We just returned from an incredible trip to Costa Rica and I want to tell my dear friends and family some of the details so here is a brief account and please forgive this mass email travelogue!
We left on Dec. 22 on a red eye and arrived at 9 in the morning there. After clearing customs and getting our rental car, we found ourselves clogged in the center of San Jose, their capital city. It is a colorful and vibrant city full of people, but we were lost and tired and had a hard time navigating/driving so it was a blur of sensation. Later, on the last day, we would repeat this same drive because we had enough time before our flight, and then we could finally appreciate the city and it’s layout. Eventually we found our way out of town and back onto the expressway. We headed southeast toward Turrialba where we spend two days on a lovely mountaintop hotel/restaurant. The food was incredible, the view of the mountains and of the city of Turrialba were stunning. Just outside the open walled restaurant, the owners kept a branch of a small bare wood tree filled with banana skins and all kinds of birds came to visit. We ventured up to the next town that first evening and had a class with a man who had his own serpintarium.
The most famous frog of CR
(named Helen of course)
snakes alive!!!!!
He keeps all kinds of venomous snakes and is an expert on them. Much of his work involved finding an anti-venom and helping educate a lot of the plantation workers about how to deal with these snakes. The fer-de-lance has one of the most deadly bites, enough to kill ten men or something… The snakes appear more and more on the plantations because the change in the eco system bring more sunlight, grasses, insects and rodents to what was once the rainforest floor.
We also took a tour of CATIE – which is an agricultural research project for masters and PhD students worldwide. There is a residential program for researchers and students, and we had a guide show us all kinds of things about the cocoa plant, the palm, the annatto plant, and zillions of other native tropical species. We also saw the Rawlings baseball factory! But it was closed so we couldn’t take a tour. Rats!
Casey experiments with the coloring of
an annatto seed.
After two days here, we packed up and drove through Siquierres near the Caribbean coast, but didn’t make it all the way to the Caribbean. Siquierres is the town that defined where the white and black train conductors had to switch driving the train back in the days of segregation. Though most of that segregation is ‘gone’ most of the Caribbean coast side is still much more dark in ethnicity. The differences were quite visible in Siquierres. We ended up in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, which is north toward Nicaragua. The flat lands here were much more humid and there are tons of rivers running through the area. This used to be a big port area because of the waterways and trade, but now that is largely obsolete due to the addition of trains and then highways. Still, this stop was really lovely because of the fact that our host, Alex Martinez made us feel like family. His bed and breakfast “inn” is basically several cabins on his lot behind his house. He and his 18 year old son bake bread for the guests’ breakfast, and there is a large outdoor patio/kitchen where we hung out, played checkers, watched birds and had meals.
We got to know his 7 year old daughter and Jake was perplexed that her 1st grade workbook was harder than what Spanish 3/4 covers in high school! The great thing about Alex besides his generosity, is his commitment to the preservation of what Costa Rica has. He used to be a hunter but after spending 10 years in Canada, he returned to CR and was heart broken to find so much being destroyed. Now he’s done a 180 and has become a force to be reckoned with as he struggles to bring back the green macaw. He spent a lot of time with the kids educating them/us about their habitat and endangerment. Then he drove us to see some! But it was too hot/late in the day and they weren’t out. We set off fireworks with him on Xmas eve, and I’m happy to say that Xmas is not the huge commercial holiday down there that it is here. Some people put out decorations, which is strange to see in such a tropical place! Pine trees with lights?! But shops are open the next day for the most part. What is a bigger deal is New Year’s Eve and Day. Still, Xmas eve is when you hang out with family, open presents and set off fireworks. On Xmas day our family went white water rafting! This was one of the two greatest highlights!
We saw so much wildlife from giant orange iguanas in the tops of trees, to sloths, to an osprey diving for fish, to a cluster of palm sized bats on a tree that none of us could see until our guide got us so close they all flew out at us! We also saw poison dart frogs!! And of course we churned over some class 2 and class 3 rapids, swam in the river and jumped of a 20 foot bank for fun. There were many other kinds of birds too: kingfishers, egrets, herons. I need my waterproof chart to remember them all!
On the 26th Casey showed me two bug bites he had (and largely the mosquitoes and chiggers were out in force in this part of the country – which required a diligence with bug spray.) He’d been bitten a couple of days ago at lunchtime and now these bites, which looked like a mosquito with a chain saw had attacked, were large and surrounded by a bruised-looking ring. But worse than that, his ankle was very swollen. Alex took a look and tried to clean out the chiggers with a knife blade, teaching us all how to do that!, but ultimately he wanted to take him to the clinic. The line at the clinic was already long, and the private doctor wanted $40 (which I’d have gladly paid) but Alex was furious with him for double charging tourists. So we ended up at the pharmacia where the pharmacist – a woman he respects greatly – took one look, asked me if he was allergic to any meds and gave him an injection in the rear! And a five day course of oral antibiotics. Well, that did the trick and what an adventure in socialized medicine as well as in the art of practicing medicine and not avoiding law suites!
