The stint from Sao Paulo in Brazil to San José in Costa Rica wasn’t as straightforward as it perhaps could have been thanks to the airlines in the One World Alliance. We had to go via Miami and clear US Customs and, in total, we were on the go for 27 hours before we reached San José. I hate to say it but if there is one thing that winds me up, it’s US Customs. Every time I’ve experienced it I’ve either been left absolutely furious or in tears of frustration and this time was no different. I don’t know what it is but getting into the US and Israel has to be the two worst border crossings we’ve made on this entire trip. Unnecessary inane questioning such as “so, what’s with these stamps??” (referring to the stamps for Syria and Lebanon) and “when did you last work?” combined with an unnecessary arrogance really tested my patience. Of course you have to go along with it as you need to get into the country. Euan (I suspect) found it quite entertaining to watch (he’d been sent back behind the yellow line after explaining that we weren’t related, we were just travelling together). Deep breath….
Euans turn came in Costa Rica when some pompous official decided that he had no room left in his passport for stamps and he couldn’t enter the country. I had been agead of him and had to watch from the other side as he got incredibly wound up and eventually wore the official down.
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Our first sights of Costa Rica weren’t anything like we expected although, to be fair, we were only an hour outside of the main city, San José. When the taxi driver asked me if my earrings were gold (no!!) we decided that we’d better be a bit careful about our appearances. This is the first time anyone has shown open interest in what we had with us. The ‘gold’ earrings came straight off and were replaced with cheap-looking glass ones.
San José wasn’t somewhere we wanted to spend much time at all but we did have a look around the city centre and had a great meal in a grimy café deep in the central market where, apparently (as we found out later) very few tourists go without being robbed. We weren’t carrying anything with us and weren’t worth robbing anyhow. The fish stew I had was just amazing and made up for the two cockroaches I killed on the table while eating.
San José had a few nice buildings, the Post Office being one of them
and the Teatro Nacional, built in 1897, is considered San José’s most impressive public building. Most people we met seem to have spent very little time in the capital because of crime and the fact that the rest of the country is so much nicer. Some people don’t even come into San José, opting to stay in the small city of Alajuela that is close to the airport.
We relished the relatively short distances and made the trip to La Fortuna, a town that sits at the base of the active Volcan Arenal. The distance was minimal but the stop-start of the bus combined with the really hilly and windy roads turned what should have been a two-hour journey into one that lasted 4 ½ hours. We didn’t mind – having come from Brazil, it’s a lot better than spending 16 hours on a bus!
La Fortuna is unusual in that it’s a really touristy town but, at this time of year, it has a very laid-back local feel to it and the locals are friendly. Now is the perfect time to visit it seems, as the rainy season isn’t yet here but the tourist season has ended. As a result, accommodation prices are lower and there are very few tourists about. Our hostel room, costing us US$14 is a bargain and we had full use of a kitchen, a TV and, to our amazement, they would even do our washing for us for free. A first for us!
Volcan Arenal is a perfect cone-shape and dominates the skyline above the town when it’s not covered in cloud (which is seems to be most of the time!). We were here for three days and only one day could we see the whole volcano. It is an impressive sight, even if the lava flow is on the other side.
The other days it was covered in cloud and, if you didn’t know there was a volcano in the area, you’d think it was just a hill hiding behind the cloud. At around 1600 meters it’s by no means large and only towers 1350m above the town.
Costa Rica is full of energetic options…. surfing, rafting, rappelling, canoeing, hiking, zip-lines, hanging bridges etc but the big downside is that its expensive and many of the sites to see are a fair distance out of town. Taxis are expensive and there are no local buses apart from those that go between towns. We shouted ourselves one excursion that took us hiking, around the other side of the volcano where the lava is flowing and to some thermal baths. All a bit touristy but that seems to be what this part of Costa Rica is about…. like it or not.
We did, to our delight, see a toucan pop out of his nest (that he’d stolen from a woodpecker). It's the first time we’ve seen one in the wild and he kept popping his head out to see what the noise was, looking just like a puppet on a stick. He was bigger than the toucans we’d seen in Brazil, with far more yellow.
