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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Costa Rica is probably one of the world's best travel destinations, but only if you have the money to be able to afford it. We spent the majority of our week in Costa Rica being shocked by the price of things, especially after 10 months in South America. Sadly, as 'budget' travellers, I don't think we got the most out of the country, but still we did manage to do some very cool things and have left other stuff for when we are older and richer...!
San Jose To get to the Costa Rican capital city San Jose from Panama we followed an exhausting route including boats, a taxi and buses. The journey was long and slow and we were very glad to finally arrive at the Pangea Hostel in San Jose, with its very gringo friendly mixture of quiet, comfy rooms and a bar with a happy hour!
We only spent one full day in San Jose, and to be honest that was easily enough time to see the sights. San Jose is not a terrible city or even ugly, but it is lacking any real charm and not the kind of place worth too much of
our time. We visited the Jade Museum which provided a nice background to Costa Rica's indigenous communities and, unsurprisingly, their use of jade to create jewellery and ceremonial articles.
We also saw the National Theatre which was in a lovely Paris Opera style. Most of the rest of our time was spent wandering the streets, looking at the shops, eating at an Argentinian restaurant and drinking coffee!
La Fortuna & Volcan Arenal From San Jose we moved on, using the fairly bad public transport system for 5 hours, to our next destination, the town of La Fortuna which is situated at the base of the perfectly conical Volcan Arenal. We spent a few days in and around La Fortuna and were there for my birthday. Highlights included:
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Volcano evening tour and hot springs. In theory, the Arenal Volcano spouts immense rivers of molten lava and rock, which is visible with the naked eye during the night. Unfortunately on the night that we went for a viewing, the whole thing was mostly covered in clouds and we only got two very brief sightings of red flashes hitting the side of the volcano! This was obviously disappointing,
but is the price you pay for travelling in the wet season. After the "viewing", we were taken to a local river with thermal pools. This was definitely more fun than the volcano had been, especially when the guide introduced us to a water slide!
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La Fortuna Waterfall. This made for the perfect half day trip from La Fortuna town. We hiked the 6 kilometres or so to the entrance of the waterfall complex, and then followed a path leading down through the forest. The waterfall itself is a stunning 70 metre high ribbon of water dropping with huge force into the pool below. For obvious reasons, you are not allowed to swim directly underneath the waterfall, but you can go for a dip a few metres downstream. So we did! And it was freezing, but well worth it for the crystal-clear water and fun of trying to swim against the current.
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My birthday at the Baldi hot springs. We usually end up somewhere fun for my birthday, and this year was no exception. We took it easy in the morning, with Barry giving me my pressies and a leisurely breakfast, including a shot of rum.
Eugh! We left town in the late morning and walked the 4km from La Fortuna to get to the Baldi hot springs. Baldi is a huge complex of pools with water at varying temperatures from very cold to very hot. We spent ages jumping in and out of the different pools as well as relaxing on the sun loungers. Later in the afternoon we discovered that one pool had water slides and so we spent the rest of our time there. I was a bit timid and so only went up a few times but there was no stopping Barry who kept saying "can I go just once more please?!" In the evening we took it easy and my birthday meal consisted of a takeaway pizza, bottle of wine, watermelon and rum. Both cheap and tasty!
Santa Elena & Monteverde The day after my birthday we travelled from La Fortuna to our next destination, Santa Elena, via a bizarre method known as "jeep-boat-jeep". This is significantly faster than going via public bus and gives great views of Arenal Volcano whilst crossing on the boat. We spent a few days in Santa Elena and nearby Monteverde exploring the local
fauna and flora as well as digging out the hiking boots. Despite some very rainy afternoons we fitted in lots of different things, including:
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El Ranario, aka the Frog Pond. Costa Rica is known for its wildlife and in particular for its huge array of frog species. We visited the Ranario, which was only 100m from our hotel, on two occasions and really enjoyed the experience. This place houses over 30 different species of frog and we spent lots of time just searching them out, even using a torch on our first visit during the evening. A particular highlight was to see the Gaudy Leaf Frog, which is often used as a symbol of Costa Rica (indeed it features on the front cover of the Lonely Planet guide to the country).
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Insect World. When Barry suggested the possibility of visiting Insect World I was not too keen as I have never been a very big lover of creepy crawlies. However, I agreed to go along and ended up having a great time as well as conquering a few primeval fears. Our guide showed us various insects, quite a few of which he pulled out of their
display cases for us. In the end I decided to bite the bullet and take some of these from his hands so that in total I held 2 Praying Mantis, a stick insect, a Hercules Beetle called Chico and an Orange-kneed Tarantula called Cleopatra! Highly recommended!
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La Lecheria. Also known as the Monteverde Cheese Factory. Monteverde was orginally formed as a settlement of Quakers who left America to avoid military conscription. After ruling out a host of other countries they settled on Costa Rica and bought up this area of until-then unused land. They set about clearing some land for cattle grazing and soon realised they could run a dairy farm as a communty business. Over the years this has developed into the 'Monteverde' branded dairy products available throughout Costa Rica. We went on an informative tour of the factory and learnt more about the history of the area. At the end we also got to taste the various cheeses (no accompanying wine unfortunately!) as well as a glass of local milk, which tasted closer to the milk I know from home than anything else I have tasted in the last 10 months.
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Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. When the Quakers were clearing land for farming they agreed to keep a significant amount of the forest untouched, partly to ensure their water source. This eventually became the Cloud Forest Reserve we went to visit. We spent a very enjoyable few hours hiking along various paths winding their way around the reserve and eventually reached a lookout, situated at the top of the Continental Divide, with views of the cloud forest below. We had hoped to spot lots of birds but sadly were mostly unlucky. We did see plenty of butterflies though as well as varying flying insects and a large freshwater crab.
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Hummingbird gallery. Beside the entrance to the Monteverde Reserve is this fascinating spot where sugary water is placed in feeders for visiting hummingbirds to enjoy. The outcome is incredible with a vast number of hummingbirds flying around and almost bumping into people on their way. We spent a fun hour there watching the birds, trying to identify them and then attempting the thoroughly difficult task of photographing them!
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Our hotel kitchen. We didn't eat out once whilst in Santa Elena and Monteverde so I have no restaurant tips this time. Instead,
we used our hotel kitchen at Cabinas Eddy where we prepared our farvourite Spaghetti Bolognese three nights in a row!
Not enough time and not enough money... It is fair to say that with our limited time and budget in Costa Rica we were only able to scratch the surface of this obviously beautiful country. I think we may have to return in a few years with more cash and hope that the frogs are still there to see us. I think I might live without facing the tarantula again though...!
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MikeHK
Happy Feet!
Happy Birthday!
Hey Ruth, great reading your CR blog, I loved the frog pic too! S