From this lovely river port town in the far corner of CR, we found internet access at a delicious soda where we had dinner. “Soda” is a cheap place to get great home cooked food usually and we often fed a family of five for $20 in these kinds of places. We drove to Fortuna for our next stay at the base of Volcan Arenal, an active volcano. But because it has its own micro climates, we never got to see the top or hear it rumble. But still the place was beautiful. We were much higher up in elevation so the humidity wasn’t as bad, and while checking in to a hotel with AC and a pool made us miss the family style place Alex had where we got to hang with other travelers and his wife and kids, we soon gave over to the Jacuzzi and started to appreciate this place too. But there were tour busses and many other people around us – something we hadn’t dealt with so far! The town wasn’t that exciting but the waterfall near it was amazing.
minutes before needed stitches!
This 70 meter jet of white water pours down a jungle canyon wall. The hike down was on a well maintained trail. At the bottom, the cascade is deafening. But the big part of this story happened when I climbed out on some rocks to sit and watch it, and then slipped on a rock on the way back. My vibram sole slipped and my shin went down in its place with the weight of my body. Bam! When I got back to the riverbank sore, I felt something dripping… Yup. Big gash on the shin bone. Deep too. I had to hike back up the canyon but I had a butterfly bandage in the car. Always pack first aid! So I taped it up and then we went and did a 3 mile hike on some hanging bridges through the jungle too. Selina spotted some monkeys, black ones that I think are howler monkeys. We saw cutter ants and all kinds of plants. But the hike didn’t really improve the gash in my leg and about half way through, I realized I was bleeding again. When we got back to the hotel, I went to the front desk and they sent me to the local clinic a block away. But after one form and some struggle with translation, the doctor indicated I should go up the street to the private doctor because it would cost less since I wasn’t a CR citizen paying into the system.
The private doctor spoke some English and along with his assistant, the ambulance driver, he put in two stitches with anesthesia first, gracias mucho! Forty dollars later and no forms or applications what so ever, I was outta there, antibiotics in hand. I skipped the trip to the hot springs at Tabacon, but Jeff took the kids and they had a blast. That night they went in the resort that features various pools heated by the volcano.
Batidos – smoothies – were a favorite afternoon break on the
road to Arenal.
The next day we packed up and drove to Monteverde, which means driving around Lake Arenal – huge lake! – with horrible roads. Jeff did an awesome job driving in CR, negotiating potholes, land slides, busses, trucks, and coatis and cows in the road! Monteverde requires 4x4 to get there, which is what makes the place less developed and very charming. There is a huge community of eco farming and eco tourism here created largely by expatriots. The Quakers who really put the place on the map left the US in ’49 because they refused to accept the military draft and CR has just abolished a military arm of the government. The pioneers of Monteverde started a cheese factor which employs almost 700 people today, 150 of that locally.
Cheese Factory – wow.
In fact, one of our best meals was at Flory’s restaurant, a set of tables set up in the open patio of a house just up the road from our hotel. I think the entire family had lunch for $20.00. Flory, in her late 70’s, is still cooking phenomenal food, especially tamales wrapped in banana leaves, and we got to see Marcus Rockwell puttering around the kitchen too, now in his 80s. He was one of the first Quaker pioneers to venture up to this mountain range and set up a new life.
The sign for Flory’s cocina!
There is some amazing canopy and jungle and cloud preserve up there too. The weather was colder and we actually wore jeans and sweatshirts. It was also very windy, which is typical. Biggest highlight right up there with white water rafting was zip lining through the canopy. You put on a rock climbing harness, clip in to a cable and sail across the tree tops! It’s nuts and it is a blast!!! At first you think you’ve lost your mind, but then you get to see what the jungle looks like from a bird’s point of view. What a stunning experience! The kids also did the Tarzan swing, which requires a free fall of about 4 feet before the line goes taut and you swing out and back a few times. Jeff and I skipped this and I honestly have no regrets!! But they had a great time. Our stay included a night hike, which was initially creepy but then wonderful. This took place at the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. This place was is 22 thousand hectars of land that is going to be reclaimed by the jungle if it was once farm land, or is going to remain primary forest if it was never farm land. There will be very few trails through it and most of it is used for research. So, all the coins that those kids collected for this really did pay off! We got to see so many nocturnal insects including huge tarantulas and scorpions and even some snake egg shells!
