I think now I am reaching a point where unless something very specific I have stopped trying to find why we are traveling to that particular country. Let me steal the famous line and simply say 'because it is there', coz for my DH it's plain just that. So this time it was just a week's leave left at work & not wanting to battle major flying times, it was a quick decision to pay our first ever homage to the spectacular rainforests, adorable animals and the colorful relaxed life of Costa Rica.
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| Pura Vida Indeed! |
Day 0: Hop, skip and jump to Pura Vida Life!
Immigration and baggage claim just took about a very quick 10 minutes and we were soon at our hotel, Country Inns and Suites. It was our first time having an entire suite with two rooms, two restrooms and a little work station. A refreshing, relaxing cool tropical breeze welcomed us as we walked from the reception to our room. Having grown up in India, this breeze thru our hair was rather nostalgic also. Grins between our ears, not before long we were all snoring away to dreams of the days that lay ahead. |
Day 1: When Green meant Lush, Life and Beautiful!
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| Tropical and Colorful! |
Our morning buzzed with quick showers, sealing our suitcases and trooping to the lounge for the breakfast. Our first meal in Costa Rica was simply delish! Rice-n-beans (gallo pinto), sliced sausage, scrambled eggs, squash curry (picadillo de chayote), fried plantain and of course fresh fruits. Like Colombian coffee, I found Costa Rican coffee also best sipped with milk, like a taste enhancer. Tummies and hearts full, we made our way back to airport to get to the Hertz rental office to pick our chariot for the next few days.
Information: Like other Central American countries, it is mandatory to take their insurance package so expect a bump in the price against what you saw when you rented the car.
A white sedan became our transporter as we piled our luggage into its not-too-small trunk. Our first halt was a huge Walmart. Yes, dear reader Walmart. 🤣 Water, lunch-ables, Costa Rican chocolates, a bag of Patacones (plantain chips) and QueQue (Costa Rican Christmas cake) loaded and set. Before long, our car was rushing past the wide roads of the modern San Jose and making its way to the lush green and beautiful Costa Rican countryside.
Dark outside, we marched back to our hotel again past restaurants, barnes and fields; and this time much to my daughter's dismay an open cemetery. Back in our hotel we decided to call it a night and were soon snoring under our pink and blue blankets. |
Day 2: The Wristband Chronicles!
The day began with putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat and deciphering a fairly cryptic instruction saying "less water warmer more water colder". 😀 Though honestly it was a very useful instruction as that is how all showers worked in the different hotels we stayed in! Showered, changed and geared up, we soon made our way to the breakfast area where we requested the typical local breakfast 'La Tipica'. Once again happily and greedily washed down rice-n-beans, scrambled eggs, Costa Rican cheese, toast, butter and fresh local fruits. I was pleasantly taken aback to find the what is called Ochua in Spanish (golden berry in English and rasbhari in Hindi). I was having it after some 20 odd years and it tasted sweet as ever.
PS - Rupkatha (my 9 yo daughter) requested their crepe with Nutella and that was pretty scrumptious as well. Though of course that's not Costa Rican Tipica! 😉
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| The Hug-ables! |
Soon we were in our car and we drove the quick two minutes to the Sloth Watching Trails - Jungle Tours. Now while we were ambling across La Fortuna the previous evening, Rupkatha had noticed chocolate, coffee and sugarcane tours and of being a chocolate lover wanted to do one. And we gave in to her wishes and soon we were shaking our hands with our guide, Augustin for the first part of the tour - the sloth watching! Before I start with the huggable beings, I must say it was a beautiful slice of a jungle. Not very large or dense but, dotted with green trees, ferns and plants all around. Pretty soon into our hike, our guide pointed to what looked like a furry grey coconut perched very high up in the branches of a very tall tree - our first sloth spotted. All guides carry very high resolution telescopes through which we could see the sloth really well. We spotted about six, seven odd sloths like that. Though honestly I was a tad disappointed as well as I'd imagined that if not at a huggable distance we would at least be able to see the sloths without the telescopes. But, that's that!
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| The Beauty, The Beast and Us! |
Next was a lively little bird garden. Now I am no bird-er to know all the names but beautiful blues, red and yellows fluttered all around as the little birds flew from twigs to leaves to pieces of ripe papayas. It was fascinating to see them move and fly around so fast as if the little divas well aware of their beauty were putting on a dance and showing their little selves off.
