We had an awesome 13 day tour of central Costa Rica, where we visited a half dozen national parks, paddled or boated on five beautiful rivers, found dozens of interesting animals, had exciting adventures, enjoyed great food and met new travel friends along the way. We tacked a few extra days in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city on each end of the tour. As a result we ended up exploring Costa Rica for about three weeks altogether. Thoroughly enjoyed spending the time with good friend and travel buddy Linda from Lancaster, who joined me for the duration. Gracias, Linda!
Loved the way the tour was organized by Veronica and her team at Green World Adventures. Lots of moving parts in this kind of tour, where all customers get unique itineraries based on their interests and travel companions change pretty much every day. It all worked out perfectly for us.
Here's a few highlights from the trip; there's more depth (and links) in Google photoblogs about specific destinations at the end of this post. Hope you enjoy!
THE COUNTRY and THE CAPITAL
Costa Rica is located between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south. At roughly 20,000 square miles, it is twice the size of Belize, two thirds the size of Panama, and is similar in land mass to West Virginia in the US or to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. It has a population of about 4.5 million people, a GDP per capita of $13,500 per year, and a median annual wage of around $11,000 (World Bank data; 2021). Over twenty five percent of the country is protected as National Parks or Reserves.
We spent a few days before the tour began in San Jose, the capital and the largest city in Costa Rica, where we jumped on a city tour, made friends, explored parks, museums and markets on our own, and came to feel quite at home in this energetic, bustling city
THE TOUR
The basic tour plan was to visit national parks, a few rivers, and other highlights in this extremely biodiverse little country. (Costa Rica protects more than 25 percent of its land area in national parks and private preserves.) We started in San Jose, then headed northeast to spend a couple of days in Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast. Then south to Puerto Veijo, then northwest to Arenal Volcano National Park and the Monteverde Cloud Forest, then south to Manuel Antonio National Park, and then back to San Jose, where we spent a few more days exploring top spots we didn't already get to. We spent about two days in each destination. We could easily have spent more time in each, but we definitely got the highlights. What a trip!
TORTUGUERO NATIONAL PARK
Tortuguero National Park, on the Caribbean coast near Nicaragua, is especially famous for sea turtle nesting on its shores. However, it has a LOT of other interesting animals and plants in an around the park. On a guided boat tour of the park, we saw, among many other things, this Jesus Christ Lizard (a green basilisk, nicknamed for its ability to walk on water) on the back of a black turtle
Howler Monkeys in Tortuguero. They make a very loud growling sound when they are defending their territory
A strawberry poison dart frog (blue legs & feet) along the Jaguar Trail in Tortuguero National Park. These frogs are only about an inch (2.5 cm) long.
PUERTO VIEJO
On a cliffside hike in Punta Uva on the southeastern coast (near the Panamanian border) we watched this sloth come down from her perch to the ground where she did her weekly "business," and then climbed back up and away from dangerous predators. The entire process took about 15 minutes. Our guide said he'd never in his 20 years of slothing seen this before!
After our hike at Punto Uva, we paddled sit on top kayaks to look for more animals in the Quebrada Ernesto, a short river that flows from a National Refuge into the Caribbean Sea
THE PACUARE RIVER
On our way to La Fortuna on the northwestern side of the country, we stopped in to paddle the Pacuare River, a fun class III run that I paddled about ten years ago. Still lots of fun...
.JPG)
...and beautiful, with gorgeous river scenes like this along the way!
ARENAL VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK
In the Arenal Volcano National Park, we hiked about halfway to the cone of this volcanic mountain. We could see much of the impact of the last massive eruption in 1968. Until about fifteen years ago it was one of Costa Rica's most active volcanoes. It has been "quiet" since 2010
After our volcano hike, we visited the Misticio Arenal Hanging Bridges, where we could see the cloud forest animals and plants from a series of paths and suspension bridges like this
Our best view of Arenal, with a "Lenticular Formation" (a cloud formed by air currents on the mountain) on top
Our third stop in the La Fortuna area was the 70 meter / 230 foot La Fortuna waterfall, a beautiful single drop with a delightful swimming pool at the bottom. 550 steps down, and the same number back up!
MONTEVERDE CLOUD FOREST
The next day, we headed over to the Monteverde Cloud Forest, where we looked for animals on a walking trail in the morning and zipped along the canopy (10 lines; longest was about 800 meters / a half mile long)
A Monteverde Cloud Forest sunset, from our lodging in the area.
CROCODILE HUNTING
Then we headed south to Manuel Antonio National Park, with a stop at the Rio Grande de Tarcoles for some crocodile hunting. We found about a dozen crocs, and also found macaws, herons, egrets, monkeys, and a couple more sloths.
MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK
Manuel Antonio along the southern Pacific coast is one of Costa Rica's smallest national parks, and one of the most biodiverse. We saw many species of animals, including these adorable (and mischievous) capuchin monkeys
On a guided night tour, we found many nocturnal animals, including this venomous pit viper. Some of the critters were VERY close to the path we were walking along
It was great fun to see the park from the air on this parasailing flight
BACK TO SAN JOSE
When we returned to San Jose at the end of our tour, we stayed at an Airbnb apartment in this "Alice in Wonderland" inspired condo complex. One of the residents thought the original partners just hired a group of architects, gave them drugs, and told them to build something! In any case, it was a fascinating place to stay for a few days
THE RIO SARAPAQUI
On one of the days we headed north to the Sarapaqui River to paddle a whitewater section in a raft
Loads of fun, and lots of birds. Another river that I paddled about 10 years ago, and such a blast!
LA PAZ WATERFALL AND NATURE CENTER
On another of the days after our tour, we visited the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Nature Center. It has a pretty scenic set of waterfalls...
...and is home to a wildlife center where illegal wildlife pets like this toucan...
...and this Jaguar (who would be unable to survive in the wild) are sheltered
There was so much more that we were able to see and do on this excellent adventure tour (click on a few of the links below if you're interested), but hopefully this overview provides a little sampling of the fabulous little country of Costa Rica. Many thanks to Veronica and her team at Green World Adventures for putting together a fabulous trip tailored to our interests. We are grateful for the many Cost Rican guides, hosts and drivers we got to know along the way. And the bonus was meeting new travelers, many of whom became friends who I hope we'll connect with again sometime in future travels. Pura Vida!
San Jose: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vftS2kQVKGjMJvsE7 Tortuguero: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pMR8E2LNRShgyRwJ9 Puerto Viejo and Punta Uva: https://photos.app.goo.gl/k53jE6Rk1XAt5Xe27 The Rio Pacuare: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hf5jbbXbKnuumPri9 Adventures around Arenal: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dyVR7p5D8ftCVMH18 Monteverde: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pPwr4Ce4NwxqGCJc9 Hunting Crocs: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fth9DrwN9Ci18WYU8 Manuel Antonio: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nDQyHajRsULjnaYKA SEcRT Sabana B&B https://photos.app.goo.gl/6MejdZQR1Ttoz9Na6 Rafting the Sarapaqui: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TqAipsnpLGhLpzox5 La Paz Waterfall and Nature Center https://photos.app.goo.gl/6cxFh8fDamsgneeQ6
Comments
Post a Comment