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Published: December 10th 2012
Costa Rica
Ahhhh... fresh and strong!!!So where do I start? Many people that we know have been to Costa Rica or have some connection to it. We had heard that it is the most developed country in Central America; it had amazing beaches, and attracts many English speakers. Preparing to go, we did our research: reading blogs, internet research, and reached out to friends. We had many expectations and precautions. Costa Rica turned out to be a mix of these...
We landed in San Jose and were overwhelmed at the airport exit with taxi signs, car rentals, and everyone calling us "friend" to get our service. I was very concerned about renting a car because we had read so many horror stories about rentals gone bad and how the Costa Rican roads eat cars alive (and how the rental agencies eat you alive)...well, fortunately, it was not necessarily the case. Our arrival was the first adventure. We rented from Dollar Rent a Car and were picked-up in a very non-descript van. At some point during our journey to the rental car agency the driver made a very sudden turn into a "dirt back-alley" (got to give him some credit because there was some considerable traffic
Costa Rica
Somewhere over the Caribbean ahead). We bounced along a dirt road surrounded by run down houses, empty houses, and empty warehouses - obviously not the greatest part of town. I think we both were thinking the same thing - at what point are we going to be gagged-and-bound and ransom demanded. Great was the relieve when we stopped right in front of the rental agency. We did not say anything to each other, but the looks on our faces to each other said everything that had to be said. We got our 4x4 (a must) without problems (Nikkie convinced me to get the full insurance which ended up being almost double the cost, but it is definitely highly recommended considering the driving conditions) and started the adventure south to QUEPOS. We definitely took the scenic route and with no GPS (I absolutely refuse to get GPS because it definitely helps us take the road less travelled and a lot of times we end up in places we would never have seen before - as you'll see later in the blog it also results in some scary situations that I sometimes wish we can avoid, but it's all part of the adventure/fun/scariness right?????).
We
Near San Juan
Happy girl in the mist with her coffee beans took the road less travelled across the mountain. Roads are very different. It seems like when they built these they tried to build as many curves, twists, and turns as possible to avoid as many straights as possible. We started climbing up the mountain past beautiful green pastures and flowing rivers with small little towns. We did a quick stop for lunch in a small town that just seemed very touristy catered - the trend will continue. Soon we were engulfed by the mist and driving was really difficult, but we were going slowly. The views at times were spectacular just for us to completely feel alone in a Jurassic Park-in-the-mist setting 5 seconds later. We stopped a lot and got our first view of the coffee bean. At the top of the mountain we stopped at a little coffee place - La Casita Del Cafe. The coffee was fresh and oh so good - the first of many, many good cups of coffee. We totally took our time as we always do and never really got too lost. The going was very slow though - I don't think we ever make it over 50 kilometers per hour - partly
La Casita Del Cafe
Coffee and lemon cake because we were taking the back roads, but also...
The roads in Costa Rica (as described above) seem to intentionally not be built in a straight line. The more curves/turns the better it seems. Some of the big obstacles however was that most people don't have cars there (in the backcountry away from San Juan anyway). The preferred mode-of-transportation seems to be by foot, bicycle, motorized bicycle, small scooter, horse cart or donkey cart. Where it gets even more interesting is that there really are no shoulders on these roads. So if you are walking you walk in the road. So that is the biggest obstacle in navigating the roads. Before going we were warned that the roads are terrible and filled with pot-holes and that you should expect to get at least a couple flats. This never happened to us. I also never really saw any big potholes. The roads in general were in a pretty good condition, but the above mentioned obstacles definitely force you to drive a little slower and pay more attention than usual.
So we finally made it to Quepos. Our hotel was a little outside of Quepos so it took a little
Outside San Juan
Roadside food - fish and beans while to find, but we finally did find LA MARIPOSA. A beautiful hotel, but it was pretty dark when we got there so we did not see too much of the surroundings. Our room was not the luxury you would expect for the price, but we did have a balcony that looked directly onto the ocean so we did not complain too much. We had some cocktails at the pool bar and had an early night.
The next morning we woke up and found why you pay for the room. We had a 180 degree view of the bay and the entire surrounding area. The view was spectacular. Included in the price was a free breakfast on the hotel patio which has equally spectacular views to go along with a really good breakfast menu of fresh fruit, eggs, meats and delicious coffee. Just sitting, enjoying a good breakfast, and having the views we had was a pretty awesome experience in itself. We headed out to MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK which was only a couple miles from our hotel. Again we were heckled and hassled and finally found parking and a "tour guide" that walked us to the park opening.
