Topic 46 of 63: Costa Rica
Sun, Sep 3, 2000 (11:18) |
i'm just a travelin' spring (sprin5)
At first sight, Costa Rica seems almost too good to be true. The attractions of this tiny nation are so many that an estimated 30,000 North American citizens have moved here in recent years and now call Costa Rica home.
Costa Rica has been blessed with remarkable equilibrium: few extremes of wealth and poverty, no standing army, and a proud history as one of the region's most stable democracies. Ticos, as the warmhearted Costa Ricans are known, pride themselves on having more teachers than policemen, a higher male life expectancy than in the United States, and a strong commitment to peace and prosperity.
(from expedia.com
7 responses total.
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 1 of 7: Stacey (stacey) * Sun, Nov 3, 2002 (04:49) * 1 lines
I'm expecting a full report from Ms. Autumn in a month or so... *grin*
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 2 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Tue, Nov 5, 2002 (19:27) * 1 lines
Ha-ha! This shows positive thinking, your creating a new topic and all! We leave the house at 5 a.m. tomorrow (*groan*). It's gonna be a long day!! Hope all is well with all of you while I'm gone.
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 3 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (15:10) * 3 lines
Just thought I'd pop back in here to brief all of you on my trip to this tropical paradise...
Costa Rica is home to about 4 million Ticos, primarily descendants of Spanish settlers (although there are some indigenous peoples and descendants of black slaves that live on the Caribbean coast). Nestled between Nicaragua and Panama, this developing country boasts a higher educational standard than the U.S. (100% literacy, free college tuition). Violent crime is virtually nonexistent, etc. You get the idea--it's a great place to live. Now on to the travelogue portion...
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 4 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (15:27) * 5 lines
CR has a very poor infrastructure; "roads" are basically gravel atop a marginally flattened surface, with potholes you could fit a basketball in. Needless to say, all travel is a major undertaking and involves kidney-splitting, off-road jostling just to get to any destination. For example, it took us 4.5 hours to travel from Arenal Volcano to Puntarenas--less than 100 miles. (Let's just say my Jeep at home, which is 11 years old, has led a soft life compared to the SUVs (a necessity)in CR.)
We flew into the capital, San Jose, whose airport is one of the smallest I've ever seen (Syracuse comes to mind). San Jose is a big, sprawling, crowded, noisy, dirty--oh, it's a big city, 'nuff said.
The next day we traveled to Monteverde, which is as incredible as it is inaccessible. Pristine rainforest, cloudforest, primary and secondary growth forest, coffee plantations...it's a hikers' paradise. Hell, it's just paradise. The flora and fauna varieties are breathtaking--wild orchids smothered with hummingbirds; howler monkeys in the forest canopy; coatimundi road kill (lemur-like mammals akin to our raccoon); the elusive resplendent quetzel, a vividly colorful bird synonymous with Costa Rica; the ranario or frog pond, with each of CR's many species of frog/toad, most tiny, colorful and poisonous (and virtually impossible to spot in the wild)...this is a smattering of what we observed there. A canopy tour 100 feet above the forest floor is a must, be it on a series of suspension bridges (that's us) or on zip lines hurtling through the jungle (no way, Jose).
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 5 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (15:48) * 5 lines
Another reason I loved Monteverde was a friend of mine lives there and it was so wonderful to hook up with her, if only for a few days. Her husband is teaching in a bilingual school there, and she and her 2.5-year-old son, Josiah, spend their time doing chores and enjoying the outdoors. Most of our modern conveniences are non-existent there, such as washing machines/dryers, dishwashers, even microwave ovens. She does everything by hand. CR only has two seasons, the rainy (June-November) and the dry (Dec-May); while rainfall fluctuates during the time, temperatures remain pretty constant year round, between about 65 to 85. She can hang laundry out to dry all year round, but during the rainy season (when I was there) it can take forever to dry. There was almost always a misting if not a brief shower, downpour or in one 24-hour period, a deluge that would've fixed Maryland's drought overnight.
Randall was our taxi driver in Monteverde; whenever we wanted to go somewhere we called him on his cell phone and he came and got us. No meters, no rates, no seatbelts, actually--just mention a price and if it's too high or low he'll let you know. There is no price haggling there, unlike most tourist places. There are no roadside vendors or hucksters selling their wares in the in-your-face marketing style employed all over Mexico and in Europe's big cities; no immigrants are going to accost your kids with cheap Asian toys for sale, no old lady with 5 children is going to be begging in the street.
