Our last couple of weeks in Central America were spent in Costa Rica which we found to contrast starkly with the other central american countries we’ve visited. It is called the ‘Switzerland of Central America’ for good reason;
Compared to the other countries in the region, it is an extremely lush place, although this may have something to do with the recent arrival of the wet, or ‘green’ season, as the Costa Rican tourism board have ingeniously renamed it. As well as being green, we’ve actually found it to be a better season for us to travel. It is quite a bit cooler, less crowded, prices are a bit lower, and the mornings tend to be sunny with the rain typically quite predictably beginning in mid to late afternoon when we’ve done our dash for the day and are relaxing or doing school work with the kids. There’s also something nice about being inside with thunder, lightning and torrential rain lashing down all around.
Also immediately noticeable is how litter free the place is compared to others. This has been the one thing that had infuriated us about travelling in this part of the world. Somehow the collective psyche in these other countries has evolved to make it socially acceptable to throw trash out of the window when driving, making for a continuous rubbish tip on the side of the road both in the countryside and in towns. You would think that ‘don’t crap where you eat’ would be a universal rule of common sense, but regrettably Costa Rica seems to be the only Central American country to have figured that out.
On the downside for the budget traveller though, all this refinement as a travel destination makes it a very expensive place – particularly for attractions and activities, which are around twice or three times the cost for those in other Central American countries. This isn’t particularly surprising given that Costa Rica is the country of choice for a large number of American tourists here who come over for short holidays with big wallets. In addition to the higher general costs, it’s poorer value for family travellers like us as we’ve been charged extra for the kids in the hostels and hotels for the first time this trip.
So, because we weren’t keen to pay premium rates for similar activities to what we’ve done elsewhere, we’ve generally been having a pretty low key, but pleasant and relaxing time. We stayed at the chilled Pacific beach-side town of Samara for about a week where we were lucky enough to be among the first guests at the brand new and excellent Cactus Hostel. There is a beautiful family beach there and we also ventured out on tag-along bikes to the nearby Carillo beach for a pleasant morning. There is also a bit of a hippie / spiritual element to the town so no shortage of places for Iris to do some yoga classes, which she loved.
Given the exorbitant prices for the tourist buses and an extremely slow public bus service (virtually all buses are routed through San Jose), we opted to rent a car for our time here, which worked out great – except that an 8cm scorpion made an appearance through the air vent just next to me while I was driving(!)
We headed up first to La Fortuna in the beautiful Arenal area famous for it’s volcano and national park. However, with five star resorts lining the road into town, it appeared that the attractions there were likely to be pricey, and they were crazily so!! Luckily though we’d spoken to someone who had recently visited and she helped us out with some tips on some great free stuff to do there. In particular, we had an excellent time at some beautiful natural hot springs called ‘tabaconcita’ which sadly is the only hot spring in the region that local residents are still able to go due to the sky high resort prices.
We spent the remainder of our Costa Rican stay in another Pacific beach-side town of Quepos, where we again mostly just passed time enjoying the ambience of our hostel called ‘Jacqueline’ and meeting other travellers. The definite highlight of our time here, and in Costa Rica, was a visit to the Manuel Antonio National park which was more like a huge open walk in zoo, with many monkeys, sloths, lizards, snakes and crocodiles among other wildlife. It also has some of the most idyllic beaches imaginable, making for a pretty stunning day trip.
Also, as a special Father’s Day gift, I was treated to a rafting trip with Sofia down the Savagre river involving some quite good grade III rapids, an incredibly high speed water slide and a beautiful swimming hole underneath a waterfall. Sofia was one happy little girl by the end of it!
So, it is with a bit of sadness that we leave this part of the world. Thinking back over our last three months here, there are so many fond memories to take with us and we definitely intend to return some day to make some more.
As I write this on the flight to Florida the flight attendant, who is from Mississippi and has a voice like Barry White, is playing a harmonica solo over the PA system which he calls the ‘Back to Work Blues.’ I am more suffering a bout of the ‘just paid for Disney World blues’… It definitely isn’t the ‘happiest place on Earth’ for the bank balance, but we couldn’t be in this part of the world and not do it! First though, we’ll be stopping off in Miami for a few days…
Iris and Sofia’s beach art at Carillo beach
While we were there the police stopped by to check that it wasn’t something else that had washed up on shore…
Iris did a number of yoga classes and the kids tried their hand too
El Cactus Hostel in Samara
At the pool bar at La Fortuna’s ‘Arenal Hostel resort.’ The crowd in these kind of places is just getting younger and younger these days.
At the beautiful (and free!) Tabaconcito hot springs. Just up the river others were paying $72 each to swim in the same river!
Next to Lago Arenal
At Manuel Antonio National Park
The kids keeping a safe distance from the ‘Costa Rican Child Chomper’ plant at Manuel Antonio.
This fella was part of a family group of around two dozen monkeys who passed in front of us, including four baby ones
Fun at the beach at Manuel Antonio
The mermaid and the dolphin
Spot the croc at Manuel Antonio
It took the full arsenal of bribes and threats to remove Liam from the cockpit of this plane
moss + water = speed!
Rafting down the Sabagre river with Sofia
Crocs in the Tarcoles River on the way to Manuel Antonio
