Our Costa Rican Adventure

We have traveled extensively in the Caribbean, and feel very comfortable with the idea of renting a car and going off on our own. Hotel and car reservations are the only pre-planning necessary, other than research. Aside from the issue of driving on the wrong side of the road (something I cannot do, but my wife manages very well) you can’t get too far lost on an island. But, we felt, Central America is something else. We had heard that the roads were horrible. We were a bit concerned with security. And, finally, we had a lot of traveling around to do there, some of which was by air. So, we booked a tour with private transportation and tour guides. Although more expensive than our usual method, it really wasn’t that much more. The Costa Rica Experts tour company was an excellent choice, and I would travel with them again in an eye blink. As it turned out, the reasons for making our decisions were not those which we would have used had we known differently, but the final decision was a good one, and I would not hesitate to travel the same way on any future trip to Costa Rica.

We had been told both by the tour company and findings on the internet, that neither passports nor birth certificates would be necessary to travel to Costa Rica. Sounds reasonable, since we have found this to be the case in the Caribbean. Maybe it was the events of 911 which changed things. Who knows.

We arrived at the airport 2 hours in advance of the flight time, per our post-911 instructions. It takes 45 minutes to drive the distance, plus 15 minutes for off-site parking. (Start keeping track of the math, now). Our not-so-cheery check-in lady would not process tickets without a birth certificate or passport. Although I had my certificate, Linda did not have hers. Only one alternative—get it. The cheery lady guaranteed we would not make the flight. Thanks a lot!

After retrieving the car in a panic, we hit the thruway. The speed limit is 65 mph, meaning you can comfortably get by with 72 or 73. Trusting in my radar detector, we forgot about that—how about 90? My heart sank when I saw the flashing red and blue lights in the rear view mirror, then rose again when I saw that the patrolman was pulling over the guy I just passed!!

We skidded into the driveway at home. Not knowing exactly where the certificate was, we grabbed all the possible boxes, tossed them in the car and whizzed off. After shuffling through entertaining memorabilia, the certificate was found. The heart-in-throat return trip passed without incident, except that my aging clock was ticking at warp speed. Forgetting about the less expensive off-site parking, we went for the closest space to the ticket counter.

By this time, an hour and forty five minutes of the 2 hour processing time was used up. Again, the cheery lady promised that there was no possible way we could make the plane, because you have to check in at the counter a half-hour before the flight time. The security people were more understanding and let us through without delay. The plane had completed final boarding, and as we entered the ramp, the door closed behind us!

Whew!! We breathed a sigh of relief! We made it! Hold on—not quite. The distance between the domestic and Latin American terminals in Miami is unbelievable. Again, we wondered if the ample time we had allotted was going to be sufficient. If you miss one of the not-so-helpful direction signs, you’re dead meat! We finally got to the plane and boarded with a final sigh of relief. Hold on—not quite! After sitting on the takeoff ramp for nearly an hour, the pilot notified us that the voltage regulator was going to have to be replaced. Every day of our trip was reserved and planned ahead! Fortunately, it was one of those in situ deals, so we wouldn’t be carted back to some hotel for an overnight.

So it was that we arrived in the San Jose airport a couple of hours late, in the dark, hot, tired and with a very primitive capability in the Spanish language. Arriving in a foreign country is always a bit intimidating, but you can usually read a sign or find someone who can help with the language problem. Not so in Costa Rica. As we were to find over and over on our trip, people in general speak no English except in resort or highly tourist-traveled areas. We were not quit finished with the passport problem. After waiting our turn to get to the head of the immigration line, we had to fill out a special "green card" and get back in line. Needless to say, I highly recommend getting a passport.

After claiming our baggage and going through the usual questioning and searching, we were confronted by the typical shouting, waving mob of taxi drivers, bus drivers and hordes of folks eager to carry baggage. It was at this point where we were rewarded with our first private tour experience which continued to be the norm throughout our trip. We spied a cute young representative holding up a large sign with our name on it. We were greeted with open arms—never matter being hours late. We and our baggage were hustled to a waiting van and were treated to a tour of San Jose on our way to the hotel. After being deposited at the hotel, we were briefed on the pickup time and events of the next day.

Our research into the hotels of San Jose offered many choices. We opted for a hotel which was within walking distance of downtown, but which offered a bit of suburban comfort. Located on a small hill, the converted plantation house appeared to be just what we were looking for. And indeed it was, and more.

