We had been thinking about going to Costa Rica several times after hearing about the beautiful nature of this country. So when I found a good offer for tickets to San Jose with Lufthansa, the decision about our next holiday destination was made. While planning our trip and realizing how much there is to see, I decided to skip the Carribean coast (which is definitely also beautiful, but two weeks in not enough time to see all), and visit the central area and the Pacific Coast. We also had to up our budget a bit, as Costa Rica, aimed mostly at American tourists, is more expensive than Asia.
We had to take three flights to arrive in San Jose and as we had a stopover in Toronto we also needed to make the ETA for Canada. Even if just having a stopover the country between flights and not leaving the airport transit zone, we still needed the ETA. It was easy to apply online and we got the approval e-mail with our ETAs in about 30 minutes.
Ready to go: Frankfurt - Toronto
The flight from Frankfurt to Toronto was 8 and a half hours and we were pretty tired when we arrived. The kids were happy to have spotted the CN Tower while approaching Toronto airport. We only had an hour between flights and after a 5 and a half hour flight from Toronto to San Jose we were exhausted. We should have definitely taken a longer stopover in Toronto. Also, our flight to San Jose was with Air Canada and we were not impressed - the airplane was dirty, seats uncomfortable, no entertainment screens for such a long flight. This is a company we would avoid in the future.
On our arrival to San Jose at 21.30 we were greeted with a nice tropical breeze. We got our passports stamped, our luggage, exchanged some local colons in the airport (1 EUR = approx. 750 CRC) and were ready to discover the country. The notes of Costa Rica colons are beautiful and colourful with the pictures of animals on them. US dollars are also mostly accepted in touristic areas and we had already got some from France.
As we arrived quite late in San Jose, I had reserved a B&B not far from the airport for our first night. Casa Maria Aeropuerto had a clean but basic room about 10 minutes taxi ride from the airport. The room had two double beds and a bathroom. We were very tired and fell asleep almost immediately, only to wake up at 4 in the morning due to the jet lag (the difference with France is 7 hours). We actually prefer travelling from east to west - we wake up early in the morning (the waking up shifts gradually later and later), can start the day early and feel tired around 20 - 21 in the evening.
Around 5.30 in the morning the sun was rising and we went for a walk. Casa Maria was in a gated community of private houses and it was interesting to hear so many different birds. At 7 we had a nice breakfast on the terrace of the B&B - very good coffee (we learned later that coffee was always good in Costa Rica), some fruit, fried plantain and gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is a classic breakfast dish of Costa Rica, it consists of seasoned rice and black beans and we had it nearly every morning during our trip.
We had decided to rent a car in Costa Rica for being able to move around independently and not needing to rely on public transport or taxis. I read a lot online about renting a car in Costa Rica and two local companies stood out from the others for their service and quality - Wild Rider and Vamos. We finally went with Wild Rider and were very happy with their service and quality. As we wished to visit national parks and hike, a 4x4 was recommended so we got a Ssang Young Korando 4x4. There is also a mandatory liability insurance with every car rental in Costa Rica, that raises the price of the rental - we paid a bit over 800 euros for the car. The car was delivered to Casa Maria at 7.30in the morning as we had agreed before, so we could start our trip towards La Fortuna.
Costa Ricans are proud to live among and protect their country’s rich environment, as this small nation holds five percent of the world’s land-based biodiversity and 3.5 percent of its marine life. Costa Rica produces nearly 93 percent of its electricity from renewable resources and 30 percent of its territory is protected natural land (source: visitcostarica). All this nature and biodiversity were the main reasons we were so eager to discover Costa Rica.
La Fortuna and around
Our first destination was a small town called La Fortuna, located in the Northern Highlands of Costa Rica. La Fortuna has become quite a tourist hub, mostly because of the variety of activities available there.The trip from Alajuela (where the airport is) to La Fortuna is 115 km long, but takes almost three hours. The roads in Costa Rica are narrow and curvy and we also made a couple of stops on the way to stretch legs and admire the view, because the further we got from the capital, the more beautiful the views were. One of the stops was in a small roadside cafeteria to get a coffee and a bite to eat. The kids discovered their new favourite drink - soursop juice.
Coffee and soursop juice
Wishing to stay in the middle of the nature, we had chosen the Chachagua Rainforest Eco Lodge, a hotel in the middle of tropical rainforest, about 20 km from La Fortuna. The hotel was situated away from the main road, at the end of a small dirt road and in order to get to the parking lot near our bungalow, we had to drive through a small river (that's why we rented a 4x4). The hotel has a main building, where the bedrooms are situated and several bungalows for those wishing to stay in more private setting. We stayed in the family bungalow - it was spacious with two double beds, a good sized bathroom and a nice terrace with a rainforest view. While checking in, the kids already spotted some toucans on the big tree at the hotel reception followed by lots of colourful hummingbirds in the lush gardens behind our bungalow. We decided to go for a walk near the hotel (there are several hiking trails around the hotel) and saw a green iguana and some vultures - we were all super excited about all this beautiful nature just on our doorstep. The hotel also had a swimming pool and a jacuzzi and the kids wanted to take a quick dip before heading to town.
Hotel gardens
Looking for hummingbirds
The terrace of our bungalow
We wanted to check out the town of La Fortuna and get a bite to eat, so we left the hotel to go for a little discovery tour. La Fortuna, although touristic, is still a small town. We found a little soda (that is what small simple family restaurants are called in Costa Rica) near the town center and decided to try some local food. Sodas serve simple cuisine and the main dish is called casado that usually has a little bit of everything. Casado can be served with meat, but I went for a veggie option.
