Blogs from Quepos, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean

Quepos turned out to be just the backpacker haven that we expected. That's not a bad thing. There were plenty of hotels and hostels, but we stayed in an apartment (url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/cr/los-suenos-r-amp-g-2.en-gb.html?aid=1769628&sid=8475c9062bf11a9e0347838ce340ee2b&checkin=2023-03-22;checkout=2023-03-23;dest_id=9408887;dest_type=hotel;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=1;hpos=1;no_rooms=1;req_adults=2;req_children=0;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=total;soh=1;sr_order=popularity;srepoch=1677077645;srpvid=fe4368c589ef01a7;type=total;ucfs=1&#no_availability_msgLos Sueños - The Dreams) just out of the town centre. That should have meant peace and quiet but local dogs, birds and early morning traffic put paid to that idea! Still, it was nice to have our own facilities again and breakfast on the terrace was lovely every day. It was nice to have such a... read more

Breakfast at the hotel proved entertaining as the Howler Monkeys join us by breakfasting in the trees nearby. One never knew when they would show up. Once again we choose to take the optional tour hoping for some wildlife sightings. It was a short ride to the marina in Quepos. We boarded the nice Catamaran complete with water slides and bar. There were drinks and snacks available. The day was beautiful and the ocean calm, but wildlife was at a minimum. We saw just a few different birds including Magnificent Frigatebirds, Brown Boobys and Brown Pelicans. Before lunch we anchored in a cove where we could snorkel or enjoy the water slides. I chose to snorkel and armed with my camera got a few murky fish photos. After snorkeling, lunch was provided on the boat. We ... read more

Today we decided to visit the very famous Manuel Antonio national Park. We had to get up very early as we had been told that park gates open at seven and if you get there too late they’ll be a multi-hour line. Immediately after arriving we were swarmed with offers of tours and parking and somehow decided on our guide Eduardo. He was very nice and spoke great English And had a very powerful spotting scope. He also really liked Tiffany. He showed us the Eagles, two toed sloths, three toed sloths, white face monkeys, Howler monkeys, butterflies, and iguanas. We heard the tucans but never saw them. We then had a swim in the ocean at the beautiful beach. We also had a little bit of a an encounter with something called a coatimundi which ... read more

Today we drove a measly 192 km....and it took us a whopping 4 hours. Back home, because of our long, flat multi-lane highways, that distance might take two hours max (and that’s assuming you respect the speed limit). Here, you can expect to go between 30 and 60km/hr on the majority of roads. Add to that roads that are mostly single lane, often hilly and sometimes unpaved. Although we’ve read comments about bad drivers, in truth we haven’t seen many (and certainly not more on average than back home). It’s just slow going - steep hills, sharp turns, towns popping up, people and dogs walking on the road, sluggish trucks and motos that you can’t always pass (because of all the reasons just noted). The key, really, is just to accept it. It’s slow because it ... read more

Photos of beach and restaurant El Avion...... read more