On a short and easy hike through the jungle we spotted howler and white-faced monkeys in the trees plus more toucans. Pretty lucky on the whole as I don’t think the wildlife usually hangs around the hiking trails. Some of the plants were amazing with huge glossy leaves.
Behind this cloud is the volcano and we were on the side where the lava flow is. In the daylight we saw white puffs of smoke as rocks tumbled down the mountainside but when it got dark we were lucky to see red-hot lava flowing down the slopes below the cloud line. The volcano erupted in 1525 then was dormant until 1968 when it erupted big time and ruined a few towns in the area. It has been active since and the last big eruption was around 2002 but it’s been quietly puffing away and spewing lava since then. It’s the main attraction in the area but apparently only about 30% of visitors get to see the lava so we were incredibly lucky.
The hot springs we visited that night were at the foot of the volcano and were pretty amazing; 25 different pools of varying temperatures and some so large you could do proper laps in them. The hottest pool was 67 degrees C and fed by water pumped straight from an underground lake. The water coming from the lake was too hot to touch. The pools were on a site that, about 10 years ago, was a cattle farm. The farmer had some folk out digging a well and they didn’t charge him for the job as they could only get hot water. Of course the farmer shut off a few paddocks, developed the springs and now has an undoubtedly massive (if the entry fee is anything to go by!) income from these pools that cascade down the hillside amid palm trees and other exotic greenery. It was really quiet when we were there but in the peak season it would be heaving with tourists and probably rather unpleasant.
We hiked to a waterfall high in the hills nearby the volcano. We passed this house and I was sidetracked by these amazing potted ferns. I’ve never seen potted ferns quite this size before (by way of explanation, I’m a bit of a pot-plant fan).
The waterfall was only small but impressive nonetheless and fell some 70 meters into the pool below. What wasn’t impressive was the cost of seeing it. Yes, they charged us to see the waterfall. The cost of walking to see a volcano in Chile? Zero. The cost of walking to see a glacier in New Zealand? Zero. The cost of walking to see a waterfall in Costa Rica? US$9 per person. Robbery. As Euan said, it makes the cost of visiting Windsor Castle seem OK; at least a reasonable amount of money was invested in the first place!
The pool at the base of the waterfall was great for swimming but it was like swimming into a very strong current. Even through the waterfall was small, the force of the water pushing outwards was huge and it was quite a struggle to move inwards. Euan was shouting at me to go a bit closer so he could take a photo….. I was struggling as it was and as soon as I stopped I was swept back to the shore!
It was a picturesque place in a beautiful setting
and there were some lovely pools to swim in and loads of rocks to lie on. Unfortunately there were quite a few other people around and it looked like a human equivalent of a seal colony.
There were some great views of the volcano on the way back down to La Fortuna
and we could even see steaming lava flowing down the slope.
We stayed four nights in La Fortuna and spent a lot of our time there with Heiko, a German chap taking time out from his unusual (and stressful) job. He is a social worker and manages one of these places set up by the council, where addicts go to administer their drug of choice under supervision. I’ve never heard of these places before (but know I’m happily naive in these matters!) but it just sounds bizarre. The people that use the place are allocated a number, go into a room with a glass wall (so they can be observed) for a specific amount of time to do whatever they do and are called out over microphone if they’re taking too long. Outside of the room there is a bar, a café and a place where they can chill before heading back out into the city. Heiko said you wouldn’t believe the people that you get going in there – anyone from normal addicts to doctors and high-powered business people….. Each to their own I guess and credit to him, it sounded like a damn hard job to do well and stay sane.
Now, I’m not a fan of small dogs but these two were characters. Mathais (L) and Lucia (R) lived at the hostel and were very very vocal guard dogs. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite the size, dogs instinctively guard and these two were quite smart I think. Lucia, not much larger than a big rat, didn’t bother Euan, Heiko or I but happily latched onto the achilles (her jaws wouldn’t fit around his ankle) of a middle-aged Englishman who arrived the last night we were there. This chap had all sorts in his luggage and had been stopped in Columbia at a check point and caught some really dodgy stuff. A US$60 ‘fine’ sorted him out and away he went. I think the little dog was quite onto it.
