Having changed our plans regarding Angel Falls, we arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica 5 days early. However, we didn’t benefit from these extra days as I fell ill with a chest infection within a couple of days of arriving and was laid up in bed for 4 days on antibiotics, feeling pretty miserable – not part of the plan! At least the Costa Rican medical system was good – I was in and out of A&E in less than 3 hours having had an hour on IV antibiotics – if only the UK were that efficient!
The first thing we did in Costa Rica was a coffee tour. We visited the Britt plant and had a very interesting and entertaining “show” by the guides. We learnt about the history of coffee as well as the complex process of turning a coffee berry into the roasted coffee bean we know and love. At the end of our coffee lovers tour we also learnt how to make the perfect cup of coffee along with some more exciting coffee drinks and cocktails.
The plant is supplied by 1,000 small coffee farmers who are paid a fair price for their harvest. Unfortunately for the Costa Ricans though all of the decent coffee is exported and they are left to drink the 3rd rate beans! This has meant that apart from at the plant we’ve not had decent coffee to drink in Costa Rica – very disappointing. A surprisingly great day learning about coffee and I would recommend this tour to anyone who likes coffee.
Tortuguero National Park is on the northern stretch of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and it is obviously famous for turtles (“tortugas”). Unfortunately for us it was not breeding season so we didn’t get to see them on the beach, however, we did spot a few in the water. We decided to do a 1 day tour to the park from San Jose to save some days as getting public transport there was a little tricky.
On the way to the park we stopped at a banana plantation. Bananas are currently Costa Rica’s 2nd largest export (pineapples being 1st and coffee being 3rd) and in order to sell their product to Europe they have to meet all of the required European Standards. The plant was pretty modern and the workers are paid a good wage, much higher than many other professions. We were puzzled by the blue plastic bags covering the bananas on the plants, and we subsequently found out that these are to ensure the bananas ripen evenly. 
On the road to Tortuguero we spotted a troop of howler monkeys as well as a caiman with four babies and a turtle. The forest surrounds a network of natural canals in the park so we boarded a boat and headed off for a 1.5 hour cruise through the park hoping to spot more wildlife. We saw more caiman, turtles, the bright green Jesus Christ lizard (so called because it can walk on water), white-faced monkeys, a very camouflaged eagle, as well as various other birds. We stopped in Tortuguero village for lunch and tried star fruit juice which was delicious. The village is home to only 800 people who are solely engaged in the tourism industry. Before the national park was created the forest was almost decimated by the timber industry and it has re-grown over the past 35 years, although not yet to its former glory. The village is so small that the general store operates a name and shame policy, listing customers with overdue accounts in the window of the shop each month!
On the way back to San Jose we were lucky to spot a 2 toed sloth up in a tree. They are nocturnal so it was unusual to see it out in the late afternoon. They are funny creatures who live up in the trees eating leaves and they only come down once a week to go to the toilet, as food takes about a month to go through their digestive system - about 30% of their weight is shit!
We decided to hire a car for the rest of our time in Costa Rica as not only was I feeling a bit rubbish still, but getting to some of the more remote places would be difficult on public transport and we’d lose a lot of days on buses. A slight indulgence but 10 days of not lugging our backpacks around was so nice!
Quepos is a fishing town on the middle of the Pacific coast and Le Roux was excited as it is the location for game fishing competitions and this meant that he had the opportunity to charter a boat for a day and head out deep sea fishing and the chance of catching Sailfish, Marlin and Dorado. I’m very pleased to report that he successfully landed a sailfish and has the photo to prove it! He also hooked but lost another two Sailfish and a massive Dorado. An expensive but great day, by all accounts.
Just south of Quepos on the coast is Manuel Antonio National Park which is renowned for its beaches as well as its wildlife. Unfortunately there had been a hurricane 6 months previously so all but one of the trails was closed and therefore we didn’t get to properly explore the park. However, we did get to see a variety of wildlife including a laughing falcon, two sloths, iguanas, and a Jesus Christ lizard.
We also saw the naughty white faced monkeys and raccoons which came down onto the beaches to steal food from the tourists – it didn’t matter if the bag was zipped up or hidden in the trees, they found it! Very amusing to watch. After our wildlife walk we spent some time relaxing on a couple of different beautiful beaches in the park and Le Roux tried some snorkelling but due to the waves the water was not clear enough to see much.
Our next destination was Monteverde Cloud Forest up in the mountains. We planned our route on the road map and headed off. However, when we got to the turn-off from the main road, we discovered that the dirt road was in terrible condition and the thought of 20km in 1st or 2nd gear dodging potholes did not fill us with joy. We therefore made the decision to abandon Monteverde and head straight to Arenal Lake instead. Having decided on a new route we continued on, but managed to take a wrong turn somewhere (due to the fact that Costa Rica does not believe in road signs!!) and having asked directions we discovered that we were in fact heading to Monteverde on a different road, still a bad one, but not quite as horrific. It seemed sensible at this point to carry on to Monteverde, so we persevered along the road with our poor little hire car taking a battering. It was worth the effort though as we packed quite a lot into the 24hrs we spent in the village.
We went on a very informative night hike through the forest and saw a female tarantula, a kinkajou, a white-faced coati, some frogs and toads, lots of little fireflies and a hummingbird. Our guide, George, was really passionate and knowledgeable about the wildlife which made it very interesting for us. The next morning we were up early to go into the cloud forest itself in the hope of spotting the elusive quetzal, a very famous bird within Costa Rica.
On the way to the park we did our good deed for the day as we gave a lift to a young German couple whose bus had not turned up. This seemed to give us good karma as only 15 minutes into our walk I spotted a quetzal high up in the trees! Amazing given my observational powers are pretty poor most of the time. Le Roux even managed to get a picture and we were the envy of all the twitchers in the park. Our decision not to pay for a guide had turned out to be a good one – the guide we had in Manuel Antonio was rubbish so we didn’t want to risk wasting our money again.