Veggie casado
We were up early the next morning and sat on the terrace to listening to the sounds of the nature when we spotted a black animal not far from us near the river. It was a tayra, an animal from the weasel family, found in the Central and South America. The breakfast in the hotel opened at 7 and we had to have a quick bite, because we needed to be in La Fortuna at 7.30 to go on a river float trip on the Penas Blancas river.
The variety of activities around La Fortuna is impressive. There are a lot of adventure activities like ziplining or rafting for thrill seekers and also many nature hikes and boat rides suitable for everyone. Although we had some rain every day we were in La Fortuna, February is still considered dry season and the water in the river runs slower (as the river is not so full), so we were able to go on a river float safari trip. It means going down the river in a rubber boat, rowing a little, (no engine for not disturbing the animals) for about two hours and spotting all the wildlife around us. We had reserved the trip through a company called Anywhere and were very satisfied with their service.
The meeting point was at the Anywhere office in the center of La Fortuna and were able to park our car there. We got a ride by a van to the starting point, about 20 minutes from La Fortuna. By the riverside the group was divided into two boats, six people + a guide in each boat. We shared our boat with a nice American couple and our guide was excellent. He was funny and very knowledgeable about the plants, birds and animals we saw. And we saw a lot, although the guide told us in the beginning it was all down to luck - during some trips they hardly spot anything. There were lots of birds - kingfishers, herons and quite some animals - some iguanas, a coati, several troops of howler monkeys (one troop crossing the river on the trees above our heads), a sloth, capuchin monkeys, several species of bats... Amazing experience!
It had been quite a rainy day and when we got back to our hotel, the kids wanted to go looking for frogs at the hotel grounds. It was possible to get torches and even wellies at the hotel reception as it was dark and pretty wet outside. Martin and I stayed closer to the hotel but Ricardo and Johnny took a small path into the forest. At night the jungle was so alive with many different sounds all around us. Th kids' aim was to find the green tree frog, but we were not that lucky - we saw several other frogs though, including a rare glass frog.
Pacific coast - Jaco, Quepos, Manuel Antonio and around
Our first destination on the Costa Rican Pacific coast was a town called Jaco. Jaco is a quite popular surfer town, for its four-kilometer long beach. The distance from La Fortuna to Jaco is 152 km, but it took us over three and a half hours - the roads in Costa Rica are slow and narrow. The closer to the coast we got, the hotter it became - it was a pleasant 26 - 27 degrees C in La Fortuna, and nearly 40 degrees C when we arrived at Jaco.
Before getting to Jaco, we stopped at the "Crocodile bridge". It is a highway bridge about half an hour from Jaco on the Tarcoles river and usually it is possible to see many American crocodiles laying under the bridge. The Tarcoles river is considered to have one of the highest crocodile populations in the world.
We had chosen to stay in a small hotel just outside Jaco called Hotel Pumilio. What a great find it was! They only had 10 bedrooms and every room had an outdoor space - either terrace or patio with an full outdoor kitchen. Our room was on the ground floor so we had a lovely patio with a direct access to the hotel pool. The room was spacious with two double beds and an extra single bed and a good sized bathroom. With the heat there was outside, the only thing the kids wanted was to have a refreshing swim in the pool.
We wanted to see Jaco beach and to find something to eat, so we headed to the town. We went in a nice and colourful Mexican place for the meal and arrived at the beach just before sunset. The sand in the Jaco beach was dark, and the beach was quite crowded but nevertheles the place was amazing at sunset.
After the hike we drove to the nearest beach town, called Playa Dominical for lunch. Playa Dominical is a pretty famous surfers spot and had many cool restaurants. El Pescado Loco, where we chose to eat, did not disappoint - their fish tacos were probably the best I have ever eaten.
It was our last day on the Pacific coast and the next morning we headed to the capital, San Jose, for our last night in Costa Rica. The drive from Manuel Antonio to San Jose took a bit over three hours. We decided to take the 107 km scenic route through the hills that was mostly dirt road. We hardly saw other cars for most of the way and the views were amazing.
Pineapple plantations by the side of the road
Amazing views
Coffee break in a little soda
Our car on the dirt road that lasted for almost 70 kilometers
The traffic became more hectic when we arrived closer to San Jose. Many tourist guide books advise to skip San Jose altogether but we still decided to take a look. We were staying right in the city center, in a hotel called Park Inn by Radisson. Because of the crazy city traffic we left the car in the hotel car park and discovered San Jose on foot. The weather was definitely cooler in the capital, probably also due to its elevation of 1172 m above sea level. San Jose is considered one of the safest and least violent cities of Latin America and we saw a lot of police around in the center, specially on the main pedestrian street. A policeman came to talk to us though, and advised me to remove my golden necklace and earrings for my own safety. We visited the central market (Mercado Central) and bought some tamales from there and just strolled around the city center. There are some nice colonial buildings, several of them surrounding the main square.
City center - San Jose
Mercado Central
On our last morning in Costa Rica we had our gallo pinto for breakfast in the hotel and felt that we did not want to leave - there was still so much left to discover of this small yet so varied and beautiful country. Our flights back took us first to Panama, then Frankfurt and finally Nice. Costa Rica is a place we have to return! PURA VIDA...
Molto molto bello
ReplyDeleteWow! Amazing! Thank you for sharing! Awaiting for your next travel story!
ReplyDeleteWow! Amazing! Thank you for sharing! Awaiting for your next travel story!
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