Coughlin family
La Paloma, January 2016New Years Eve started with our first Spanish lesson. Gaston is our teacher here and he taught us the importance of vowels. It helped us tremendously to change our listening and pronunciation to emphasize the vowels in every word, instead of the way we do in English with the consonants being the strong sound. We can understand and be understood much better now. It felt like a light bulb went on in our heads.
After that… to the beach! This is a quaint town with lots of beaches to choose between. I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowds at one of the most popular days to visit here. We picnicked with sandwiches and empanadas and the kids played in the sand and waves.
Thomas y Julia
La Paloma, November 2015One of the reasons we picked La Paloma, Uruguay, was having a chance to take Spanish lessons and surf regularly. We had stumbled accross La Paloma via the website of UruguaySpanish, and decided to go – and were pleasantly surprised. Gaston was not only a great Spanish teacher, but also a fountain of knowledge about local surf conditions, bodyboarding (important for Julia who swapped her larger surfboards for a bodyboard and promptly lost her fear of overhead waves), other things to do in the area, and Uruguay in general. Our Spanish made a lot of progress here, and learning was always fun – I can’t recommend Gaston enough.
Eva
La Paloma, November 2015La Paloma is amazing! I spent two weeks there , working in a hostel and taking Spanish classes with Gaston. The classes were great and I learned a lot in a short period of time. La Paloma is a beautiful place and the people are so kind. I would definitely recommend visting La Paloma and taking classes with Gaston.
Steve Head, Vancouver, Canada
La Paloma, May 2015My wife and two young boys had a great time in La Paloma with Gaston! I emailed him a month or so before we arrived, and he set up everything for us, including a special program geared towards our two boys, ages 7 and 5. Gaston even dropped by our hotel on the day we arrived just to make sure we settled in ok, and he was a great resource on things to do in the area as well. I would highly recommend him! Thanks Gaston! Steve, Jenna, Liam, and Jameson (Vancouver, Canada)
Alexandra O'Toole, Townsville, Australia
La Paloma, January 2015Hola Gaston! Muchas gracias por tus clases. Me gusta La Paloma y todo personas! Mi familia quiere venir a Uruguay. I will keep in contact. Ciao un abrazo!
Alexandra O'Toole (Townsville, Australia)
Stefanie & Marco, Germany
La Paloma, August 2014We started our South America trip in La Paloma, Uruguay. For two weeks we had Spanish lessons with Gaston and it was a very nice time. He was not just a very sympathetic and patient teacher but also a very good friend for us. Beside the spanish lassons he informed us abouts activities in La Paloma, gave us tips and helped us at our further travel. Gaston, we are realy happy that we met you , thank you for your help and hope that we stay in contact. And who knows maybe one day we will met again! Best regards from Germany – Steffi & Marco !
Eline en Elize, Utrecht
La Paloma, November 2014Gaston is a very good teacher, he obviously has many years of experience. Kind person and makes the lessons fit personally perfect. We started with no nada and after to weeks we felt more comfortable with talking to people. Muchos gracias Gaston!
Kate Redmond, Colorado, United States
La Paloma, October 2014Gaston made learning fun, and focused on conversation more than grammar. His use of listening exercises, games, drawings, and clever ways of remembering words and phrases made Spanish stick in my head more than ever in the past. He is patient, warm, and wonderful to spend productive time with! If you are traveling to Uruguay, I highly recommend getting out of the city and enjoying this sweet town, and studying in a low-pressure, high-results environment!
Daniel - Sydney, Australia
La Paloma, September 2014I'm always a little sceptical of testimonials, especially when they all seem to be so positive. However in this case I am happy to join the choir, as I had such a great experience both visiting La Paloma and taking Spanish lessons with 'Spanish in Uruguay'. In terms of Spanish, I'm somewhere between basic and intermediate. The lessons put together for me were appropriate to my level, engaging and ultimately effective. Although was only able to stay for a short time, I still felt like a walked away feeling a lot more confident and with a few more concepts bedded down. If you're a surfer (or want to learn to surf), La Paloma is a gem. The setup means you get get consistent waves in varying conditions, the waves are relatively uncrowded and the locals are warm and welcoming. A big thanks to Gaston and Spanish in Uruguay. I hope to make a return trip soon. Daniel
Louise Delaigue
La Paloma, May 2014I was on a journey through Uruguay in May/June 2014. I absolutely wanted to go to La Paloma, first of all to surf. I also noticed I was lacking some skills in spanish and found Gaston's website online! Even though we were not in the high season, Gaston gladly accepted to give me some spanish lessons and hooked me up with Victoria who happened to be my surf teacher as well! Results: I met so many great people, had a great time in class with Gaston who is the nicest teacher in entire South America, and even was managed to have some conversations in spanish afterwards. Best idea ever if you're searching for great friends and some fun time in La Paloma.