Hearts full we came to the end of our tour and came back to the reception. While we waited for the second part of the trip to start - the Chocolate, Coffee and Sugarcane tour, we trooped over to the restaurant next-doors to grab our free iced tea drink that came with our tour tickets.
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| Grind grind grind, little ones! |
Back at the reception we were greeted by our next guide, Ellie. The Coffee tour started with a background of the start, settling and growth of the coffee plantations and industry in Costa Rica. From using bullock-carts to its expansion as the rail got built from the Caribbean side. Somehow the fact that it used to take four years for the coffee to reach England from Costa Rica struck me - people knew patience back then! Then started the fun part as our guide took us through the different steps of grinding the coffee and the kids loved it from there on! Husking shells, crushing the seeds, grinding it and then finally tasting the coffee they made with so much hard work.
Next was the part the Oompa-loompa in all of us was waiting for - the Chocolate tour! The kids didn't really get to make the chocolate but the kids got to crack open a cocoa bean with its mushy cocoa seeds from which chocolate is actually made. The plantation has quite a handful of cocoa trees full of cocoa beans of different ripening stages. Very soon our guide was laying out pure cocoa powder for us to taste - no sugar just plain chocolate. Next came chocolate with cocoa nibs followed by chocolate with plum - all so delicious!
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| Cheers! |
Cheeks pink with joy, we made it back to our hotel and decided to lunch at the the little Italian restaurant next to our hotel (same hearty laughing Italian owner), Vagabondo. The kids ordered pasta with bolognese (meat loving Abesh), pasta with pesto (little Rupkatha) and a pizza for the grown ups whose name I can't remember anymore. Hot, soul filling food & a 10% discount as we stayed at Arte Natura.
PS - the pasta was all hand made fettuccine! Yum!
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| Huff and Puff up the 500 Steps! |
Rested a little in our room, we geared up to visit the La Fortuna waterfall, just a beautiful thru the countryside 10 minutes drive away from our hotel. Reviews told us that we can actually bathe at the bottom of the falls, and DH and kids wore bathing shorts and suits under their shirts. Soon we were buying tickets under the watering skies and sadly learned that due to the weather splashing at the fall pool was closed. Travel curve balls! Nonetheless, we trooped on crossing a hanging bridge and embarked on the 500 steps down! The waterfall indeed is beautiful but the beauty around in word was utopian! Features I'd only seen in Disney movies came alive as water trickled down green hanging plants in a cave like structure. It was mesmerizing and calming all at once! Our hair and faces were wet from the spraying waters.
And then it was time to be back to civilization - up those 500 steps. And huffing and puffing we went! 😆 The rangers at the ticketing center said it takes about 30 minutes but we did it in 16! Yay! As it was a day of wishes coming true, Mt Arenal decided to peak through the clouds for a few fleeting minutes and we were able to catch a glimpse of the mighty. DH was overjoyed coz for the rest of our time in La Fortuna, Arenal remained shy behind a thick veil of clouds.
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Information: as of December 2024, the prices per head was about $20 for adults and a tad lesser for the little ones. I think we paid about $78 for the four of us inclusive of all taxes.
Relaxation invoked hunger drove us to the restaurant very near our hotel, La Tipica, a local eatery. Our table groaned under patacones (fired plantain chips) with guacamole & beans, chicken soup, beef soup, strips of beaf steak with veggies - and every thing came with rice! 😀 And to end the night on a sweet note - our table did its last groan under the fried plantain with local honey & ice cream. It lasted about a minute on the table before it was all wiped out! 🍨 And guess what all of this costed - just $40! Wham!
Day 3: Rainforests - oh you green beauty!
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| The Road Not Taken! |
Showered, breakfast-ed and dressed we were back in our car driving the one-and-a-half-hour towards the Rio Celeste Waterfalls. Located inside the Tenorio Volcano National Park, it is about a 7.something miles loop hike. Now the waterfall once again was spectacular, but it is the hike thru the rainforest that rung closest to my heart. Dense greenery spread out on both sides for as far the human eye can see. And the variety is spell-bounding. Bamboo tough feral and invasive to the region has grown into bamboo jungles on either sides. From Glass-winged butterflies to lethal looking snakes (probably are too), from strange looking orchids to tall fern like tall trees, this rainforest is a must if you're in the area.
Information: (1) there are paid parking lots manned by locals & they charge $6 flat for the day's parking. (2) No food of any sort is allowed inside the park. You can bring water, soda or gatorade but there are no trash cans inside so whatever bottles you carry in, you must carry out.
