kuniga.me > Trips > Costa Rica

Costa Rica

I went on a trip to Costa Rica for 15 days. We decided to book with a tour company called Intrepid because I’m getting old and don’t want to deal with the logistics and I’ve had two other positive experiences with them.

San Jose

On the first day we had a few hours to kill before meeting with the group in San Jose. We ate at a soda, the name of a mom and pop restaurant in Costa Rica that serves typical food. I ate gallo pinto, a rice and beans dish and it was my favorite dish of the entire trip.

Later we visited the National Museum of Costa Rica and then the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum. I liked the National Museum quite a lot, since it covers the entire span of the history of Costa Rica. I especially liked the Pre-Columbian art work.

The Gold Museum was okayish. I felt it had too many repetitive items of the golden jewelry and doesn’t cover as much history, so I didn’t feel like it was as good value as the other.

Before heading to the hotel I stopped by a local bookstore and bought a book by a local writer, Mamita Yunai by Fallas. I always get a better impression of a country when I can find good bookstores!

Tortuguero National Park

Once we got on the tour, our first destination was Tortuguero National Park. We had to take a boat there because there are no roads to the hotel area. I enjoyed the remoteness of it.

The city/village where we stayed is very small, only a few hotels and restaurants along one street. This was during the World Cup, and I recall watching part of the game between Argentina and Cape Verde and remember being disappointed because I was rooting for the latter.

The highlight of this part was hiking on shin-deep flooded trails (we rented rubber boots) and a night tour to watch a green turtle lay eggs on the beach (unfortunately no photos allowed). The whole process was very haphazard though. We only had a short window of time to see it and it must be in complete darkness with only the tour lead carrying a red flashlight. So we’re running in the dark and tripping on branches on the beach. I’m surprised no one got hurt!

We also went on a boat tour in the flooded forest around the area. It reminded me of similar boat trips in the Okavango Delta and in the Mekong River.

Santa Rosa de Pocosol

This part of the trip was interesting because we stayed with local families, including sharing a meal with them. They spoke little English so it was a good opportunity to force me to try communicating in Spanish. I can largely read Spanish but can’t understand spoken Spanish. But I was able to get by when the hosts spoke slowly, so it was a positive experience overall.

We also visited an indigenous center of the Maleku tribe. I didn’t feel it was very authentic, but probably I had a romanticized expectation of how native cultures live nowadays.

Volcán Tenorio National Park

I don’t recall much from this part, except a trail to the Rio Celeste which has light blue water due to sediments. It also merges with another river of dark water so it creates an interesting effect.

The colors were not the best due to the cloudy weather.

La Fortuna

We hiked a trail in Arenal Volcano National Park but it was very foggy so we really couldn’t see the volcano itself, which was a bit disappointing.

We also tried to hike to a waterfall but it was closed due to heavy rains. We did manage to spot a green and black poison dart frog which made up for the disappointment!

I also remember it was annoying to get around here. Everything is far from La Fortuna and requires Uber/taxi. It was easy enough to get Ubers to the trail but challenging on the way back due to lack of reception and some drivers refusing to go pick us up.

Monteverde

In Monteverde we went on a morning guided tour to try to spot a quetzal. This is a beautiful bird that lives only in Central America so many people look forward to seeing it.

Unfortunately they only mate in spring (March/April) and it’s really hard to spot one in the summer. Our tour guide managed to spot a juvenile one which is not as fancy as the adult.

I wasn’t really disappointed because I hadn’t even heard of this bird until someone in our group brought this up. It’s interesting how expectations work.

We also visited a bat center in the area. I learned that bat in Spanish (murciélago) means blind rat and made me realize it’s the same in Portuguese (morcego)! It’s not obvious though because mor- comes from the Latin mus (more like mice) and we don’t have a related word with this root (we just call it rato).

They have a cage / room where the bats live which is in the dark but when tourists visit they flash lights on the bats which probably is very jarring to them so I didn’t feel good about the experience.

The highlight of this part was a night tour with an excellent guide who found interesting animals. I particularly liked this harvestman, an arachnid (technically not a spider, but opiliones), that reflects UV light:

Manuel Antonio National Park

This was the last stop. The weather on the Pacific side was good so we enjoyed better views. This area is very touristy and the park was crowded. The tour we did consisted of a guide with a scope trying to find interesting animals. He took many beautiful pictures and shared them with us.

There were so many other tour groups doing the same and it was so streamlined that something fell off, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what. Perhaps something to do with agency and experiencing reality with my own eyes. It got me thinking.

Later we also saw bigger animals while walking on our own: close ups of capuchin monkeys, a lesser anteater and iguanas. I enjoyed this experience more.

Summary

Summer is a good time to visit Costa Rica for the lush green and the turtle season, but the weather is not good for views of volcanoes. It’s also not the best time for spotting the quetzal, March and April seem better.

Costa Rica wasn’t on my top list for cultural, historical and not even natural reasons. But I do love how it’s a successful country, especially compared to neighboring Central American countries and in great part due to ecotourism, instead of fossil fuels or other natural resources, so I was glad to be a tourist there.

This is one of the trips that got me thinking the most about the reality of things and what I want to get from a trip.