Les Mills en Costa Rica!

Only one gym popped up in my online search for BodyPump or BodyCombat in Costa Rica – Arena Trek in Escazú. It’s about a 30-40 minute drive from San Pedro, but taking public transport meant a bus to downtown, a walk from one end of downtown to the other, and a second bus. Not sure I would have made it quite as easily had it not been for Lucia’s boyfriend Byran who needed to head into downtown as well and guided me to a bus terminal at the edge of downtown.

I got there in about an hour and 15 minutes, just in time for the 8:30 am BodyCombat class. How lucky! Their website only listed the 9:30 am BodyPump class, so hearing that I was just in time for combat was a huge bonus (I’d allowed for a pretty big buffer in case I got lost on any of the legs of my journey). Since it was my first time, the woman at the front desk just told me to walk on in (no ID, no signatures, no fees!). It was awesome seeing Susan Renata’s face on the group exercise room wall, here I was for my first international Les Mills experience!

The room was pretty full and members were friendly. One of the locals told me the instructor was a sub today. The instructor had a drill sergeant vibe and taught the class from a stage and the verbal cues she did give were in Spanish – not much coaching though. Not sure if this is the norm, or if it was due to the lack of a microphone. We did classic combat tracks (Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, Drummer Boy, It’s a Fight) and more recent pump (almost entirely from release 94).

Here’s to hoping that I can try out Les Mills classes in every country we stay in on this world tour =)