Costa Rica Costa Lota

We cheated a little bit to get into Costa Rica and opted for a shuttle to whizz us over the border. It was pretty straightforward and the only annoying thing, which is going to become a thing in Central America, was having to pay an exit fee to leave Panama!

We’d heard lots of stories about how strict Costa Rica was for checking proof of onward travel so we went prepared but they barely batted an eyelid at us,

Our first stop was Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. The town itself seemed a bit run down, it rained a lot every night and our hostel had definitely seen better days. Our room was tucked in the corner of a dorm and the bathroom smelt like sewage. We don’t often complain but I did this time and was told it was a town problem.

We spent some time on the beach enjoying the clear Caribbean sea, but our favourite thing was a short walk through the jungle to another beach. During this walk we saw our first sloth and it was magical. Later that day we saw one further down in the tree and he turned his head to us and it definitely looked as though he was smiling right at us! We also saw howler monkeys, and well, they howl a lot.

We took a bus out to Cahuita national park, where we saw more sloths and most exciting, a raccoon. This little fella was incredibly naughty as he hopped on a table to steal someone’s lunch!

We then headed to the capital San Jose for a couple of days. I was still recovering from my latest bout of a bad stomach and I really wanted some comfort, my own bathroom and no pressure to do anything. San Jose definitely answered its calling and all we did was a quick walk around. Our favourite thing was watching some pigeons take a shower in the fountains.

We then headed down to Manuel Antonio, said to be Costa Rica’s most popular national park. We had to book tickets online and I could only get a 10am slot, but that turned out to be just fine. There are beaches inside and outside the park so we spent one day at a beach outside the park and the next day in the park. There are several trails you can do and you can hire a guide to help you spot wildlife, this isn’t something that we did and we still managed to spot plenty of things, including a sloth and her baby! We saw three different types of monkeys, including some very naughty white faced capuchins. They were in a tree on a beach and all of a sudden made a beeline for our bag, and the side pocket. They took out the cover of our beach towel and threw it on the ground and I realised that there was a bottle of hand sanitizer in the pocket. What is it with monkeys and hand sanitizer? Were we about to get mugged by a monkey again?! Thankfully he then spotted a carton of coconut water elsewhere and left us to it! We would highly recommend Manuel Antonio to anyone in Costa Rica, you’re not allowed to take any food in with you and there is a cafe area within the park for you to eat and this time it’s humans who are in the cage!

From Manuel Antonio we were heading all the way to Monteverde, a mammoth journey, we had to take one bus from our hostel to Quepos, from there another bus to Puntaarenas and there we waited for 4 hours for our connecting bus. We found a cafe and they didn’t mind us camping out for the 4 hours. We enjoyed coffee, juice, lunch and a massive traditional ice cream called a Churchill. Whilst we were waiting at Quepos two red parrots flew over our heads which was amazing to see.

Monteverde is another cloud forest. If you don’t know, a cloud forest is a rainforest but at higher altitude. We went straight to the tourist information to book a couple of tours and then on their recommendation headed to a viewpoint just outside of town to watch sunset. The sunset wasn’t anything to write home about but the surrounding views of the hills and forests were magnificent.

The following day we got up early to catch a bus to the Monteverde Cloud Forest and take part in a bird watching tour. We were in a small group of 4 and our guide was very knowledgeable, spotting straightaway the elusive resplendent quetzal bird that everyone wants to see. We were very lucky and spotted a few that day so we were able to see it in flight and resting in the tree. The male’s long tail feathers were quite magnificent. Joey was on photography duty as usual, saw something move, snapped it, showed our guide who was so impressed that he’d managed to spot a Toucanet before him! We spotted various other birds including a black faced solitaire whose song sounds like a rusty gate, it was beautiful! We also saw a hummingbird in a nest which was amazing to see.

After our tour finished we headed back into the forest to complete a few more trails and saw a large family of coatis. We also headed to the continental divide, we couldn’t see much due to cloud cover but what was interesting was the difference in temperature only a few metres apart. On your left side you have the cool of the Caribbean and then on your right side you can feel the humidity of the Pacific.

That evening the wind really started to pick up and then the rain started, it didn’t really stop the next day and it meant that we couldn’t do anything we wanted. We’d planned to visit the Santa Elena cloud forest but it was far too windy for that. Then we tried to walk to another rainforest and had to turn around as conditions were so bad. We had booked a night jungle walk but didn’t see much as it was so wet and windy. We saw a few birds, a rabbit, a tarantula, a tiny toad and I spotted a salamander. Our guide was way ahead of us when we called him back and he told us it was really rare to see one so I was very pleased with my spot! I think maybe Joey and I should become wildlife guides?

From Monteverde we took the Jeep-boat-Jeep option to La Fortuna. It’s not a jeep anymore, just a shuttle van on bumpy roads to the lake, a boat and then another shuttle. It was quite picturesque and we saw a beautiful rainbow en route. We enjoyed the trip over the lake, it felt like a sightseeing activity rather than a travel day!

The weather didn’t show much sign of improving in La Fortuna, we had two solid days of rain upon arrival and just spent the time sheltering in our room! We booked a tour for our last day as the forecast looked the least worst! Thankfully the day stayed dry. We started off the day at La Fortuna waterfall. You have to climb 500 steps to the base of the waterfall and then climb back up those 500 steps but it was worth it. Having been to Iguazu Falls in 2015 it takes a lot for a waterfall to impress us, and I’m happy to say that La Fortuna impressed us. The jungle setting really made it.

From there we headed to Arenal volcano which was active between 1968 and 2010. We hiked through jungle here to reach the base. We never saw the top of the volcano as it was cloudy but we saw maybe 90% of it. En route we saw a turtle which was super cute, especially when he took a little tumble down the hill! After this we headed to the hanging bridges – a set of 6 suspension bridges in the jungle. After my experience with the suspension bridge in Taiwan you may be wondering why I thought this would be a good idea! Well, in the Monteverde cloud forest there was one hanging bridge and I crossed it without too much thought so I thought I’d push myself out my comfort zone and do these. It was a lovely walk through the jungle, the first bridge was one of the highest and probably the scariest for me, but as time went on I grew more confident until I was practically skipping along the final one. We saw a few bits of wildlife along the way including two sleeping owls.

Our last port of call for the day was a hot river. Not a hot spring but a river! It was quite shallow but hot so a very nice way to finish. It was just the getting out and dressed again that was the hardest part!

It was a lovely way to spend our last day in Costa Rica, we really enjoyed the country and all the amazing wildlife it offered. I would have liked to visit a couple of other national parks but for one reason or another we couldn’t, so maybe we’ll revisit st another point to do those!

So was Costa Rica as expensive as everyone had told us? Yes, I dubbed it Costa Rica Costa Lota. I would say that prices were similar to UK prices, we didn’t eat out much at all, we cooked for ourselves and groceries were expensive! A small (200g) bag of pasta cost £1 and we properly eked out our toothpaste to avoid paying $6 for a tube! However we did manage to stay within our overall budget, buses weren’t too expensive, we didn’t drink alcohol and whilst we splashed on accommodation, to get a private bathroom after Puerto Viejo it was manageable by being mindful.