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Published: August 28th 2006
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Last week Mike and I decided it would be a good idea to check out the Serpentarium so that we would be better equipped to identify different types of snakes here in Costa Rica. Costa Rica has 135 species of snakes with 17 being venomous. The two main venomous families are coral snakes and pit vipers. Neither of which I care to run into.
I had asked Mike before we left if he knew the way. He said he was pretty sure as he had gotten the address and we had a map. Off we went… Excusion #1…..
A normal drive into San Jose from Barva takes approximately 20 minutes. One thing to note about Costa Rica is that having a map does not mean that you’ll be able to navigate this city. Some streets listed on the map are very hard to find because they simply are not marked. Others come to an abrupt end when the map shows they keep going. Some I think simply cease to exist at all.
After driving around for an hour once we reached the city, we came to an underground parking garage which seemed safe enough. We figured we were
in the general vicinity of the address and could walk the rest of the way. Navigating tight city streets which only go one-way, is never easy so sometimes walking just makes sense.
We walked for quite a few blocks but simply could not find Avenue 1. We found 2, 3 and 4, but no 1. Makes sense right?
After asking multiple people where the Serpentarium was, we finally found Avenue 1 and headed down the road looking for a large nice building because that’s what our preconceived notions were about what a Serpentarium, which is supposed to be a tourist attraction, would look like.
No Serpentarium to be found. We probably asked 8 people where it was and of course, each one of them said to head another way. Many times, we’d walk up 5 blocks only to have someone say that we walked right past it and to go back the way we came. All the back and forth however really allowed us to see a few parts of the city.
We finally met up with someone that was sure we had walked right past it. He showed us a small yellow awning and said
it was upstairs in this building. Back we walked…..
We came to the souvenir shop located underneath the awning and Mike went inside to see how to get upstairs. Then I hear him laughing.. and it’s a laugh that probably means, wow, I messed up…oops… and he’s actually almost hysterical... this cannot be good. Oh and did I mention that all this walking around took about 2 hours in the rain.. yes, it gets better….
Mike strolls out of the souvenir shop and says “umm the Serpentarium… yeah well it moved to Grecia (another town all together) 3 years ago”.. HAHA! Apparently Mike had looked up the information in a Frommer’s Guide… from 2003! Note to all travelers: Please get an updated guide before traveling. You never know what may have changed.
Mike and I laughed for the next half hour while trying to find our way back to the car. We did however find a really nice place to eat in San Jose called Spoons. Cute little café and absolutely excellent service. Our waiter was bilingual, the food was excellent and we would definitely go back. We also got great pictures of the Legislative District and
got to experience the heart of San Jose a bit so all was not lost.
Excursion #2 took us to the mountain area of San Carlos which is about 1.5 hours away from Barva. Mike and I had found a property there that we were interested in taking a look at and we figured it would be good to first head there and drive around a bit. We passed through some great towns such as Naranjo and Zarcero while heading higher up in elevation on the way to San Carlos.
San Carlos was a great area. The center of the areas main town, Ciudad Quesada, is bustling like a small city but it’s much cleaner and does not feel very congested. There is a major hospital here as well and many amenities. At one point, Mike and I tried to find Juan Castro Blanco National Park, which apparently sits atop one of the mountains in the area. The signs we found led us to a very rough off-road experience. Just the kind we like!
We drove straight up for quite a bit over some very rough terrain. There were few houses up here and the temperature dropped
immediately. I can say that I’ve never really been hot in CR considering we don’t live at the coast but up here in the mountains of San Carlos, it was actually a bit cold. The clouds were rolling by as we continued to climb and the number of houses became fewer and fewer . Finally, it was simply farms as far as the eye could see. How beautiful!
We pulled over a few times to talk to folks seeing if anyone knew of farms for sale in the area. Finally we encountered Christian, a down-to-earth farmer who offered to show us around. He said that he wasn’t sure of anything for sale in the area but that he could show us his dairy operation. We were shocked that someone would stop working to simply show strangers around but were very happy and open to the experience.
Driving a bit further, we came to Christian’s dairy operation. What a sight and so clean. I’m not used to farms being that clean but I guess when you’re dealing with milk, it’s a necessity. Christian told us that the company he contracts with sends trucks up his road one time every
day and a half to pull milk from his storage facilities. Very interesting operation.
We spent a few hours with Christian, got his number and then made our way back down the mountain to have lunch in town. We made plans to see a property through a realtor for the following day which so far, has gone well. We are still in the process of doing a lot of research on the property so we are only in the initial stages but plan to return to the area of San Carlos tomorrow to talk to neighbors and the municipality. We really enjoy this town and think it will most likely be the first area where we rent. The area as a whole is really geared toward sustainable living. It’s mostly farmland and only 30 minutes from Arenal Volcano and the Thermal Springs. The community is leaning toward Green Living and Reforestation and the city infrastructure seems to be very good. We’ll have to wait and see, but this area seems promising.
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