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| Rio Celeste and its Life! |
After the waterfall, there are some other 1.something miles loop hikes around and we choose to do the one which leads to the confluence of two rivers at the end. There was one turn on the hike where you can see a natural jacuzzi where the water bubbles due to the heat from the Arenal volcano's activities. But the rotten-eggy sulphuric smell is enough to keep you will to jump into it. Maybe the constant drizzle dampened our spirits a bit but honestly it didn't seem worth the mile to me. Slightly wet we made it back to the parking lot after about 4, 5 hour of hiking. DH and little Abesh (though grumpy with the wetness) were excited as they had spotted 4 snakes on the tree branches on the hike back. Phew, talk about being wild!
The kids changed into dry warm pants and shoes back in the car and we munched on leftover bread, cheese and salami as we drove back to La Fortuna. It being Christmas eve, we drove directly to a big souvenir store on the outskirts of La Fortuna and shopped some trinkets; as the kids chose between stuffies and cuties with their allowance. Bless them! 😍
Back in the hotel we saw the common lounge and kitchen area buzzing with folks from around the world as it rained torrentially keeping us all in the for the rest of the evening. We played, read and chatted over warm cups of coffee, Que-Que (the local Christmas cake we'd picked up from Walmart) and later had a light supper of maracuya (passion fruit) and manzana malaya (malay apple) that we'd shopped at a local Frutteria and Verdueria (Fruits and Vegetables shop) earlier that day. Hearts full, eyelids drooping we finally decided to call it a night on our last and final night in La Fortuna. |
Day 4: The Dhikchik-Dhikchik Road!
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| Rustic Beauty! |
A few final souvenirs from the store at our hotel, we started on our journey towards our next destination: Monte Verde. And boy oh boy - what a drive it was! Though it's what is called the Ruta Nacional (national highway) it was broken and full of big big potholes almost the entire 3 hours of the journey - what DH had correctly described as the dhikchik-dhikchik road. 😅 But, it was worth the while as we all were lucky enough to see quite a few toucans flying around in the wild!
At one point Google over optimized and took us on some back roads where the road was neither paved nor smooth; and as a cherry on the cake there came a legit small river passing between two ponds on either side of the road and our little car splashed right over it. It was quite literally the road not usually taken! But, I'll have to give the drive this - the countryside view was absolutely spectacular. Green hills dotted with greener trees, tiny village homes and grazing cows. We were even waved at by some tall windmills.
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We stopped at a Soda in the middle of nowhere called La Florida. And of course the food was amazing! DH ordered a chicken with white rice, beans, potatoes and salad, while the kids and I shared their arroz con pollo (white rice, beans, fries, salad and chicken) and arroz con pescado (white rice, beans, fries, salad and fish). We washed it all down with pineapple juice, sugarcane juice with ginger and their local coffee with milk. And all this for just once again $40! 😀 We even bought some locally made jaggery!
Finally a little after 3, we were at our abode for the next two nights, Elida Lodge. On the out skirts of Monte Verde, far away from the maddening crowd this nests inside the forest with trails all around. We dropped our luggage and went on the trail within the jungle. Though we didn't see much on the trail we did some pretty little birds and an Agouti near the reception area. Back in our room big enough to sleep a small army, the rest of the evening it was us, some local fruits, sandwiches and leftovers with the kids dancing like no-one's watching (minus maybe birds, monkeys and little what not animals).
Day 5: The Triple Fun Day!
Our day started early with hot showers and hoots of the howler monkeys and a collarless tabby cat sniffing outside our room. Already geared up with all the life around us, we made our way to the breakfast lounge at the reception. Of course, DH and I continued our La Tipica breakfast saga while the kids now switched to hearty pancakes!
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| May the beauty thrive! |
So, fun number one was the Monte Verde Cloud Forest Reserve. We were met by our guide for the morning, Jose along with our other group members. A small queue and a shuttle ride up to the reserve entrance where once again those powerful boomerang shaped telescopes welcomed us. Our guide informed us that just about 5% of the earth's geographical feature are cloud forests and if not taken care off they could actually vanish in the next 25 years! Society - you crazy breed! 😞 Tarantulas, tuocanitos, sloths, howler monkeys. spider monkeys, bats - it was fauna galore. And the one thing to write home about was the flora galore - one single large tree can have as many as 6000 little plants growing on it. It was so harmonious that using the word parasite for the little plants seems unfair - it's like that's how it is supposed to be. We saw some colorful orchids and wild flowers! Quite a few fig trees with its dreadlocks like roots growing dotted the horizon as well.
