Costa Rica

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We entered Costa Rica by the Rio Frio, and were dropped of at Los Chiles. From there we took a bus to La Fortuna.

La Fortuna is home to Volcan Arenal, but we decided not to climb it, since we climbed a Volcano last week (how many times can you say that!). Just about every adventure tour you can think of is offered here, but we were saving ourselves (well, our money anyway) for bigger and better things. We just stayed two nights so we could get laundry done, and then moved on to Monte Verde.

From La Fortuna to Monteverde, our next stop, there is really only one choice of transport, Jeep/Boat/Jeep. It is a little expensive but cuts out a long bus ride, and is almost like a tour in itself. First we took a Jeep from La Fortuna to Lake Arenal, at the lake we boarded a boat, which took us across. From the other side we took another Jeep to Monteverde. The last part of the trip was the best, driving up and over winding hills of farmland with mountains in the background. The road is 4WD only, and along the way we passed many isolated towns, our driver seemed to know everyone, and waved to them along the way.

Monteverde was actually settled by a group of American Quakers. After refusing to fight in the Korean War and being jailed for one year, they decided to move overseas with their families. One of the reasons they chose Costa Rica was because it was and still is one of the only countries that doesn’t have an army. To make a living they started making cheese, this then turned into a factory, and is now the largest distributer in Costa Rica. Now Monteverde attracts tourists for it’s wildlife, and beauty. Being a mountain town, there are cloud forests, and there are numerous areas, which have been made into protected reserves.

Our first day there, we decided to visit the cheese factory. I was expecting a Margaret River boutique cheese type affair, instead we found a large factory. We decided to take a tour anyway, beforehand ordering a milkshake, which we’d heard were amazing. Made of course by Monteverde milk. The tour was actually very interesting, as we learnt not only how to make cheese, but a lot of history from the area. And the best part, free samples at the end.

Monteverde has really capitalized on it’s abundance of wildlife, they have a frog pond, serpentarium, insect museum, orchid farm and many different nature reserves complete with hiking trails so you can explore the cloud forest. All of these are $5 a pop! We decided the frog pond sounded the best, and went one night (they are mostly nocturnal) to have a look at them. The frogs are very easy to see at night, a lot of times we would just have to look at the glass to find them plastered to it. They also sing at night, so you can follow the sound. Costa Rica is home to three kinds of poisonous dart frogs. They call them that because the Mayans covered their darts with the poison from the frogs to shoot at their enemies. Only the skin is poisonous, and it has to make contact with blood, so if you have a cut, or alternatively if someone shoots it into your neck. Our guide said that the poison wouldn’t kill a person, just tranquilize, and make them sick. So now we know how it’s done!

We spent one day walking through one of the reserves called Hidden Valley. They had a few trails to walk on, which were looped so one connected to the next. A cloud forest is basically just a rainforest at a high enough elevation that it is in the clouds, or even above them. This makes it even damper than the rainforest already is because of the water in the air, so everything becomes covered in moss, and it is intensely lush and green. It is also supposed to be full of wildlife, but we couldn’t find any! We even tried our new frog finding trick, which we learnt at the frog pond. That is to look inside bromeliads, they like to hide inside the leaves around the base where water collects. It was nice anyway, we brought a picnic with us, and the owners dog even acted as a guide, leading the way through the trails, and barking like mad if we tried to take the wrong one, or strayed off the path.

Another day was spent walking to the San Luis waterfall. It was a fairly strenuous hike, luckily all downhill on the way there, but it was worth it at the end. We were the only people there so that made it even better, to enjoy the beauty in peace. It is a beautiful scene, the waterfall is impressively high and crashes into a pool of crystal blue water. Surrounding the pool are green moss covered rocks, the pool then becomes a stream, which cascades into a series of smaller pools, ideal for swimming. Unfortunately it was too cold to swim, we dipped our toes in the water, but that was it. We got lucky on the way back to the owners house. It started to rain, torrentially. We were under shelter just in time, and she called us a taxi so we didn’t have to do the long slog uphill and back to town.