Grano de Oro is Spanish for the Grain of Gold. The Grano de Oro hotel had it’s roots in the banana republic days of Costa Rica when it was the plantation house for a banana plantation. At that time, San Jose was infinitely smaller and the plantation house was in the country. Time passed, and coffee became king—the "grain of gold". San Jose grew. Eventually the plantation was swallowed by the city, and the house burned. Discovered by investors, it was eventually restored, using the original plans, and enlarged into a hotel/restaurant. Surrounded by an edge-of-downtown environment it is an absolute oasis in the middle of a bustling, noisy city. Relaxing in the rooftop garden and hot tubs makes one feel he is in the country. The dining room—partly in an outdoor garden and partly in a traditional indoor setting is a gourmet delight. Cut tropical flowers are everywhere and growing plants grace every nook and cranny. The staff is as helpful and friendly as can be, and the rooms have every amenity. Our back door opened into the garden restaurant, and the front door opened into a hallway festooned with a fountain and bromeliads of every kind.


Rooftop Terrace	Hallway Garden

If you've ever wanted to explore a rainforest canopy, Costa Rica is the place to do it. One of your options is to ride the Rain Forest Aerial Tram. The Rain Forest Aerial Tram is a unique ecotourism and research park which was opened in 1994. At the Aerial tram, visitors take a trip through the hanging gardens of the canopy of the forest. They discover plants and birds usually hidden in the tree tops. The canopy, which is thought to house two-thirds of all rain forest species, is a little known world of incredible beauty and extraordinary biological diversity. In addition, the Aerial Tram borders the northern limit of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, one of the biological riches areas of the world. It is located in a 454 hectare private nature reserve.

We chose the early morning trip because the rainforests tend to cloud up in the afternoon. Our guide called us at 4 AM to make sure everything was OK and to prompt us for the 5 AM pick up time. They, the driver and guide, were on time to the minute. The trip took less than an hour, most of which was spent in escaping from the San Jose urban/suburban sprawl. Our guide was a cute, young, chatty eco-type who gave us a non-stop, second by second account of everything along the way.

Upon arrival, we received an excellent tropical breakfast in an outdoor restaurant surrounded by the rainforest and all its sounds.

The tram is similar to those found in Disney World and ski resorts. It holds 5 people, is open all around and is covered with a roof in case of rain. It travels slowly and occasionally stops. During the trip, conversation is in hushed tones, not only out of awe, but to thoroughly enjoy the forest sounds (our guide was forced to do the same, thank goodness!).

After the tram trip, we were treated to a guided tour of forest trails in the area, being ever reminded of poisonous snakes along the way. We saw two snakes and several poison arrow frogs. Returning to San Jose, we had the remainder of the day to visit the city.

The population of Costa Rica is about 3.8 million, and its size is slightly smaller than West Virginia. The capitol city, San Jose, has a population of about 340,000. However, 60% of the population of Costa Rica lives in the central valley, which is to say, near San Jose.

Needless to say, the urban/suburban sprawl of San Jose is huge. Escaping it during day trips to the country is frustrating. Except for a small area near the central market, it does not cater to tourists. Residents have no use for currency other than their own, although credit cards are accepted. Hotels, banks and tourist destinations exchange currency both ways. For both courtesy and necessity, one should have some knowledge of the Spanish language, as it is unusual to find someone who can speak a language other than Spanish in other than tourist services or destinations.

Buses are crowded, and then there is the language problem, again. Many streets are poorly marked, or not at all. Taxis are inexpensive, and the best way to get around, but the meters are hard to find, see and read and you should negotiate the price before you leave or you could be in for a dandy gouging. (Spanish language problem, again)

The currency of Costa Rica is the colon. The current rate of exchange to American is about 350 to 1. To accommodate the disparity, you will be carrying around thousand and ten thousand colon bills. Although prices are only moderately lower than most cities, small denomination coins are utilized. You will need a calculator!

The Poas volcano area is a very popular destination, both for Costa Ricans and tourists. It is a well-kept park with roadways, hiking paths and a visitor center. Historically, the volcano is very active. Most of the activity consists of the lake level going up or down and fumaroles appearing or disappearing. But as late as 1990 gas plumes destroyed vegetation in the park and in nearby agricultural areas. Gas jets and pyroclastic material appeared in the 1980's. The color of the lake and the steam emitted from its shore gives one the impression that you are looking through a hole in the earth to see sky and clouds on the other side.

Costa Ricans are very proud of their coffee, and it is a major crop. The road to the Poas volcano passes through the optimum altitude for coffee-growing and miles of plantations are visible.


Coffee Plantations	Volcan Poas

Conveniently included in the day trip to the Poas volcano is a stop at the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. The major attractions are 5 magnificent waterfalls, but it also includes the largest butterfly observatory in the world as well as orchid and hummingbird gardens, a restaurant and visitor center.

The butterfly conservatory contains sufficient vegetation to support each butterfly species throughout its life cycle, and all stages of life are visible and plentiful. The hike through the waterfall area is breathtaking!