The hotels there are unique in that the rooms are almost never located together in a building. You check in at the reception/restaurant bldg., receive a key and a flashlight, and are pointed in the direction of your cabina, usually a nice hike up a hill studded with banana trees and coffee plants in the pouring rain. There are no sidewalks or lighted pathways (not a surprise considering what passes for roads), just you and your flashlight to get you where you're going. The rooms usually have a deck or patio at least the size of the room itself, which illustrates perfectly Costa Rican life, which is led as much outdoors as in. This is also a good time to mention that you only need to bring 2 pairs of shoes with you--sturdy hiking boots and teva-style sandals. All others are superfluous and should be left at home.
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 6 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (21:46) * 5 lines
A note about our fellow travelers...we were definitely at the "older" end of the spectrum and the only people traveling with children. Most of the people we encountered were 20-somethings, couples or mixed groups of young people. This is a rugged, adventure travel kinda place, so we were a little out of our comfort zone for sure.
We spent a few days at the base of an active volcano, Arenal. Unfortunately, all we got was a little rumbling and a few rocks rolling down the sides, but the unmistakeable cone venting steam 24-7 was somewhat impressive. The kids had their hearts set on seeing some molten lava but, hey, the thing doesn't run on a schedule. While there we took a hiking tour to the lava bed through some pretty rugged jungle. We saw a cool termite nest about the size of an inverted football, numerous lizards, and an incredible army of leaf-cutter ants. These industrious critters spend their whole lives transporting bits of well, cut leaves, from the leafy shrubs to their nest. Their sheer numbers were overwhelming, and it was so impressive to see the path they had trodden thru the dense foliage over hundreds of years, maintaining a single empire of an anthill.
A visit to the geothermally heated hot springs was definitely the highlight of our visit to this area. Designed as a luxury resort, there were pools, swim up bars, water slides, rivers, waterfalls, etc. all ranging from lukewarm to about 118 degrees. Rather than being populated by the young people we were seeing all over CR, it was filled with elderly Europeans in Speedos and designer bathing suits dripping with jewelry. What a dichotomy! We felt like real jet setters.
Topic 46 of 63 [travel]: Costa Rica
Response 7 of 7: Autumn (autumn) * Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (22:12) * 7 lines
Our most arduous day of travel was leaving the volcano and heading to the Pacific Coast. We hired a private shuttle to take us the 100 miles to Puntarenas, which took 4.5 hours. There we were supposed to catch a ferry to cross the Nicoya Peninsula, but we arrived only to find out that the 2:00 crossing had been discontinued on Tuesdays and the next wouldn't leave until 4:30. Knowing the crossing would take 2 hours and that a one-hour bus ride on the other side awaited us, we were dismayed to say the least. So instead of spending $10 US for the 4 of us to take the ferry, we paid a guy $140 US to take us across in his speedboat (about 45 mins.) and have a cab waiting for us on the other side. Even though the cab ride was an hour, it seemed like an eternity. The roads were even more horrendous, and since our vehicle was a pickup truck, my 8-year-old had to sit on my lap while my husband and 10-year-old huddled in their jump seats in the back. It was hot, bumpy and the pop music on the radio was sooo ann
ying.
Finally we made it to Playa Montezuma (according to the sign, home of "Temptation Island 2") to check in. This little beach village pretty much defied the description of every beach town we had ever been to. Comprised of about 3 blocks of restaurants, souvenir shops and internet cafes, it was so secluded and remote it's a wonder it even had electricity. We checked in at the hotel reception and once again were given a key and a flashlight and pointed in the general direction of the cabinas. After a 25 minute walk down a wilderness-style beach littered with coconuts, we arrived at the tropical resort tucked into the jungle. A two-story cabina (the second story was a loft bedroom where the girls slept) with kitchenette, 3 beds, huge bathroom and terrace overlooking the most gorgeous view ran us a whole $64/night. The property was studded with hammocks and had an incredible pool designed like a lagoon, complete with waterfall and bathhouse, home to dozens of bats. Howler monkeys served as our alarm clock
and we breakfasted while half a dozen or so white-faced capuchin monkeys looked hostilely our way.
The Pacific there was the warmest ocean water I'd ever swum in, and the sunsets were breathtaking. The waves were fierce (this part of the Nicoya Peninsula is a surfers' mecca) but fun and the sand was an interesting granular texture, comprised of smooth, crushed seashells. All too soon it was time to buy our souvenirs (about $3.50 for a 1 lb. bag of organic, locally-grown coffee beans) and head home. We took a 12-seater plane from a nearby airfield to the airport in San Jose where we spent 6 hours comparing notes with the other tourists leaving for the US that day (only one flight departing each day during the low season). By midnight we were back in chilly Baltimore, ready to sleep in our own beds and dream of the tropical paradise we'd left that morning.
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