We only have 8 days in Costa Rica and decided to just visit two places; La Fortuna and Monteverde. Costa Rica has some stunning beaches from what we’ve heard but we thought Brazil had some stunning beaches so opted for the volcano and highlands of Costa Rica.
Euans turn came in Costa Rica when some pompous official decided that he had no room left in his passport for stamps and he couldn’t enter the country. I had been agead of him and had to watch from the other side as he got incredibly wound up and eventually wore the official down.
View Costa Rica in a larger map
Our first sights of Costa Rica weren’t anything like we expected although, to be fair, we were only an hour outside of the main city, San José. When the taxi driver asked me if my earrings were gold (no!!) we decided that we’d better be a bit careful about our appearances. This is the first time anyone has shown open interest in what we had with us. The ‘gold’ earrings came straight off and were replaced with cheap-looking glass ones.
San José wasn’t somewhere we wanted to spend much time at all but we did have a look around the city centre and had a great meal in a grimy café deep in the central market where, apparently (as we found out later) very few tourists go without being robbed. We weren’t carrying anything with us and weren’t worth robbing anyhow. The fish stew I had was just amazing and made up for the two cockroaches I killed on the table while eating.
San José had a few nice buildings, the Post Office being one of them
and the Teatro Nacional, built in 1897, is considered San José’s most impressive public building. Most people we met seem to have spent very little time in the capital because of crime and the fact that the rest of the country is so much nicer. Some people don’t even come into San José, opting to stay in the small city of Alajuela that is close to the airport.
We relished the relatively short distances and made the trip to La Fortuna, a town that sits at the base of the active Volcan Arenal. The distance was minimal but the stop-start of the bus combined with the really hilly and windy roads turned what should have been a two-hour journey into one that lasted 4 ½ hours. We didn’t mind – having come from Brazil, it’s a lot better than spending 16 hours on a bus!
La Fortuna is unusual in that it’s a really touristy town but, at this time of year, it has a very laid-back local feel to it and the locals are friendly. Now is the perfect time to visit it seems, as the rainy season isn’t yet here but the tourist season has ended. As a result, accommodation prices are lower and there are very few tourists about. Our hostel room, costing us US$14 is a bargain and we had full use of a kitchen, a TV and, to our amazement, they would even do our washing for us for free. A first for us!
Volcan Arenal is a perfect cone-shape and dominates the skyline above the town when it’s not covered in cloud (which is seems to be most of the time!). We were here for three days and only one day could we see the whole volcano. It is an impressive sight, even if the lava flow is on the other side.
The other days it was covered in cloud and, if you didn’t know there was a volcano in the area, you’d think it was just a hill hiding behind the cloud. At around 1600 meters it’s by no means large and only towers 1350m above the town.
Costa Rica is full of energetic options…. surfing, rafting, rappelling, canoeing, hiking, zip-lines, hanging bridges etc but the big downside is that its expensive and many of the sites to see are a fair distance out of town. Taxis are expensive and there are no local buses apart from those that go between towns. We shouted ourselves one excursion that took us hiking, around the other side of the volcano where the lava is flowing and to some thermal baths. All a bit touristy but that seems to be what this part of Costa Rica is about…. like it or not.
We did, to our delight, see a toucan pop out of his nest (that he’d stolen from a woodpecker). It's the first time we’ve seen one in the wild and he kept popping his head out to see what the noise was, looking just like a puppet on a stick. He was bigger than the toucans we’d seen in Brazil, with far more yellow.
On a short and easy hike through the jungle we spotted howler and white-faced monkeys in the trees plus more toucans. Pretty lucky on the whole as I don’t think the wildlife usually hangs around the hiking trails. Some of the plants were amazing with huge glossy leaves.