The walk ends at the Hummingbird garden with so many of the little beings fluttering around! We were lucky to see a rare purple bodied one as well that hardly ever sits (I knew I had a soul mate somewhere 😝)! There is also a small coffee shop and souvenir store there, but, with our day packed with more to come we just hung around the hummingbirds and called it a morning there.
Information: They have a $5 flat rate parking fee with ample spots just outside the office. You can take the shuttle with your group & guide to the reserve and back.
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Good thing Stella's was just a minute's worth of walk from our hotel room, we got a quick roll on the bed and were back again on our feet waiting to be picked up for our first ever Zip-lining experience at the Original Canopy Zip-line. And oh my good Lord, what an experience it was. Complete with 10 zip-lines (the longest being 800 meters long and far far atop the tallest tree tops), rappling, Tarzan swing - it is an experience of a life time. When they give the instructions - easy peasy & of course it's a cake walk. But, when I actually got to it & had to sit down on nothing just plain mid-air is when I realized what I'd signed up for.
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| The Tiny Flutterers! |
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| The nocturnal life! |
Once again back to civilization and our hotel room, we had a fair few hours to kill before we went for night walk and tour. Dinner were the pastries and pies from Stella's and competitive rounds of Uno. 😍 Around 8 pm we made our way back to the reception to be picked by the Kinkajou Night Walk Tours for our (no points for guessing) night walk. Soon we were bundled with another family of Indian origin from San Jose and our guide, Japheth. The kids were overjoyed and chatted away to glory the whole time with the kids of the other family. Ha ha bless them! It was thrilling and exciting in many ways as we used flashlights and hiked thru the dark forest jumping over roots and stones, slipping on wet patches and calling out risky steps to the person behind you.
Of course we saw the Kinkajou and then followed by tarantula, a slumbering tucan, night frogs, minuscule rain frogs, vipers (waiting for the lizard on the next leaf to move and kill - life) and then for the final showdown by tiny scorpions which glowed an eery blue when flashed with UV light.
It had been quite a day indeed and on that note back in our hotel room we called it a night and before all of us could finish saying good night, the first snore was heard!
Day 6: Neighbors!
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| Our neighbors at Monte verde (Top: Howler Monkey Left: Agouti, Right: Coati) |
Once again we woke up to howler monkeys hooting to wake us up. The best part was a little Coati scrambling outside our room and the moment Rupkatha woke up sleepy eyed, it stopped outside the window to say a good morning. We woke without a hurry in the world as DH & kids followed another guest in the hotel to see the howler monkeys and I went to the breakfast lounge to start on my coffee. Breakfasted, dressed the kids hung around in the reception area to play, DH went on yet another hike and I finished packing. Soon we were back on the road driving towards Manuel Antonio, our home for the next two days.
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| Love is Blind! 😆 |
Information: There is ample parking and manned by locals who just work based on tips ($1 is enough, we gave $2 and the guy gave some really good restaurant tips 😊).
We crossed the bridge and stopped at a fish restaurant called, Vista Mar, a Marisqueria which basically means fish house and so we ordered their ceviche, shrimp fried rice and DH got their fish with rice and fries. The boys enjoyed their passion fruit juices while the girls enjoyed their mango juice and the local Imperial beer (in accordance to age of course 😉). This place was very popular and a good thing about such places is the blend of languages that reach the ear. There was tunnel that led to the beach on the other side of the road and I could see the itch in the rest of my family's eyes to just plunge in.
Back on the road, we saw pairs of scarlet macaws flying into the skies preparing for the day's end - it was such a pretty sight and also lucky I must say! The rest of the drive was next to the Pacific Ocean with the view playing peek-a-boo every now and then.
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| An ocean-full in our tummies! |
Back in our room, showered and changed we choose the very popular restaurant, Donde Alex for dinner. It's a happening busy little place and my oh my what food. The waiter suggested the fish platter for just $50 - and here's what it came with: two fish fillets, a big tuna steak, mussels, squids, shrimps, two whole lobsters and an entire red snapper - all cooked, tossed, fried, grilled to perfection! And all of this came with rice, beans, fries and salad! It was meal fit for ten kings and queens! If you're in Manuel Antonio, you would be rather foolish to miss a meal here. Zombie modes on, we walked around the town a bit and in the middle of the road (the kids were elated to do so) and finally called it a night!
