Blogs from Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 6

We started our trip up in the mountains, in the cloud forest at Monteverde. I had heard I could see nine species of hummingbirds in the cloud forest, and that was enough for me. Mom has never objected to a birding trip. There are a couple different roads up to Monteverde, which I didn’t bother to research. I grew up driving old logging roads in Washington and Idaho. However, I will say that parts of the road from Rancho Grande, labeled 606 on the map, are pretty rough and have some steep drop offs. I wouldn’t recommend it for people not used to unpaved mountain roads. On the way back down, we took 605 through Sarmiento and it was lovely. Mostly paved and with fewer drop offs, it has beautiful views of the Gulf of Nicoya ... read more

Sun 2-Mon 3 December - Day 37 to 38 - Manuel Antonio We travel from the Central Valley to the Pacific coast, through very lush green countryside to the small village of Manuel Antonio, where we visited the Manuel Antonio National Park, one of the most popular parks in the country. We checked into the Manuel Antonio Hotel which was 5 minutes walk from the entrance to the Park and just across the road from the beautiful beach. The water was brilliant turquoise and sand white with some pebbles to negotiate on the way into the water. We had got up at 4.00am for a 4.30am departure so that we were in the Park by 8.30am to beat the crowd. We organised a guide ($15USD each) which was worth every cent. Costa Rica uses the Colone ... read more

Having read that the Osa peninsular is one of the last great jungle destinations in Costa Rica (and maybe the whole of Central America) we thought we ought to visit. However we need to compromise, so can just go to Drake Bay for a couple of days. To really experience the area we would need to travel into the national park here, but we don’t have the time to do this (and it is not cheap once you add in the cost of park fees, park lodges and guides). We have a good room in the main village, but it’s unfortunately close to the local karaoke bar so we are kept entertained by singing until about 1:30am. There is an excellent walk we do from the village and though it does not go into the park ... read more

People don’t really come to Santa Elena/Monteverde to see bats, but it turns out there is an excellent live bat display just outside town. The connection is that there are plenty of bats native to the Monteverde area, there’s not a huge amount to see, but it’s the sheer enthusiasm of the folk who run it that makes this a great place to visit. I’m surprised but we can take pictures of the bats, though it is very hard to get good ones as the bats aren’t keen to stay still for too long. The main attraction here though (excluding the adventure parks which might well be the main reason for some to come) are the cloud forest reserves. There are actually 3 separate reserves you can visit, we do 2 of them, both on self-guided ... read more

Nach einem Zwischenstopp von 2 Nächten in San José, der Hauptstadt von Costa Rica, wo ich endlich eine neue Brille gekauft habe (ich hatte meine 2 Monate vorher in Mexiko in einem Bus vergessen), sind Rebecka und ich am Montag, den 30. April, um 6h morgens mit dem Bus nach Puerto Jimenez gefahren. Der Bus war relativ bequem und wir machten ein paar Pausen während unserer 9-stündigen Fahrt, aber am Ende waren wir doch froh, als wir endlich ankamen. Vom Busterminal zu unserem Hostel, Corcovado Wild Hostel, nahmen wir ein Taxi, denn es regnete ziemlich stark und wir hatten keine Lust komplett nass zu werden. Im Hostel mussten wir dann eine halbe Stunde warten bis der Besitzer, Christian, zurückkam. Er hatte eine Tagestour durch den Corcovado Nationalpark geführt. Er war sehr freundlich, hat uns das Hostel ... read more