Trips about Costa Rica 2006
Costa Rica 2006
In June of 2006, Lydia Dennis, my then girlfriend, and I took a 3.5 week trip to Costa Rica, traveling throughout the country by bus and car. At the time I made several pages of notes detailing how we spent our days, as well as taking over 1000 photographs over the course of our time there. I never managed to put together a good format for actually posting my notes and memories of our trip, until the summer of 2008.
This and the series of posts from June 2006 are all backdated and are based on the roughly 6 pages of notes I took while there. The photo gallery for the trip is split into several subalbums roughly corresponding to the posts here. All the references I make to places have mostly not been checked since June 2006 (unless I've linked to a website for them), so any information from this trip is probably out of date by now. With regards to the posts, the one thing I regret is not taking more "travel" photographs. However, pulling out my big DSLR was not something I wanted to do just anywhere and I didn't yet have any smaller camera that was less conspicuous.
I've also tried to include the names or restaurants we ate at and any particular things that were nice there. Some were special enough for me to still remember, and some were nothing to write home about.
Alajuela, Costa Rica
Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.
Even though our flight was originally supposed to arrive in the early afternoon, the inevitable schedule changes resulted in our arriving in the late evening and having to deal with navigating an unfamiliar country at night. The fact that the hostel we were staying at did not send someone to pick us up, as they had promised that morning, did not help the situation. In any case, a short taxi drive later resulted in our arrival at the Mango Verde Hostel, which at least still had someone who was willing to check us in to our (somewhat) dirty and uncomfortable room. Still, for $30/night it was not bad for something in the center of Alajuela and was at least reasonably safe and secure. Alajuela itself is the location of Costa Rica's primary airport and a much smaller town than the capital, San Jose, which is not too far away.
One of the great things about Alajuela was the rather large central market. Not quite as big as San Jose's, but definitely quite large and full of delicious, fresh tropical fruit. As usual with tropical countries, the bananas, pineapple, mangoes, guavas, and papayas were much better than anything that can be found in the US. The other interesting area in town was the central town square and church, both rather important in a Central American town.
Just a bit north of Alajuela is Zoo Ave, a zoo and conservation society that specializes in Central American and Costa Rican animals and plants. We were lucky enough to see many of animals later on, but it was still a good opportunity to get a preview and is definitely worth a visit. The best photographs from Zoo Ave are already in the main gallery, specifically the Red Macaw and the rather interesting tree that I have not yet identified.
Manuel Antonio and Quepos, Costa Rica
Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.
Our first destination outside of central Costa Rica was Manuel Antonio, primarily known for the national park that shares its name. That deserves its own post, and this one will concentrate on the town and the neighboring town of Quepos.
To get to Manuel Antonio, we took a crowded, several hour bus trip that would've been nice except for the fact that Costa Rican buses are built for much shorter people than myself. On the other hand, the fact that it cost $4 was rather nice. The road to Manuel Antonio is actually pretty good, requiring one to go over only a few rickety bridges but at least lacking the potholes that some of the roads had.
One problem with Manuel Antonio was the lack of ATMs at the time (and possibly still), which meant that everything had to be paid for with cash. The other problem with the town is the lack of good tourist facilities and the fact that the locals know they can charge as much as they want and get away with it.
The town next to Manuel Antonio (which actually does have ATMs and the like) is Quepos. There's nothing extraordinary about Quepos, but it did have a very nice restaurant called Bar/Restaurante Quepos. Everything was good and inexpensive there, especially the fruit drinks, which were delicious and cheap. Going between Quepos and Manuel Antonio is an adventure, consisting of narrow roads and lots of pedestrians. Driving here would've been horrible - it was bad enough in a taxi and bus.
Manuel Antonio itself was rather uninteresting, but it did have a nice beach. Not quite as nice as the ones inside the park, but still rather good.
Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica
Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.
Manuel Antonio is one of the most popular parks in Costa Rica. This is good because the trails are well maintained and the good facilities. It's bad because of the number of people and the fact that the wildlife is completely not afraid of humans. The national park is definitely known for its 3 beautiful beaches that are better maintained than the one in Manuel Antonio. Upon entering, the first beach is Playa Espadilla Sur, beautiful but not that popular:
Further into the park is the most popular beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, which is sheltered and thus has calm water:
And finally, there's Playa Punto Escondido, where iguanas like to spend as much time as humans:
Supposedly, one of the best ways to see things at such a park is to use a guide. However, we were better at spotting animals than our guide and the animals are generally so plentiful that its hard to miss them. Sloths are one of the trickier animals to spot, but we were lucky enough to find this one climbing up from the ground:
Another common animal is the capuchin or white-faced monkey. Those were the easiest to spot as they were simply everywhere:
Among the more rare larger animals was this anteater I spotted:
Finally, there are plenty of smaller creatures everywhere. Among the more prevalent kinds are land crabs and iguanas, as well as weird grasshoppers:
All in all, Manuel Antonio was interesting, but it felt more like a zoo than a real park. Animals were just too plentiful and too unafraid of humans.
Jaco and Escazu, Costa Rica
Please see the first post on Costa Rica for important details about this post.
After spending two whole days in Manuel Antonio, the next morning we took a bus to Jaco. Jaco is the closest beach to San Jose, which means that hotels are overpriced (the cheapest we could find was $70/night for a slightly dirty and run down room) and the food is expensive and not that good. The beach was nice, but nothing amazing. It reminded me quite a bit of the typical American seaside resort with nothing of the beauty and remoteness of other areas in Costa Rica.
The following day we took a bus back to San Jose and rented a car from Dollar Costa Rica. While I've driven enough times in New York City that I thought I could handle driving in Costa Rica, that was not the case. While the drivers there are not that much crazier than in NYC, the roads have few signs, many potholes, and are generally winding through narrow mountain passes. The fact that Costa Rican pedestrians and drivers are both crazy does not help the matter.
The original plan had been to make it out of the San Jose area that day. However, the guides books mentioned an amazing wood workshop in Escazu, a wealthy suburb or San Jose and we decided to stop by. We eventually made it there, but ended up spending so much time getting lost that we had to stay in Escazu overnight. We did, however, find a very nice bed & breakfast there called the Costa Verde Inn, which was beautifully decorated with wood panels and wood furniture. A bit far out of town, but very nice overall.