Day 7: Save the Planet!
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| What a Wonderful world - truly! |
Our last guided tour of the trip, we met our guide Roy at the hotel entrance. But, of course how can I not mention the breakfast! 😛 This one was buffet style with coffee, tea, bread, local jams, rice-n-beans, scrambled eggs, fired plantain and fresh watermelon and papayas.
One commendable thing about the Manual Antonio National Park is that no single use plastic is allowed inside including water bottles and no food! And they check that at the entrance to ensure the policy - respect! A few minutes into the hike the spotting and the telescope and fun started and from there on it was thing after the other - red land crabs, silver backed spider, sloths, white-faced capuchin monkeys, howler monkeys, locusts, colorful grasshoppers, butterflies, hawks, iguanas, stick insects and what nots!
Information - you may carry bug spray and sunscreen tough. Also, there is a beautiful beach at the end of the hike so pack your bathing suits and towels unless you want your hiking clothes to be wet.
Pros at spotting by now the kids spent a good portion of the time in trying to spot with their naked eyes & one could hear the gleeful whoop every time they did. And for the last time a guide bid as adieu as we made our way to the Manuel Antonio beach, but, only after seeing a cayman in the back water on the other side. Strange as nature gets, a part of this island is lined with very poisonous apple-like fruit trees; eat one you die, rest under the tree you get sick - of course DH thought it would be 'adventurous', luckily I was able to override the madness.
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The kids changed into their bathing suits and were soaked before we could even bat an eyelid while DH and I hung out at the beach soaking in the beauty, laughter of our children and just the people around. Grumbling tummies asked us to change into our dry clothes and hiked back on the board walk back to outside the park. Donde Alex being right there became our halt for lunch - la tipica for the grown ups & sea food spaghetti for the little ones. Back in our hotel it was time for a quick rest.
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| Row row row the boat! |
Day 8: People, History and more!
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| Local Fruits & Vegetables Shop! |
We reached San Jose and our hotel, Hotel Balmoral a little after 1 PM. A little too soon to check-in we parked our car in their parking lot and headed out for lunch and exploring the area. There are a few 'good' restaurants of course, but, we chose a little local eatery which had the typical local buffet for just $7 per plate. Our entire meal for four costed us about $25 for three plates & two drinks. And it was a huge pile of food with rice, beans, meat (DH & I again stuck to ribs and the kids shared the beef plate), vegetables and salad. We also tasted the popular drink mint lemonade and it was quite delicious!
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| This Cup of Life! |
Now, the good-cum-bad part of the San Jose town center is that it's taken over by Chinese wares and shops where you can shop lots for the buck but, it does dampen the original charm a bit! We walked via the center where there were some musicians playing to the passerby and made our way to the National Theatre. Built in the late 1800's it's a spectacular Spanish architecture. We sat down for some coffee at their coffee shop, Alma de cafe and what a stylish way of serving coffee we wtinessed! They placed a big mug and then glass funnel and then a laced filter paper and then the ground coffee from a province of your choice and then the waiter poured the water bit by bit waiting for the fresh coffee to fill the mug beneath! Now that's a coffee for your sire! 😇
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Next we walked to the old Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose. It was so peaceful inside. Also maybe because it was just after Christmas, they had the display of the entire manger of Jesus's birth and the all the prayer chairs facing the same. An old Costa Rican man walked up to us offered us some Fanta and even blessed us with all his heart on our way out - what a beautiful experience!
We ambled about the town center some more, walked thru the Central Park complete with Christmas decor; while the girls shopped at a China store and the men bargained soccer jerseys from a little sidewalk shop. Happy tired, we came back to our hotel as the kids wanted to what we call 'chill at the hotel' a bit. Warm showers, PJ, some tit-bits to munch and TV in Spanish, the family huddled on the big bed as we laughed, chatted and simply whiled the evening away.
Day 10: Curtain fall!
The day began at 2:30 am for our 6:00 am early morning flight. The kids were beady eyed for a flash and before long were their chirpy chatty selves all excited to be woken up even before the sun! The hotel gave us breakfast to go (bananas, ham sandwiches and juice) and that pretty much kept us going all the way to LAX with some Goldfish, wheat-thins and almonds for munching.
And as the sun said hello to the Costa Rican horizon, we said our final goodbyes (for this once)! Of course we'll be back! 😀
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