Several birds were perched in the waving trees resting or trying to avoid snakes. We also glimpsed a porcupine in the strangle fig up at the top but no other mammals or snakes. Hiking in the windy, dark night was an adventure in and of itself, an impression I won’t forget for a long time.
After Monteverde, we made our way to the beach on the Nicoya Peninsula. This was supposed to be a lovely beach, and in fact part of it is stunning, but where we were near town was too seedy and for the first time we felt we had to look over our shoulders. But what was more of an ‘adventure’ was the fact that our B & B had no record of us scheduled there and no proprietor there either! There was a lovely family of eight who found a way to fit us all in when we couldn’t find another hotel – it was New Year’s weekend after all. This family, organic farmers from Ojai, very much had the hippie vibe (he's a surfer from Santa Barbara with dred locks etc) and we had house mates for two nights along with ants in the kitchen but no hot water and on occasion no running water! Very low water pressure here and a pump that broke meant showering with the garden hose in your swim suit at the edge of the front lawn! Even the farmer’s kids were getting fed up and wanted us to take them with us when we finally left. Meanwhile, the breakfast that was supposed to be included wasn’t, but we found a great fruit stand and discovered passion fruits and guanabanas – a big huge soft green thing that is full of white pulp that we put in a blender with bananas and made batidos (smoothies)! It has a sweet and sour flavor that is really incredible. The water at the beach was warm and the jellyfish stings that Selina got and later Jake were only a couple of hours of discomfort. Casey even got to pee on his brother’s foot in order to help the sting – which created another moment of hilarity we’ll always joke about. New Year’s Eve was a big deal with lots of bon fires being built on the beach and lots of M-80s going off, and from our porch we could see considerable fireworks in a few different directions.
We stayed one night in Jaco – beach town much further to the south, which is very much a tourist trap reminiscent of the California beach towns of the 1960’s. Again, the water was great and the hotel had a pool! And the toilets flushed so we were thrilled. In the morning we had breakfast there and watched Ford’s funeral on Fox TV. How strange. There were iguanas in the garden and we went swimming in the ocean and pool all morning. Finally, we ran our errands to the MasXMenos grocery story – comparable to a big chain here and got some supplies for our next stop in the Esterillos area half way between Jaco and Quepos. At this point, I started thinking that our trip might be four days too long, that ten days would have sufficed. But when we got to Esterillo Este we all got a second wind. Our cabin had two rooms and a small kitchen with high ceilings and screens instead of windows. Each room had a ceiling fan and hot water in the bathrooms! It was humble and lovely. The French Canadian woman who owns the place was just as lovely.
out our bungalow door!
If we walked out of our bungalow and through the garden, we would pass through some coconuts trees just before the sand and then there was the surf. The tides were phenomenal, moving the water line out every night 40 yards or so. Casey and I even walked along the ocean under a full moon one night. The shells on the beach were also a huge past time and everyone got addicted to finding sand dollars and cowries and other things I don’t know the names of! We spent time on the beach along this amazing piece of undeveloped coast where there were only a row of houses and an occasional owner who’d managed to create a restaurant or bar. There were some bigger hotels further down the road but where we were was very residential and solitary.
While we wanted to stay on the beach all day, we felt compelled to make the drive to Manuel Antonio National Park. This small park boasts a considerable amount of wildlife, not including the massive quantities of tourism and tourists you pass through to get there.
We saw white faced spider monkeys, two toed sloths, iguanas, a Brazilian lizard, coatis that came down to the trail looking for buried insects, and several stunning butterflies. We brought a picnic and ate it on the beach, then hiked back and headed to our own beach. There were many lovely sunsets that became a ritual to watch. A few doors down there were some dudes from Chicago renting surfboards, so one day the kids took a lesson and surfed most of the afternoon. These guys, two brothers and a friend, gave us lots of information about CR real estate and gave us contact info for if we ever want to rent out their houses in Esterillos. Something to think about for sure. If I had to pick a place to retire, this would be it hands down – though I’ve not seen the rainy season. I suspect several ex-pats vacate during the rainy months and come back in the Dec – April season. Sounds good to me! Any one want to invest in something down there? This is the time, as newer high ways and subdivisions are coming. Change is inevitable, and as our hostess pointed out, it isn’t all bad. Good thing to remember.
On our last day, I walked along the beach in the early morning after all the birds made their presence known, and I found turtle eggs that had washed up! Later, on the drive the airport, we stopped at a bridge and looked down at 18 crocodiles!
And then even later, I ended up in my own living room. Is that nuts? It is still hard to process of this, but I’m so thrilled by the eco systems we saw, the diversity, the strangeness and the different ways of living and eating and being in the world. Jake got to use his Spanish, and all of us learned quite a bit more about being a family and making indelible memories in new places.
Cheers! To another great sunset and to a wonderful 2007!