Behind this cloud is the volcano and we were on the side where the lava flow is. In the daylight we saw white puffs of smoke as rocks tumbled down the mountainside but when it got dark we were lucky to see red-hot lava flowing down the slopes below the cloud line. The volcano erupted in 1525 then was dormant until 1968 when it erupted big time and ruined a few towns in the area. It has been active since and the last big eruption was around 2002 but it’s been quietly puffing away and spewing lava since then. It’s the main attraction in the area but apparently only about 30% of visitors get to see the lava so we were incredibly lucky.
The hot springs we visited that night were at the foot of the volcano and were pretty amazing; 25 different pools of varying temperatures and some so large you could do proper laps in them. The hottest pool was 67 degrees C and fed by water pumped straight from an underground lake. The water coming from the lake was too hot to touch. The pools were on a site that, about 10 years ago, was a cattle farm. The farmer had some folk out digging a well and they didn’t charge him for the job as they could only get hot water. Of course the farmer shut off a few paddocks, developed the springs and now has an undoubtedly massive (if the entry fee is anything to go by!) income from these pools that cascade down the hillside amid palm trees and other exotic greenery. It was really quiet when we were there but in the peak season it would be heaving with tourists and probably rather unpleasant.
We hiked to a waterfall high in the hills nearby the volcano. We passed this house and I was sidetracked by these amazing potted ferns. I’ve never seen potted ferns quite this size before (by way of explanation, I’m a bit of a pot-plant fan).
The waterfall was only small but impressive nonetheless and fell some 70 meters into the pool below. What wasn’t impressive was the cost of seeing it. Yes, they charged us to see the waterfall. The cost of walking to see a volcano in Chile? Zero. The cost of walking to see a glacier in New Zealand? Zero. The cost of walking to see a waterfall in Costa Rica? US$9 per person. Robbery. As Euan said, it makes the cost of visiting Windsor Castle seem OK; at least a reasonable amount of money was invested in the first place!
The pool at the base of the waterfall was great for swimming but it was like swimming into a very strong current. Even through the waterfall was small, the force of the water pushing outwards was huge and it was quite a struggle to move inwards. Euan was shouting at me to go a bit closer so he could take a photo….. I was struggling as it was and as soon as I stopped I was swept back to the shore!
It was a picturesque place in a beautiful setting
and there were some lovely pools to swim in and loads of rocks to lie on. Unfortunately there were quite a few other people around and it looked like a human equivalent of a seal colony.
There were some great views of the volcano on the way back down to La Fortuna
and we could even see steaming lava flowing down the slope.
We stayed four nights in La Fortuna and spent a lot of our time there with Heiko, a German chap taking time out from his unusual (and stressful) job. He is a social worker and manages one of these places set up by the council, where addicts go to administer their drug of choice under supervision. I’ve never heard of these places before (but know I’m happily naive in these matters!) but it just sounds bizarre. The people that use the place are allocated a number, go into a room with a glass wall (so they can be observed) for a specific amount of time to do whatever they do and are called out over microphone if they’re taking too long. Outside of the room there is a bar, a café and a place where they can chill before heading back out into the city. Heiko said you wouldn’t believe the people that you get going in there – anyone from normal addicts to doctors and high-powered business people….. Each to their own I guess and credit to him, it sounded like a damn hard job to do well and stay sane.
Now, I’m not a fan of small dogs but these two were characters. Mathais (L) and Lucia (R) lived at the hostel and were very very vocal guard dogs. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite the size, dogs instinctively guard and these two were quite smart I think. Lucia, not much larger than a big rat, didn’t bother Euan, Heiko or I but happily latched onto the achilles (her jaws wouldn’t fit around his ankle) of a middle-aged Englishman who arrived the last night we were there. This chap had all sorts in his luggage and had been stopped in Columbia at a check point and caught some really dodgy stuff. A US$60 ‘fine’ sorted him out and away he went. I think the little dog was quite onto it.
We only have 8 days in Costa Rica and decided to just visit two places; La Fortuna and Monteverde. Costa Rica has some stunning beaches from what we’ve heard but we thought Brazil had some stunning beaches so opted for the volcano and highlands of Costa Rica.
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