COSTA RICA

Jan. 5 – March 5, 2011

This is the land of volcanoes, rugged country, cloud forests, and miles of beaches on two oceans, narrow paved roads, an autopista, and 4x4 gravel roads, no street signs and directions given by landmarks. This is a land of contrasts.

We made some day trip and one 4 day trip to Monteverde Cloud Forest and Santa Elena. The cloud forest and area was very interesting. To get there one drives about 20 km on a very rough gravel road. The village of Santa Elena is paved but travel of 10 km to the Cloud Forest was again gravel. The Cloud Forest lived up to its reputation of rain, fog and wind. The trails were very well marked and maintained so we had an easy day of walking. We did not see the Quetzal (we were certainly looking for it). Non birders showed us pictures of the ones that they saw.

One day trip was to Poas Volcano and we lucked in and had a perfectly clear day. We met people who had gone several times and it was shrouded in fog. It was a highlight as we had never seen one like this. Another day we went to the nearby waterfalls – La Paz. There used to be 5 waterfalls but after the 2009 earthquake it has been reduced to 3. The grounds, zoo and attractions were extremely well done and quite spectacular in their own right.

We made 2 trips to the Pacific coast – one to Puntarenas and another to Jaco and Manuel Antonio. Puntarenas is a dying town since the cruise traffic has relocated down the coast. The sand is black and the area is very popular with the locals. Whereas the sand is light colored in Jaco and Manuel Antonio but this area is loaded with international tourists. We were glad we made these trips.

We took buses, taxis and received rides with friends as we did not rent a car for the 2 months. We would not have been happy driving the roads as Costa Rica is known for their high accident rate.

Costa Rica is not cheap. Groceries are the same price or more than in Canada. We found the fruit and vegetable were of a poor quality. Maybe they export the best quality, but oranges, limes and bananas were not juicy or were bruised. We did not see citrus fruit trees in people yards so locals have to buy if they wish to have them. The mangos and papaya were good.

The town of Atenas has wonderful climate with cooler evenings and warm afternoons. We stayed about 10 km out of Atenas and had a private cottage. There were 3 cottages and the owners on the property. We thoroughly enjoyed eating our meals on the patio and watching the birds coming and going. Since we had done a lot of travelling we thought we would enjoy just taking life easy and see if we could stay in one place for 2 months. We knew they did not have internet or tv so we did a lot of reading. The owners were very nice and accommodating but there were some issues. Following this blog entry is a review of the accommodations.