Having mentioned our concern about the condition of the roads in Costa Rica, a few words here are appropriate. In our experience, except as will be noted later, we found the roads to be excellent. Compared to the roads in the Caribbean, they are like interstate highways! Center-marked asphalt was the norm, (although sometimes twisty, as expected) and major highways were similar to those found everywhere in the United States. Relating to travel on those roads, however, an incident on the country roadway from San Jose to Arenal made us very glad that we had hired transportation.

The country road to the Arenal area took us along the tops of the rolling mountains which had been deforested and converted to pastoral--beautiful, nevertheless. Then, in the middle of nowhere, what must have been the Costa Rican equivalent of a good o'le boy country cop blocked the road and forced us to stop. The driver and guide produced much paperwork, and there was a lot of arm waving and discussion (in Spanish, of course) before we were allowed to proceed. As it was explained, it seemed to be "muscle flexing" on the part of the policeman, since there was no real reason for that to have happened. I asked how it would have proceeded if we had been on our own, and the answer wasn't too cheery. Our lack of conversant Spanish--and no passports--would have made it quite an experience!

The Arenal Lodge is situated with a commanding view of the Arenal Volcano. We had originally planned to stay at a different hotel, but the tour company recommended the change because the active lava flow had shifted to a different side of the volcano--something one would not normally consider. Each room is equipped with a large porch which overlooks a tropical garden, behind which is the volcano, only a few miles away, which hisses and sputters occasionally and from which fingers of red lava can be seen flowing at night. The hotel is surrounded by gardens, and the outdoor hot tub, with its open gazebo shelter, overlooks all. Nearby are walking trails through chaotic rainforest growth, one of which passes through a tiny zoo which includes a butterfly garden.

Your stay at the Arenal Lodge includes free horseback riding. It was raining, but what the heck--it's free. The poor horses were much the worse for wear and age! The ride took us through local roadways currently under construction which were impassable for human walking because of the mud, and the horses fared little better. My wife's horse slipped his rope bridle and took off uncontrollably down the road forcing a rescue by our cowboy/guide, who, by the way, spoke no English.

Part of our itinerary included a guided hike across the currently inactive base of the Arenal Volcano. A few miles long, the trail starts and finished in rainforest, opening out onto the lava field in the middle. I was expecting the lava field to be smooth and easily traversed, but it was quite the opposite. It was a completely chaotic mess of cinder blocks of all sizes and shapes--up to many feet across--making passage almost impossible except via a well-traveled path.


The garden from our porch	Arenal Volcano (from our porch)	Hike across Arenal lava flow	Hi Ho Silver!!

As I mentioned before, there was an exception to the good condition of the roads we travelled in Costa Rica. This was the road from Arenal to Monteverde. Although only a few miles apart, Arenal and Monteverde are examples of "you can't get there from here", because there is no direct road. One option (the long way) is to go back toward San Jose and then go up the coastal highway. The other option, shorter but still several hours long, is to go around the lake and in through Tilaran. Either way requires travel over 20 kilometers or so of gravel road. We took the short way. Costa Rican gravel is bone jarring, especially when the shock absorbers in your van are gone! Tilaran is on the wet side of the mountain. The road can get fairly steep at times, which would not normally be a problem, but the underlying volcanic soil is very, very slick. We also did not have 4 wheel drive. Need I say more? We finally came to a sliding, helpless stop about halfway up the worst of the hills. I'm not sure what we would have done without the appearance of a half dozen or so boys and men who conveniently lived in a house only a few yards from where we stopped. In retrospect, they probably make their living from folks like us. After much arm waving and discussion (in Spanish, of course) a price was negotiated and two tire chains were produced. One was lashed on with a flimsy looking rope. The other was thrown to the ground in front of the other wheel by one of the boys, then retrieved and replaced as we managed to creep along. We finally made it to the top of the hill, and one more reason for private transportation and guides was evident. In the villages that we went through, the streets were paved and flanked with sidewalks and curbs, but instantly reverted to miserably rutted muddy gravel as the last store was passed. In Monteverde, access to what hotels and restaurants there were was only via muddy gravel.

Jumping ahead of our travels just a bit, the 20 km of gravel road from Monteverde back to the highway leading to San Jose, although on the dry side of the mountains, took nearly 2 hours to traverse (no thanks to our lack of good shock absorbers).

It became a minor obsession to understand the reason for such a popular place to be so difficult to get to. After getting no direct answer from the many people I talked to, the reason seems to be this: Costa Rica is proud of it's environmental preservation and both wants and needs tourism. Monteverde is a popular place to visit, and the country doesn't want to discourage visitors. But Monteverde is also a relatively small place (even the parking lot is small) and it could be easily overwhelmed by visitors if the infrastructure was improved to make travel, lodging and eating convenient. Directly limiting the number of visitors, as by reservation, would not be a popular solution. Not maintaining the roads solves the problem.