We really packed in the activities in Monteverde, all this was done in just three days. It was now time to hit the Nicoya Peninsula for a look. We had heard, and read mixed reports about the peninsula, there has been a lot of development there in the last ten years, resorts and condos are going up like crazy and so for a lot of people the beauty is being ruined. A good example is the lonely planets description of Tamarindo, which was considered paradise when people discovered it 30 years ago. “It burgeoned into southern California, without adequate plumbing and roads to support it. The expats who first came to take refuge in a pura vida lifestyle (and create tourism) now look at their Frankenstein a bit bewildered.”

That said we visited Montezuma a year ago with the boat and loved it. It’s beach is indisputably beautiful, with white sand, blue water and palm trees. It also has a large hippy population, so it’s nice and laidback and they have great street stalls that sell everything from jewellery to coconut oil hair treatment. To get there we caught the ferry across the Gulf and headed straight back to Montezuma for another look.
It was just as nice as I remembered, as soon as we had found a place to stay, we found a beach bar, grabbed a beer and soaked up the view. The next day we went to check out the waterfall just outside of town.
It was a half hour walk to the waterfall, it was pretty impressive just looking at it from the bottom, and there was a large pool to swim in too. Ken had been here before though, and knew of a hidden trail which led up to the top. At the top there were a series of smaller falls and pools leading to the big drop. We went swimming in the pools for a few hours, and even had it to ourselves for a little while.

We only spent two days in Montezuma, but one of the best things we did, accidentally was go to breakfast early one morning. One of the café’s feeds the white capuchin monkeys every morning, very early before most people are up. They have a rope ladder and little platforms for them to eat on, only a couple of metres away from us. The monkeys know what time breakfast is, and even before the food was out the monkeys were crowding around. It was a frenzy when the food was out, but they definitely have a pecking order. The big males came in first, then the smaller ones, the females next, then the teenagers and last of all mums with babies. Got some great pictures, and it was amazing to be so close to them, I swear they were posing for the camera sometimes.
From Montezuma we went back across the Gulf, and then down the Pacific coast to Jaco. Ken wanted to go surfing, and I wanted to lie on a white sandy beach. We also wanted to be booked into a hostel for the weekend, because it was going to be National Panama day, and things might get booked out. Jaco is the Costa Rican version of Cancun. Only in Cancun you get your moneys worth, with flash hotels and great bars. In my opinion Jaco was a great big rip-off. Lots of people apparently love it though, because half of Costa Rica was there for the weekend. Ken did get to go surfing and I got to lie on a black sandy beach strewn with trash. As soon as the long weekend was over we got on a bus headed to San Jose.

We changed buses in San Jose for Cariari, on our way to Tortugero. Tortugero is a very unique place, it is all a national park now, and is basically an island, linked to the mainland by many winding canals. The only way to get there is by boat, and it is the rainforest lining these canals, and the abundant wildlife living within that make this place so special. Our two-day trip there was both a dream and a nightmare, from the very beginning everything went wrong, but the beauty we saw was worth it. To get there we took a small, motorized canoe. It stared sprinkling when we got in, and by half way it started pouring with rain. We were given waterproof ponchos to wear, but everyone was soaked. We must have been in one of the only boats without a cover, and we were going so slowly! Finally another boat pulled along side, which had a cover, and all us passengers hopped in, leaving the driver and the luggage to follow. We had planned on an hour boat ride, which turned into three, so it was almost dark by the time we arrived in Tortugero. We found a place to stay, luckily before nightfall, because the whole town was experiencing a blackout. We dropped our bags and went in search of food. This turned out to be a mission, as most restaurants had closed for the night, unable to cook in the dark, or cook at all with no electricity. Finally we found a very nice restaurant, a little expensive for us, but we figured we deserved it. We had a delicious meal and some wine, and while we were eating the lights came back on.

As soon as we arrived in Tortugero we booked an activity package, which included a three-hour canoe ride through the canals in the morning, a ticket for the national park, where you can walk a few different trails, and a guided trip to the beach to watch the turtles lay their eggs. We were up and out by six AM for our canoe tour. It was just the two of us, and a guide rowing the canoe. The trip was incredible, we saw howler, white-faced capuchin and spider monkeys up in the trees. We saw baby Caimans, which are a smaller relative of the Crocodile, lizards, birds and much more. It was incredible, and our guide had a very good eye, pointing things out that would have been otherwise camouflaged.