La Mariposa
Breakfast with a view About $70 later and we were in the park and had a "didn't-really-have-any-choice-in-the-matter tour guide" accompanying us. Oh well - definitely a rip-off, but we were on vacation and we always tell ourselves we are just "contributing-to-the-local-economy". The park in itself is a dense forest with a man-made created pathway. At first we did not see anything except for the occasional butterfly, frog or bird. This is where our tour guide came in and earned every penny. He had a portable stand-up monocular with him and at times he would just suddenly stop, point it and tell us to look. The first couple times we had to ask him what we are looking at and then the ah-hah moment. There in the tree was the slowest moving creature in the world (that's what it seemed like) just hanging out - SLOTHS. We have never seen them real life, but it was pretty cool and funny to see them. When I say that they move slow I am sort of exaggerating, because they move slower than slow. It really seems as if everything is in slow motion. Our guide also stopped a couple times to show us some BIRDS, but we
La Mariposa
Yes - you get beans with everything were kind of wandering at our own pace and ended up missing what he was trying to show us so he wasn't too happy with us. Oh well. The walk in itself lasted about an hour and a half until we eventually made it to the beach (yes the park includes beautiful WHITE SAND BEACHES). On the way we saw some cool lizards, bats, more sloths, cranes, cool snails, frogs, crabs etc. We were just wondering and out of nowhere a group of CAPUCHIN MONKEYS appeared. They were very playful with lots of young ones. We watched them for a while as they were doing their thing entertaining the people and then they disappeared as quickly as they arrived. Well that was enough animals for one day for us. Next up the beach. The beaches in were pretty spectacular. There was no one there and we had an entire beautiful beach all to ourselves. The water was actually pretty warm too so we swam for a while until we got some unwelcome visitors - IGUANAS. It seems like they can smell food for miles. We had a couple very ripe mangos in our bag and they knew exactly what they
La Mariposa
Just chillin' with juice wanted. It was actually pretty cool feeding them and they left us alone after a while. We walked through the rest of the park and it was pretty up and down with some pretty rough terrain in parts. We walked back to our car. The restaurants are very touristy and the food is not all that great and by Costa Rican standards it was pretty expensive as well. We sat down at Restaurante Marlin for some ceviche, shrimp cocktail (actually pretty good shrimp) and some pina colada's.
We headed back to La Mariposa and hung out at the endless pool with some beverages and watched an absolutely beautiful SUNSET. Dinner was at the RESTAURANT AT LA MARIPOSA and we have heard/read some good things about the restaurant. It was ok - churrasco salteado (not very good), pasta de mariscos (actually pretty good) and tortino al chocolate which was actually really well presented and really good. The next day it was time to say goodbye to the beach life and head to our volcano, but not before we stopped at a little local panaderia where we got some sweet desert.
The drive was long and along the way we
Manuel Antonio National Park
We had some visitors on the beach stopped for some crocodiles, coffee at our little new favorite place - La Casita Del Cafe and more slow driving and mist. Our next destination was the Arenal area where we were to spend 4 nights at the CHACHAGUA RAIN FOREST HOTEL. Well it was definitely fun finding it. We probably drove by it 2 to 3 times and when we finally found it (it was about 5 miles off the main road along a dirt road leading to the rainforest) we found that we were stuck behind a tour bus that got stuck in the mud so we were stuck for about 2 hours. We finally made it later that night.
CHACHAGUA RAIN FOREST HOTEL was different than what we expected. People were extremely friendly and receptive (partially probably because we were stuck behind a bus for 2 hours). Check-in was a breeze and our room was not what we expected. The hotel is about 5 miles off the main road built right smack in the middle of the rainforest. Everything is pretty eco-friendly. Our cabin was completely made of wood, but everything inside was pretty modern. In the bathroom there were gaps between the floor planks so
the water from the shower just goes straight down to the ground underneath. Scary because we were in the rainforest and obviously all small creatures has unlimited access to our space, but I'll be happy to say that we really did not notice any creature in our cabin. We also had a little covered porch with a hang mat and some chairs. Just a fair warning. There is not much to do in the form of evening entertainment at the hotel or in the surrounding towns. The hotel does not have a tv so the first night it was rough going for us. But that leads to things you usually would not even consider. We were "forced" to lay around in the hang mat, read a book by the light with only the sound of nature around us and some night even go to bed at 7 and get an actual good night of sleep and wake up refreshed - what a concept. Sleeping was awesome as we just threw open the windows and let the cacophony of sounds put us to sleep. We went to Costa Rica in June. it was pitch dark by 5 in the afternoon in
this area. This was completely unexpected to us. On the coast it was not this bad (more around 6). So just be warned if you visit Costa Rica during June. Our first night at the resort we were pleasantly surprised with a dance performance by some local kids - it was more for the touring bus group, but we joined in anyway. The next night we were pretty much the only one's there so we tested the RESTAURANT AT CHACHAGUA. It was very so-so. There were always fresh fruit and good, freshly brewed coffee. At the restaurant they were starting to try a new menu so we were asked for a lot of feedback which we gladly provided.