After our walk we visited the sloth sanctuary and learnt about these animals for the owner’s daughter who was very passionate on the subject. We saw both types of sloth up close and they are great, albeit slightly odd creatures.
Final stop before leaving Monteverde was the frog park. We saw a wide variety of species – big ones, little ones, brightly coloured ones, poisonous ones, but we didn’t manage to find all of them in their tanks, as they are mainly active early morning and late night. Our favourites were the blue jeaned frog (red body and blue legs) and the red-eyed tree frog (beautiful coloured frog that folds up so it only shows green parts of its body and therefore merges in with leaves.
We drove from Monteverde to Arenal village on the north side of Lake Arenal, an artificial lake created by a hydroelectric dam. This was a funny little village which very few tourists seemed to stop in, but we managed to find a nice room for the night. Having had a nap after our early start, we headed out for dinner at 8:30ish, however, most of the town was closed so we had little choice over where we ate. It turned out to be an reasonable dinner but we were the only people in the restaurant, apart from the owners, who were watching Central America’s version of Strictly Come Dancing, which for the record is appalling – the original British version is much less tacky!
As there was nothing to do in Arenal we headed north to Cano Negro the next morning via 45km of dirt road – Le Roux has pothole dodging down to an art now, but we both felt very shaken around when we finally arrived in Cano Negro village, and our hire car had developed a dodgy rattling sound. Cano Negro is a very sleepy village which attracts twitchers due to the abundant birdlife on the rivers and marshes.
We’d been given a recommendation of a guide from a photographer we met in San Jose, so having found him, we arranged to go fishing and wildlife watching at 6am the next morning. We saw plenty of birds and other wildlife, but the fishing didn’t go as well. Lots of fish were jumping out of the water and we saw enormous tarpon as well as gasper, but they obviously weren’t hungry that morning so Le Roux only managed to catch to baby catfish. Apparently tarpon is the ultimate freshwater game fish as they can reach over 200lbs, so Le Roux was especially disappointed not to have hooked one of them.
The rest of our time in Cano Negro was spent wandering around bird spotting and visiting the small butterfly farm. I had never seen the stage where caterpillars turn into butterflies so I found that quite interesting. Butterflies are frustrating though as they are impossible to capture on camera! The horrible prospect of tackling the dirt road again meant we decided to stay a second night before heading to La Fortuna to give ourselves a break from the bumping and shaking!
La Fortuna, our last stop in Costa Rica before crossing the border into Nicaragua, is a very touristy town, with more shops selling tours than is even vaguely sensible! You can’t walk down the street without being accosted by people trying to sell you tours – a little irritating after a while. My first stop in La Fortuna was the hairdressers. After 5 months without a haircut I was getting desperate and I finally plucked up the courage to do something about it. I had hoped that as lots of rich Americans visited the town there would be an English speaking hairdresser somewhere. I was directed to a salon and although the hairdresser spoke limited English, someone helped translate for me, which resulted in a reasonable and cheap haircut, even if my fringe is too short – it will grow!
La Fortuna is overshadowed by Arenal Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in Central America. Unfortunately for us, despite having been spewing lava since an eruption in 1968, it stopped in September 2010, which meant there was nothing spectacular for us to see – very disappointing! However, due to the volcanic activity in the area, there are a number of hot springs and spa places to enjoy so we headed off one evening to the cheaper option (still $32 each!). Baldi Hot Springs has lots of different temperature pools and jacuzzis, along with a large hot waterfall and 3 water shutes. As I love water shuts this was our first stop. However, I got more than I bargained for as the supposedly slow one was really fast and I managed to pull all my neck muscles having laid down as directed. Not learning my lesson, Le Roux persuaded me to try the fast one – 45km/hr!! I did (sitting up) and somewhat regretted it as I nearly gave myself concussion by smashing the side of my head on the tube wall near the end – not an enjoyable ride! I declined to go on the last one, thinking that I would likely damage my coccyx on the bumps and I could do without a third injury! The rest of the spa was lovely and relaxing and we supped a cocktail at the swim-up bar before heading to the tasty buffet for dinner.
We’d been recommended the zip lining in La Fortuna so despite the expense we picked one of the three options and headed off for an afternoon of whizzing through the trees at great heights – fun and not at all scary!
To cross the border into Nicaragua, we decided to take the easier, but slightly more expensive option of a shuttle, rather than the public bus as we’d need to negotiate 3 local buses and a boat with all of our luggage - the private minibus and boat were definitely preferable! The journey went very smoothly, although poor Le Roux was battling with a virulent tummy bug and ended up throwing up over the side of the boat a few times – not good! On the road to Los Chiles, the Costa Rican border town, we stopped at a tree packed full of iguanas – a very odd sight.
The border is actually down the Rio Frio – when we reached the border sign, our captain switched flags on the boat! Along the river we saw plenty of wildlife, including three troops of howler monkeys, caiman, turtles, lizards, and lots of birds – even I’ve stopped taking as many photos now as we’ve seen most animals multiple times. I am still loving the monkey sightings though, so I can only apologise for the number of monkey pictures you’re seeing in my photo album!
Costa Rica lived up to its reputation regarding wildlife and we saw a huge variety of animals in their natural habitats in the various national parks we visited, as well as some in the rescue centres. The scenery is lovely, almost English in places, and it is good to see that the people are now taking conservation and environmental issues seriously many protected areas and national parks. However, the country is very Americanised as I’d been told to expect (fast food outlets everywhere!) and it is also expensive by Central American standards. We enjoyed our time in Costa Rica and for those that love wildlife, I’d definitely recommend a visit.
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