We arrived back at the dock at nine and went back to the hostel to have a shower then get some breakfast, but when we arrived there was no water. We were told it would be back in two hours. We went and had a yummy breakfast on the waterfront and arrived home for the much anticipated shower, but…no water.
The second part of our activity package is the National Park, where there are numerous trails to walk around. Gumboots are included, as it gets really muddy. We ended up walking the trail backwards and getting on a two-hour detour down the wrong path. It turned out to be a good thing though because all the wild-life we saw was on the detour, away from the main trail. We saw the three types of monkeys again, but this time we got very close to some Howlers. We could hear them, and they could hear us, they started howling louder to try and intimidate us, but the path went right under their tree. As we got closer and closer and started taking photos the monkeys were getting very worked up. They started gathering together on one branch and making almost a pyramid, like a cheerleading team. I think the idea is to make them look like one large animal to scare away predators. Well, it scared me! When we had to walk under them I took off running. We also spotted a frog, which was exciting as they are very hard to find in the wild and most are nocturnal. They were the highlights, as well as a Harpy Eagle and lots of other bugs and birds I can’t name. An hour into our detour we decided we must be going the wrong way, when we got back to the main trail it was quite short, some interesting big trees and finally we got some mud to stomp in.
When we returned it was getting late and the water was still not present so Ken and I got a bucket and washed using the water out of the one dribbling tap that had any water, and got ready for our turtle expedition.
We went to the beach with a guide to watch Olive Ridley turtles lay their eggs. I didn’t like the way they organized the turtle watching, our guide was rude and it just seemed a shambles. I do understand though, that they are trying to protect the turtles by controlling the number of visitors, which is a good thing. I just don’t know why, when hundreds of turtles are coming on the beach to lay their eggs forty people need to crowd around one turtle? Despite the criticism it was a special experience, I just wish I could go back when the babies hatch.

We were supposed to leave early the next morning on the boat to Moin, which is back on the mainland. As I said everything went wrong in Tortugero, including leaving. When our boat pulled up there were four of us, and no room. Despite being told to buy tickets in advance the owner had picked up a load of travellers and there was no room for us. He said we could squeeze in…where? We told him we wanted our money back, and he wouldn’t give it to us. We found someone who could take us back for almost the same price and demanded the money, but no luck. It took us two and a half hours of arguing (luckily the other couple spoke fluent Spanish) and we even went down to the police station. The policeman came out in a T-shirt and red satin boxer shorts, sat down at the desk and listened to the arguments without making comment. It also turned out the other couple had been grossly over-charged for the same trip as us, so they also wanted compensation. In this time we had also attracted a seventeen-year old kid who decided he was going to help us, and also that he was going to Puerto Limon today. We finally got the money back and organized our ride to Moin, and can you believe it the guy who tried to rip us off got in the boat for a ride! We kicked him out, much to his amazement. The kid got a ride.
When we got to Moin we thought our troubles were over, but not yet. We were going to get a bus to Puerto Limon but everyone we asked said there was no bus, but they had a cheap taxi. One driver asked us to come with him and split the cost with another couple going the same way. Sounds good but our ‘friend’ the seventeen year old told him we didn’t want that, he had a taxi for us. We were ripped off once again and he got a free ride. When we got out the taxi he even had the nerve to ask for a tip. We got on the bus to Cahuita with a sigh of relief and a serious case of gringo-it is. Tortugero is a beautiful place, but I didn’t meet one genuine, honest person there, it is definitely an example of the negative effects of tourism.

Our last stop in Costa Rica was Cahuita, and it was well worth it. It is a small, sleepy Caribbean town. Everything is reggae and chilled out people, and a beautiful beach. Really relaxing, and the people are friendly. We didn’t get to spend much time there, but wish we had. The next day we were on our way to Panama.

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Photos

El Castillo
View from the top of the fort.

San Luis Falls
Monteverde

Montezuma
The beach at sunrise

Tortugero
The frog we found