Darihana is from a small town near Nicoya, Guanacaste, where she studied Education and Mathematics at the Universidad Latina. She has always been interested in international culture and travel, and from a young age had the opportunity to participate in student exchange programs in the USA. As an adult, she spent several years living in the States, where she studied English, Management and Communications at Cascadia Community college in Washington. Darihana moved back to Sámara in 2011 with her beautiful young daughter, went on to obtain her Teaching Certificate from Costa Rica TEFL in teaching English & Spanish as a Foreign Language, and her Master’s in Spanish Language Acquisition from the EDECA Center for Postgraduate Studies. After teaching high school and for the non-profit CREAR Children’s Association, she joined Intercultura as a Spanish professor in 2015. Her favorite aspect of working here is getting to know people from all over the world and helping students, teachers and staff. She teaches Adult Immersion and Children’s Spanish Camp classes, and is much loved by students for her caring, dynamic personality and her excellent teaching. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, going running on the beach, and spending time with her daughter.

"Darihana was very good! She encouraged me and stretched me. I loved the way we discussed a wide variety of topics." - Mike Wright, 2024

"Darihana es muy amable y maravilloso. She was excellent at knowing exactly how to help me. I feel so grateful for her, and she inspires me to want to be better. She makes learning so enjoyable…She is so great! She helped me feel challenged, but also confident in my abilities. Truly grateful I got to have her." – Kate Mayes, Oct 2023

"She is wonderful. Objectives for the course layed out at the start and each day was an overview of what would be covered. We are a rowdy group and she handled us beautifully." - Beth, 2023

"Darihana was extremely interactive and excited to engage with students. She is definitely one of the best language teachers that I have studied from. Muchas gracias!" - Lexi Dorman, 2018

"My favorite teacher so far. OUTSTANDING" - Jeff Owen, 2019