Pura vida? Well, some interesting places
Apr 27 '01
The Bottom Line Where to see wildlife (owls are the nightlife). You need to get up before the birds anyway. When not in the forest, you don't need to be uncomfortable.
Costa Rica is a small country with great biodiversity. It was built relatively recently in geological time by volcanoes, and it is very unflat. Flying in the copilot seat of a single-engine plane from the Marenco Biological station in the roadless southwest, I thought that I should watch for a place to land the plane. Not that I have any idea how to do that, but I didn't see anyplace flat until we reached the valley in which half the population lives -- where there is a real airport.
The first time I went to the Monteverde cloud forest, the road was the bumpiest I had experienced. In the ten years since then, I have been on far worse roads in Ecuador, Tobago, Maui, and one in California (east of Death Valley). This month, it took five and a half hours to go the 62 miles from Arenal Volcano to Monteverde. The first 30-40 miles were paved and the rest was rough but not dangerous.
With such a long prelude, it's probably good that I am not in a position to suggest every place of interest. Indeed, my plan was to write about two very pleasant highland hotels each of which are about half an hour from the Juan Santamaría International Airport and, depending upon traffic, an hour from the center of the capital city.
Central Highlands
If one is looking for nightlife, one should stay in the capital. Otherwise, all the major sites can be visited in a day. Moreover, they are bunched together: the colonial opera house (modeled on the old Paris one), the gold museum, the jade museum, the national (historical) museum, and the pre-Columbian museum.
The Chalet Tirol, above Heredia, was chilly at night. The rooms and cabins have fireplaces rather than air-conditioners. Within the grounds is what is grandly called the Bioplanet Institute, which is primarily an insect museum with a huge collection of butterflies and beetles artfully arranged.
The Hotel Buena Vista, above Alajuela, deserves its name. It commands a view of the San José valley, framed by a hillside of coffee trees. (I think they are shrubs rather than trees, but...) The temperature even in the hottest month (April) was pleasant. It has a small swimming pool and an excellent restaurant.
The road to Poas Volcano crosses the road between the provincial capitals of Heredia and Alajuela. Poas steams and can be viewed close-up, unlike Arenal, which throws up ashes and/or molten boulders on a daily basis, and which should be viewed from a distance -- a greater distance than Tabacon Hot Springs, as I explained in my epinion about Arenal.
Both cities have impressive old churches, and there is a major butterfly ranch near Alajuela. (There are 900 some species of butterflies in Costa Rica.) Heredia is closer to Brasulio Carrillo National Park on the Caribbean slope of Barva Volcano.
East Side Nature Reserves
Further east is the Selva Reserve. We stayed at Selva Verde Lodge, a major ecotourism gathering point. One of the paradoxes of ecotourism is that ecotourists like the feel of polished hardwood floors under their bare feet, so this lodge in the midst of 500 acres of privately preserved rain forest is built with hardwood trees from perhaps another 500 acres cut down elsewhere. One feels one is really in the jungle, but, disconcertingly after walking a seemingly long ways from the lobby along wooden bridges, one can still hear occasional trucks rumbling by during the night.
It is also possible to stay in the La Selva Organization for Tropical Studies complex, about half an hour away. It is a prime birding spot.
It is said that the Caribbean side of Costa Rica has two seasons, the rainy season and the flood season. Tortugeros National Park is famous as a place to see green sea turtles laying their eggs accompanied by ecotourists.
Between Selva Verde and Arenal Volcano, we stopped at a very elegant and large hot springs resort, El Tucano. One can go into the stream where the hot water flows in or two jacuzzis or a warm swimming pool. The immense dining room serves good food.
West Side Nature Reserves
In the middle of the country, there is the natural light show of Arenal, though the volcanic activity is often shrouded by clouds. Lake Arenal provides rainbow bass fishing, I'm told. I've never seen a rainbow bass, though I ate a lot of sea bass in western Costa Rica.
The mecca of quetzal worshippers and of those wanting to stroll above the cloud forest canopy is Monteverde, about which I have written an epinion.
South of the Pacific Ocean port of Puntarenas (a city of less charm even than Long Beach!) is Carara National Park, probably the hottest of the birding hot spots, where one is certain to hear macaws, and almost certain to see them. We also watched an anteater tearing apart a termite nest about 30 feet up in a tree, and nesting boatbill herons. I can testify that in the last month of the (Pacific slope) dry season, it is very hot and humid. It can't be much more humid during the rainy season, though muddier.
I cannot recommend the place where we stayed. Dundee Ranch has beautiful grounds and a nice pool, but the beds were soft and saggy, the air-conditioning was very inadequate, as were the portions of food.
Palo Verde national Park, north of Puntarenas, where the Tempisque and Bebedero rivers empty into the gulf of Nicoya is a good place for exploring mangrove swamps -- in boats, because, in the words of A Naturalist's Guide to the Tropics, the soil in which mangroves grow is "incoherent and yielding." It seems firm enough for many crocodiles to sleep in the sun at low tide, however.
The unfancy Rancho Humo, where we stayed (and whose boatmen took us out to see birds and monkeys and crocodiles) is nearly overrun with large green iguanas. Allegedly, they "taste like chicken," and allegedly aren't eaten any more. The food was fine and the view from the dining building is impressive.
South of Puntarenas is the beautiful beach on Manuel Antonio National Park. There are many choices of lodging. I saw all three kinds of Costa Rica monkeys (howler, spider, white-faced) within a space of two hours, and the water in the small bay is as warm as the proverbial bathwater.
The final ecotourist destination with which I have some familiarity is Corcovado National Park on the Osa peninsula. We stayed at the Marenco Biological Reserve adjacent to the park (it is almost entirely servicing ecotourists rather than doing research, unlike Selva Verde), which we reached by boat and left by the aforementioned single-engine plane. Although it is supposed to have great biodiversity (285 species of birds, more than the continental US and Canada combined, 139 species of mammals, etc.), we didn't see anything there that we did not see elsewhere (sloths, guans) with the exception of a coral snake, one of only two snakes I saw in two two-week trips to Costa Rica). Do I need to add that it was hot and humid?
Conclusion
If you want to see tropical rain forest life, you need to prepare to be wet: both from inside and out. Tortugero, Selva Verde, Carara, and Corcovado are very sticky. Doused in Jungle Juice (forget Cutter's!), I was bitten by insects hardly at all.
Although the country is not a Club Med, there are many places providing excellent accommodations, some of which I've mentioned above.
Costa Rica is, I'm sure, a splendid place for immersion Spanish, having excellent health infrastructure and very friendly people. If you aren't going to learn Spanish or are not interested in viewing wildlife (or aren't conducting business), I would not recommend going to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is more accessible than Ecuador, the place with even greater biodiversity.
Although it is necessary to remember that one is in the wild, not in a jungle theme park, and being sticky is part of the experience, it is not necessary to "rough it" in either Costa Rica or Ecuador. There are places with exquisite accommodations and food. For gambling and nightlife, stick to the capital, or go to Las Vegas or Rio de Janeiro. The "good life" (pura vida) is not for those who crave shopping malls, discotheques, or stiptease-shows. These are available in San José, but why bother to leave the country for them?
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