The closest town (big town) was LA FORTUNA. La Fortuna pretty much serves as the hub to all the activity in the area - and believe us there is a lot to do in the area. The town lies in the shadows of ARENAL VOLCANO. The volcano is still very active from what we read and so this was one of the main reasons why we actually came to this area. Guess what - the volcano was completely covered in clouds
the first 3 days we were there (we only stayed 4 days and we finally saw the volcano on the 4th and final day with some fumes coming out of the top). So on to other things it was. ARENAL LAKE is another big attraction just a couple miles outside town. The drive along the banks of the lake was beautiful with some pretty impressive views and colors. We drove for a while and eventually turned around because when you drive at 30 miles an hour it just feels like you are not really getting anywhere. Appropriately our turning point was right as we discovered the German Bakery. Can't even tell you what town this was in, but it was on the east side of the lake. Good baked goods and coffee as we discovered a couple days later as well.
After driving around and trying to figure out what to do we decided to test the HANGING BRIDGES of Arenal. Upfront statement - I HATE HEIGHTS. But you only live once and sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone. This was definitely outside my comfort zone and at $25 a ticket I was thinking - hang
on, you should be paying me to do this. We started off slowly and the first couple bridges was nothing earth-shattering (8 - 10 feet) and all made from solid steel so things were going smashingly. We kept walking looking for more creatures and found few. Then the fun started. We crossed a bridge that was probably about 25 - 30 feet off the ground (and not as sturdy as the one's before) and Nikkie pointed out something to me up in the sky that I could barely make out - was that a rope, a line? What was it? Yes low and behold it was a bridge way, way up there. Immediately things didn't seem so smashing anymore. We kept climbing and climbing with glimpses of the occasional birds and little waterfalls. And then we hit the mother load. This bridge was long and very high off the ground (the one we saw earlier from way down there so I knew it was a long way down). It was also a swinging bridge which my awesome wife started rocking right as we started walking across. I walked and kept my eyes open. The views were million dollar views as
La Mariposa
View from our room far as the eye could see. We took our pictures and made it across - yes I made it. It was not as bad as I portray it, but it was still pretty bad. And then we got the ever present-never failing afternoon thunderstorm. Yes it pretty much seems like it rains every afternoon in Costa Rica in the month of June. We started running back, but got absolutely soaked beyond believe. Yes we were wet and loved every moment of it. La Fortuna provided some relieve and good food at MY COFFEE (a small little coffee shop where we had amazing strong coffee and a sweet crepe and savory crepe. The crepe's were really, really good and so was the coffee (this may have just been because we were wet to the core, very cold, and somewhat hungry). Another quick thing to share. This is where we finally realized that "tips" at restaurants are already included on the bill. I think they usually just included an automatic 10% - several times we added money and the waitresses said no-no they don't want anything. This is where it finally made sense. So watch out for this. We had a really
Manuel Antonio National Park
We encountered a couple biggish spiders early night and got some good sleep (since we had no tv).
Our next day was probably one of the funnest things we did on the trip. LA FORTUNA WATERFALL. Again just a couple miles outside La Fortuna. We got there, paid our entrance fee and started the descent. Down and down and down and down and down and down... you get the picture. It was way down there and it was stairs/steps all the way. Halfway down we realized that we would have to climb these all the way back. Again the common theme of our vacations - we get our exercise on vacations. The waterfall was beautiful. It just drops straight down over a cliff and into this beautiful pool of clear water. The waterfall is pretty high as well. The pool is surrounded by slippery rocks so it is pretty hard to get close. I made the first plunge. Oh it was cold, but oh so so beautiful. Being in the pool and just seeing the water come down from high up was an incredible sight. Nikkie joined shortly and all we could tell each other was how cool this was. It's been one of the
highlights of stuff we have done. Not sure why but it was pretty cool. We made the trek back up with a few rest stops in between. La Fontana was destination food again. La Choza de Laurel was our next restaurant. We had the ceviche cocktain (ok), the typical plate which has rice, bean, corn, a meat and sweet plantains (really good), and flan de coco for desert (ok). The restaurant was extremely touristy and this was kind of also the time when we realized that Costa Rica was extremely geared towards the american tourist. Every restaurant had a hamburger and iced tea as an option. All menus were in english as well. The dollar was commonly accepted. So there you have it. As an American or any other english speaking person you will get by in Costa Rica pretty easily.
