Costa Rica, Costa Lotta

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"It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end."

~ Ursula K. LeGuin, Novelist

Fact: Costa Rica is one of the most bio-diverse countries on this planet. Fact: Costa Rica is a literal rainbow of green. Fact: Costa Rica is hot, humid and horrifically expensive. So much so, that I have nicknamed it Costa Lotta. In fact, it strikes me from my somewhat limited 8 days in this beautiful place that it is very much used as an adventure playground by rich Americans. Activities are prohibitively expensive ($50 minimum for anything be it zip lining, volcano visiting, rafting) and so what we have actually managed to ‘do’ here has been very selective.

Costa Rica is the ecological equivalent of a multiple orgasm such is its sheer abundance and variety of flora and fauna whilst the landscape of the country is stunningly breath-taking. Cloud forests, savannah, tropical beaches, lush jungle and soaring mountain ranges…. From journeying by boat across the border with Nicaragua into the country at Los Chiles, we have had 8 days of gorgeous vistas – the perfect strato-cone of Volcan Arenal (http://www.arenal.net/arenal-volcano-overview.htm) to the white sands of Manzanillo beach on the Caribbean coast, very close to the Panama border.

However, here more than anywhere else the climate has brought us to a grinding halt. I don’t know if travel fatigue is catching up with me – 2 ½ months on the road is wearing – but the temperature and humidity has rendered us into a sloth-like torpor, and we were unable to move from the whirring power fan in our room for a couple of days.

We had a long travel day starting with a 4am start in El Castillo in Nicaragua, catching 2 boats and then 2 buses to eventually reach La Fortuna in north western Costa Rica where we holed up for 4 days, marooned due to the total shut-down of the country for Semana Santa (Easter week). Here, we simply recouped energies, drinking in the sight of cloud covered Volcan Arenal. Sadly, this active volcano has not spat fiery lava (as the pictures all indicate) since 2010 so we ventured no further as we have now had our lion’s share of these beasts of the underworld!

However, surrounding the very touristy town is beautiful jungle and countryside where waterfalls jostle their way down through dense foliage, butterflies fill the air and poison dart frogs happily hop around. We spent a day in one of the many private ‘parks’ which have absorbed the rainforest. Landowners have realised the commercial value of the jungle and every other guesthouse is considered an ‘eco’ lodge. Within these ‘parks’, all manner of activities are on offer but all at unbelievably expensive prices. Want to go horseriding? No problem. 5 hours all the way to Monteverde will set you back $85. Want to zipline through the jungle? Of course…that’ll be $67 for a couple of hours. Even entry alone into Arenal Mundo (http://www.arenalmundoaventura.com/ ) cost $13 and for that we were able to hike down to the river where the gushing flow of the La Fortuna waterfall hits a turquoise pool and the potentially peaceful setting is full of bathing gringos. It was all a bit frustrating as Sandy & I both have budgets we need to stick to and just couldn’t afford to indulge in any of it.

However, the opportunity to go on a guided night jungle hike to view frogs and all manner of creepy crawlies was something I couldn’t pass on and I managed to get the eco-lodge to reduce the price from $50 to $25 nach. $25 well spent (as you will see from my photos of the magnificent red-eyed tree climber frog, the extremely venomous Fer-de-Lance viper, zebra tarantulas). As the sun set and the forest filled with the calls of roosting birds and the nocturnal creatures came out to play and hunt, we walked by the light of torches coming across colourful and scary delights in the dark. It was remarkable to see the rainforest at night – a whole new world under an almost crepuscular moon.

From La Fortuna we headed for one night to the horrible capital of San Jose, a town littered with the homeless in every other doorway. I honestly do not know how ‘locals’ can afford to live in this country. Apart from one incredible pizza indulgence, we have shopped and cooked basic food for ourselves for the week and still clocked up large grocery bills with only pasta and veggies. Beneath this care-free vacation destination lies a grim reality of residents struggling to live a quality life.

Having been in email contact with my brother who is holidaying with his girlfriend Faith for 2 weeks in Panama, we planned our time so that we would aim to cross into Panama to meet him in the islands of Bocas de Toro. This meant travelling north from San Jose through the beautiful Cordillera Central where the road snaked round and up into the clouds and a foggy mist hung low over the trees and fields. Leaving behind the vast Volcan Irazu at 3432metres on our left, our bus took us up and over and down towards the Caribbean Sea where the jungle rushes to meet the shore. Bright, colourful red heliconia grew like weeds and golden silk orb weaver spiders spin their amber webs.

We stopped briefly in the lauded small town of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca but with a dirty, black sand beach and too many tourists/travellers that looked like they had got into a fight with a staple gun such were the amount of their piercings, we continued on to the end of the road. Literally. It carved through upmarket cabana lodges nestled in the jungle, past yoga retreats and vegan/raw food restaurants, and we left the ‘development’ behind to reach Manzanillo – a little village at the end of the line.

Here, we found spotlessly clean lodgings at Cabinas Manzanillo for $25 a night and enjoyed the sandy beaches, the whir of hummingbirds, the squawk of parrots and the rustle of coconut crabs in the bushes for a couple of days. We were offered the opportunity to go leatherback turtle nesting spotting at night but surprise surprise, the price was just too much especially as sightings were not guaranteed. A Spanish girl staying in the adjacent room did go and they saw 2 turtles come out of the sea and lay their eggs…. In my head I had images from a David Attenborough program where thousands of these fascinating creatures lumber out of the sea to nest and so I think I may have been a bit disappointed to see only 2 do their thing…expectations and imagination and all that!

So, we have now left Costa Rican behind and are currently hanging with Adam and Faith in our final country of this trip – Panama. We are staying on the island of Bastiamentos in an almost YHA esq hostel called Bocas Bound.(http://www.bocasbound.com/ ). Its part of a huge development on the island where the rich and the not so rich have opulent villa or dormitory accommodation according to the size of one’s wallet…. We are in a private quad which isn’t big enough to swing a hamster but for $22 a night and the luxury of air conditioning for the first time in a long time, it suits us just fine.

The jungle is all around and the local beaches are soft sanded and fringed with mangroves. It is awesome to have met up with my little bro but in a couple of days he and Faith fly home to start work again as the Summer teaching term starts with a vengeance. That said, I don’t feel too sorry for him as he has already planned their next adventure – Indonesia for the Summer holidays! The travel gene is quite evidently in him as well.

A friend of a friend recently declared that ‘all she really needed was to meet a nice, funny, rich man so she could just be able to do Pilates all day’. A little unrealistic perhaps but if I was to see Costa Rica in all its glories, a rich man would come in very very handy! A girl can but hope……in the meantime, Sandy & I have about 13 days left before we board planes to fly home. Who knows what will happen next but quite clearly, the end of the journey is nigh…..and what a journey it has been.

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