in its honesty, as well as forthcoming with insights into the social nuances of life as an outsider.... Rogol... recounts tales of an angsty youth [and] compares and contrasts the idiosyncracies of his own country's political systems and social norms with that of Costa Rica's, always with a keen sense of awareness and humor."
—Giovanna M.
"There's more to Costa Rica than a beautiful coast. Tropical Immersion: A Year in Costa Rica and Beyond is a travel memoir covering Ethan Rogol's year he spent in Costa Rica, gaining a deeper appreciation for the place than as a simple tourist. Culture, customs, and more, Rogol will educate readers on the deeper Costa Rica they don't know about. Tropical Immersion is a top pick and solidly recommended read.”
—Willis M. Buhle, Midwest Book Review