Our last day in this area we get a little adventurous. We've heard Monteverde was a really cool area with lots of RAINFOREST, BIRDING and WILDLIFE. Looking at the map it was just on the other side of the volcano and the volcano was right next to us. We asked around and everyone just shook their heads and
said that you can't drive to Monteverde in a day. I looked at the map again (it was 110 miles). How long can it take to drive 110 miles? We decided to do it. We left our hotel at 5:30 the next morning. We had to drive all the way around the lake (how they could not built a road to Monteverde from La Fortuna just ran past the side of the volcano is beside me). We stopped at the German Bakery for some good breakfast and kept going. The scenery was beautiful. Once on the other side we had to figure out the way to Monteverde (remember no GPS, but I don't think this road would have been on a GPS either). We asked for directions and people were pretty reluctant unless to explain unless we agreed first to give them a ride. We were finally pointed to a small dirt road. We got on a started winding and winding our way to Monteverde (half-way there we finally saw a sign that told us Monteverde was ahead so we were finally sure that we were on the right track). The dirt road was in terrible conditions. The 29 miles
took us just over an hour and a half. We got to Monteverde at 9. Yes - 3 and a half hours for 110 miles. Unbelievable. I was finally a believer that this probably was not a good idea for a day trip. We did a quick trip through the rainforest (about a 4 mile hike) and saw absolutely nothing. A couple birds and caterpillars and that was it. What a disappointment. We booked a ZIP-LINING adventure through Canopy Extremo. Once again there was the heights thing, but we heard that this was one of the best areas for zip-lining so here we were. They took us through the steps quickly and off we were. A couple short lines to get use to things (and to build the confidence). And then the monster. Zip-lining across a valley - yes I said a valley. We were very high up. Very scary to think that the only thing between me and a million trees a mile below me (it felt that high but probably was only about 500-600 feet. Well we made it to the other side ok and I survived to live through another zip-line. I have to say that it
was fun. We also did the tarzan swing. Scary as hell as well since the first 20 feet is straight down until you are saved by your harness. Well we were on the other side of the valley so we had to get back to the other side. For $5 extra you could do the superman (which we did). They pretty much hang you by your back on the zip line so your are pretty much going across the valley hanging by your back. Your feet and hands are completely free. This also means going across you face straight down so you have no choice but to look down as your life flashes by you. Again - I am writing this so that means we made it ok. Yes it was incredible and we highly recommend this to anyone. I will do it again without thinking twice. This company was awesome as well since they joke around with you and make sure that your safety is placed first. We were going to do a late night walk through the rainforest, but luckily my wise wife talked me out of it. We had a long drive back and driving these roads
La Mariposa
Endless pool in the dark only means a much slower pace. It was incredible how many GOLDEN TOADS we saw in the road. It felt like we definitely killed-off a couple families that night because they were everywhere. We made it about 4 hours later. Definitely a good day. The town of Monteverde itself was very, very run-down and we would personally probably not recommend it as a base to explore the area. Again we are just writing from what we saw so there might be better areas, but we did not see it.