The Monteverde Lodge, is very nice and includes gardens and nearby trails. But, I have to say, we were not pleased with our stay there. The bottom line seems to be that if you are not part of a tour group you will get little or no attention. We had to carry our own bags (down some stairs), the hot tub (located in a beautiful glassed-in atrium area) had been inoperable for who knows how long and for who knows how much longer, the evening movie/slide presentation was filled due to a bus tour group and we could not attend. We were told that we could make separate arrangements with the show presenter (for a fee, of course) if we wanted to see the program. The restaurant did not post prices (gourmet, I'm sure, but come on, guys!!). For our meals, we walked down the road a short distance to a nice little locally owned restaurant called the Poco a Poco, which includes a start-up motel, where we were treated very well. Finally, the Monteverde Hotel would not make arrangements for us to visit any of the local areas such as the Skywalk, because they felt the attractions were not safe and they didn't want to assume any responsibility. Baloney!! After a short walk to the nearby village of Santa Elena all our arrangements were easily made.

The guided walk through the Monteverde rain forest was not quite what I expected due to the relative small size of the area and the number of people walking through. Nevertheless, our guide pointed out things we would never had seen if on our own. This included the famous Quetzal (never mind that it was near a nest box).

Returning from the forest tour, we stopped at the Hummingbird Garden. At the Hummingbird Garden is a tourist shop with a large patio area surrounded by hummingbird feeders and people with cameras. The air is full of every imaginable species, and one could spend hours watching and photographing the action.

Near to the hotel is Ranario--The Frog Pond, where Costa Rican frogs and toads are kept in natural display areas, indoors. You receive a fascinating guided tour through the area.

The Skywalk is a short bus ride from the reservation area in the village. The Skywalk is a series of 6 or more suspension bridges, interspersed along walking trails, which are arranged to go through the forest canopy. It is self-guided, and very enjoyable. This area is in the cloud forest, differentiated by the rain forest in that in the cloud forest it rains or is in the clouds nearly all the time. The plant life reflects that difference, and is extremely profuse. Plants growing upon plants growing upon plants. . . You will get wet, but it doesn't seem to matter, and it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be in that kind of forest canopy.


Trail entrance to the Monteverde forest	The hummingbird garden	The Skywalk	Colorful Costa Rican Frog

Leaving Monteverde, the 20 km gravel road passes through arid, pastoral mountains. The land surrounding what has been claimed as parks has been deforested and turned into ranches, owned by large landowners and rented out to small farmers. Productivity does not seem to be very high. Even so, Costa Rica has been wise in preserving so much of it's natural heritage, and the overall productivity is highly tourist-related, providing even more incentive to preserve nature.

After leaving the gravel road, the remainder of the return trip to our Oasis took 3 hours over busy highway.

Travel to the isolated region of Tortuguero, a name that refers to a river, a village, a hill and a national park, is either by bus and waterway or by small plane. We chose the relatively short, 45 minute flight, to the tiny airstrip on a spit of land between the Caribbean Sea and a lagoon which is part of a coastal canal. The aircraft was modern and well maintained and the pilot was thoroughly professional.

Tortuguero is one of the rainiest regions on earth, receiving about 240 inches per year. The park covers nearly 47,000 acres of lagoons, swamps, waterways and rain forest bordering a long, wild, straight beach where three species of turtles come periodically to nest. Visitors come from all over the world during turtle-watching season. Dangerous currents and aggressive sharks make swimming impossible, and the muddy, black volcanic sand beach and muddy water discourages sunbathing and water recreation. Guided tours through the many rivers and waterways provide an opportunity to view an unbelievable array of plants, birds and other animals.

The Tortuga Lodge and Gardens is one of the few facilities which cater to visitors. It is a beautiful lodge which integrates perfectly into the wild surroundings and which offers fine dining, swimming in a pool which seems to be part of nature, and large open-air (but screened) rooms.

Speaking of screened rooms, we were advised to take along plenty of bug spray on our Costa Rican trip, but we did not experience any insects at all.

Our tour through the waterways made us feel like Rosie and Charlie in "The African Queen" (without the bugs), especially when the boat got hung up and we wondered if pulling it along by hand was going to be necessary. We saw crocodiles, iguana, boa constrictors, howler monkeys and more species of birds and plants than we can remember. Although prepared for rain and expecting it, we only experienced a few sprinkles


Our room, the lagoon, the airstrip and the Caribbean	Jungle Waterway	Tortuguero Beach	Boa Constrictor

Returning to our Oasis in San Jose the next day, we had time for shopping, dining in our Oasis garden and time to reflect on our wonderful adventure in Costa Rica!

	Our Costa Rican Adventure May 2002


Eyelash Viper (venomous)	Aerial Tram


Butterfly Observatory	La Paz Waterfall