Frank y Tilmann - Germany
La Paloma, January 2014La clase de español con Gaston me gustó mucho. Vino al hostal Gitanos cada día para ensenarnos, de modo que no tuvieramos que aberrar por toda la ciudad para buscar una escuela. Este servicio es perfecto.
La Aguada es un lugar muy tranquilo, por la noche se va a La Pedrera por lo mejor, allá hay muchos boliches. Al fin Gaston nos invitó a una fiesta de cumpleanos en su casa con asado, cerveza y musica. Fue muy divertido. Gracias por todos y hasta luego!
Sandra y Barry Smith - Toronto, Canada
La Pedrera, Dec-April 2012Buenos Tardes Gaston,
Gracias para todos los clases este verano.
Hasta Noviembre,
Sandra
Niki - Ottawa, Canada
La Paloma, January 2012La Paloma, Gaston and surfing all exceeded my expectations! I had a really great time. I’m en route home now and will be sure to like you guys online. i will definitely be recommending you to friends.
thanks again,
niki.
Mimi Hannan - San Diego, USA
La Paloma, January 2012Just finished a week in La Paloma, Uruguay and had a great time. La Paloma was just my speed, super mellow. Gaston was a good teacher and guitarist, and his brother makes killer empanadas. Lucas was also fantastic for surf lessons. The people at the hostel were sweet, not many English speakers, so a good way to practice my new Spanish. Overall, a fun and relaxing week!
Gail Burchard - Rhode Island, USA
La Paloma, January 2012Despues muchas anos tratando hablar espanol estabo muy alegrae tener Gaston ayudame con mis lecciones. El vino a mi hostel por 2 horas, 5 dias/semana. Lo siento no tuve mas tiempo con Gaston. Siente no solo el es un maestro de idioma bueno, pero un amigo nuevo tambien.
Gaston es muy amable, sincere, flexible, inteligent , un musician, surfer, viajo experiencio, entiende estudientes y muchisimo mas!!!!!
cinco estrellas!!!!!
Muchas gracias……
Gail
Liz Pola - San Francisco, USA
La Paloma, March 2011Gaston is the best!!! As we all know, the people you meet at a place are exactly what make a visit so special. We were incredibly lucky to connect with Gaston as we all loved our time with him. Our kids (10, 8 and 3) adored him and literally begged to hang out with him. They loved the daily Spanish class he taught them and they also learned a lot. My husband and I had a great time hanging out with him, too, and appreciated the time he spent with us. Together, we went to nature reserves, the beach, little local panaderias and various spots around town. On top of that, he is a really cool guy.
We explained to Gaston via email prior to arriving what we were looking to do during our visit and he helped us find a place to live that was perfect, organized surf lessons for the family and gave us exceptional Spanish language classes.
La Paloma (and the surrounding beaches of southeast Uruguay) are what we consider the ‘best kept secret’ that we found in our eight months of traveling. It is a quaint, mellow beach town that is not polluted by high rises and is not packed with tourists. There are no Starbucks or MacDonald’s to be seen. Plus, it is flat and really easy to walk or bike everywhere you need to go.
As our kids said, “We NEED to go back to visit!” Gaston is wonderful, knows the La Paloma area inside and out and helped make Uruguay one of our favorite countries to visit.
Liz Pola
Helen Barker - England
I had an awesome time in La Paloma, Gaston the Spanish teacher is really good, really chilled out and a great teacher, and the hostel is really chilled and relaxing, everyone is really helpful and something seems to happen to you when you get to La Paloma, I challenge anyone to get stressed here. The surf lessons are really well run too and the teacher I had was brilliant – really patient, enthusiastic and a great laugh. Cannot recommend La Paloma and surf and Spanish school enough – Gaston’s cooking is also supreme – no doubt you’ll be invited round for pizza if you go. One word to sum up La Paloma would be tranquilo.
Thanks for everything,
Helen Barker
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AnnA
La Paloma, Februry, 2016My week in La Paloma, Uruguay was just what I needed to wrap up my 6 months journey in Latin America! My stay in La Paloma was not part of my original travel plans. But Gaston responded quickly to my requests about Spanish classes and accommodation.
I started my journey in Mexico with 30 hrs basic Spanish classes. After staying in Latin America for nearly 6 months, I felt a little frustrated about how I mastered Spanish. During my classes with Gaston I became much more positive towards the language and my level of knowledge.
Now I want to learn more! Also thanks to Gaston for giving me surf lessons and sharing tips and stories about local events and culture.
Muchas gracias! -AnnA-