It was time to say goodbye to Arenal. One day left for us and we decided to spend it in the Orosi Valley, just outside San Juan, known for its coffee. We made the long drive again and after getting lost several times in and outside San Juan we finally made it. This was us experiencing COFFEE IN COSTA RICA. A very important thing for us, because coffee is what made us find each other (Nikkie has worked at Starbucks all her life and loves the company and what it stands for). I was (still am) a customer and the rest is history as they say. Our
La Mariposa
Different colors first stop was MIRADOR OROSI FOR VIEWS of the Orosi Valley and the views were pretty nice. A river snaking through the area with coffee plants all over the place. We FOLLOW HIGHWAY 10 through the town of Orosi where we made a quick stop at IGLESIA DE SAN JOSE DE OROSI for a quick look at this old convent. The BENEFICIO ORLICH COFFEE PLANT was right there as well. We were not able to take a tour of the plant itself since they had some event going, but we were able to look at a couple things at the plant and I had what I called at the time the "best latte of my life". After getting lost yet again we made it around LAGO DE CACHI and found LA CASONA DEL CAFETAL. A perfectly placed restaurant on the lake with some spectacular views. Unfortunately a big tour bus group arrived about 10 minutes after us and it's sad to say that our experience was pretty much ruined by this. Our waiter was non-existent (well he was there, but he paid all his attention to the tour bus group). The sangria was good, Nikkie had the tilapia petas blanc
which was good and I had the trucha la casona (trout baked in foil). The trout was some of the best I have ever had. It was incredible. Well it took about 2 and a half hours for us to get and finish our food and we sat there for another 30 minutes just trying to get a desert menu. We were looking forward to desert too because this is a coffee plantation and they use their fresh coffee in a lot of their deserts. We finally decided to just skip the desert. Really good food spoiled by terrible service. We drove around again, got lost and finally found IGLESIA DE NUESTRA DE LA LIMPIA CONCEPTION RUINED CHURCH at UJARRAS. There were no signs, but we managed to find it somehow. The property was closed already, but we managed to sneak in and get a couple pictures. We did get caught but the guy was pretty nice and let us walk around for a couple minutes. We knew we had to get back to San Juan since it was getting pretty late, but we really wanted desert. While driving we saw a sign for Casa Jose Restaurant. There were literally
Costa Rica
Some sweet stuff no other restaurants in the area. Nor were there any gas stations and we were actually running pretty low on gas. So we started to follow the paper signs for Casa Jose Restaurant. We got to a town and the signs kept pointing us higher up into the mountains. We drove for a mile or two (thinking we are totally lost since the area we were in did not have any indication of a restaurant) and then suddenly saw a sign again pointing us just higher and higher. At this point in time the gas light had been on for a while. We kept debating whether we should just turn around or whether we should keep going. By this point we were really high up the mountain. At one point we had to drive over a little ditch and all that we had were 2 wooden beams laid across the ditch. After this we really questioned whether this place actually exists. But we are stubborn and low and behold - we finally got there. The views were spectacular. The coffee even better and the crepes and chocolate mousse was sweeter than ever. Yes we deserved that desert and we thoroughly
Costa Rica
The road less travelled enjoyed it was well. Well - now the next problem faced us. We were pretty much out of gas and there were no gas stations in sight. We asked and were told the only gas was about 20 miles away at the top of the valley - by this time we were driving with the light on for quite some time. This was probably the one time in my life where I figured I pushed my luck too far since there was no way we were driving another 20 miles with our current gas supply. We actually made it to the foot of the pass that we had to go up. I floored it and tried to get up as fast as possible (no point in delaying the inevitable). And wouldn't you know it. There in the midle of the pass an accident (the road was very narrow so 2 buses actually got stuck against each other as they tried to pass). We were stuck another hours before the scene was cleared. We finally made it. Today we can just laugh at this adventure. Not sure what we would have done had we run out of gas and glad we
Costa Rica
A little unexpected site did not have to find out. We still had a massive challenge ahead of us. We booked a hotel in San Juan and had no idea where it was. We drove and drove. We asked and were pointed in directions. We drove through some areas where we thought this was the end of us. We drove literally to the top of the mountain overlooking San Juan (we saw a sign pointing to a Marriott). Once we got there we found it was not the right hotel. The views were absolutely amazing, but at this point in time I think we were too tired to appreciate it. We made it to our hotel at 2 in the morning after several more attempts of asking people (I am proud to say that until this day we still don't rent a GPS - like I said it is all part of the adventure).
Our Costa Rica adventure was over. What an adventure it was. Rainforest with beautiful beaches. Awesome coffee. A volcano, Zip-lining, a rainforest hotel and getting lost exploring coffee country. We really enjoyed Costa Rica. It was definitely pretty cheap. We booked all our hotels ahead of time, but if
Costa Rica
Tough driving at times you go in June this is not necessary since this is the slow season and they pretty much give away accommodation for nothing. We enjoyed the food. Lots of plantains and beans. We loved the slow driving and being able to admire our surroundings. All in all a highly recommendable trip.
Well we managed to cross-off only 3 things in the book including Manuel Antonio National Park, Chachagua Rain Forest Hotel and Coffee in Costa Rica. Got to add a couple things in our book since we got the newly updated version of 1,000 things to do in the world and they added a couple new things. So we have to add 456 things. So that means we now have 160 down and 5,621 to go. Slowly but surely.
Til next time from a smoking volcano and awesome waterfall
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Anastasia78
Anastasia78
Good memories
I really enjoyed this blog as my husband and i did a similar trip to Costa Rica last year. Its so cool to see someone else's photos from the same spots. Thanks for sharing! :)