Category: Costa Rica

We headed off to Manuel Antonia park. The drive was just over an hour along a narrow coastal road.  The traffic wasn’t as bad as previous days so it was a pleasant hour. We arrived at our accommodation – Manual Antonio Park House– in a stretch of coast that was packed with accommodation.  The house used to be a restaurant but was turned into a guest house. It was run by a Dutch local called Michael who did a great job of making the place feel like a family home.  It had a huge pool and was completely surrounded by national park – so we got to see monkeys and Agouti (guinea pig) while chilling around the pool or in the very comfortable lounge.  We went for a walk to explore the area and I dropped off a load of washing at a local hotel that did laundry – I was told it was 1800 colones a kg which was reasonable so I was a bit pissed off when they said they had a minimum charge of 5000 colones (A$15) for my 1kg.

Michael offered to cook us dinner – he used to own his own restaurant in the area. I had the veggie lasagna and Deryn had the chicken pasta. Delicious. Micahel was amazed I could manage seconds! 

We were planning on getting to Manual Antonio National Park ahead of opening at 7am (it’s Costa Rica’s Mostar popular national park) but Michael said that is the busiest time, its best to turn up around 10 when the early arrivers start leaving.  So we grabbed a local bus at around 9.45 (340 colones each/$1.20) and was in the park by 10.30.  It cost $16 each.  Most of the early path were wheelchair accessible so it was easy walking.  It wasn’t too busy but it certainly was hot so at the earliest opportunity we headed into the sea.  The landscape was stunning, tropical rainforest surrounded by stunning beaches on both sides.  There were plenty of animals (monkeys and iguanas) as well as birds and butterflies.  We spent a fair bit of time at Playitas Beach which was at the northern tip of the peninsula.  

We spent about 3 hours in the park and walked over 8kms so were happy to head home to the pool and get out of the heat.   We spent a pleasant afternoon chilling by the pool reading. We were treated to another of Michael’s meals for dinner – he gave me a massive plate of pasta and again was astounded that I finished it.  Having the munchies certainly helped. 

We had a leisurely start to the day as our next stop was the nicely named Cool Vibes Beach Hotelon the reasonably well know surf beach of Dominical. The drive was very easy and within the hour we were checked in to a well run and busy Cool Vibes hostel.  The pool was tiny but that was fine as it was only 100m from the beach.  The surf was obviously good as the place was packed with surfy types and there must have been 20 surfboards on the rack outside our room.  

We headed down to the beach for a swim and to explore the area.  The beach was pebbly with dark sand but pretty impressive.  The surf was very choppy but the water temperature was perfect.  We walked down the river at the end of the beach and had some fun diving into it and floating back towards the ocean.  The town itself was tiny with half a dozen shops and the same number of restaurants.  We grabbed a drink at Coca before heading home for another swim. It started absolutely bucketing down so we headed indoors for several hours to wait the calm.  It never came so we drove back into town for dinner and an early bed. 

The next morning we drove the 3 kms down the road to Hacienda Baru, a private natural park.  Another $15 and we were enjoying the tropical rainforest once again.  It was almost deserted which was a treat after Manual Antonio.  We saw the usual monkeys, Iguanas and birds but not anything new which was a tad disappointing. After  really enjoying the drinks yesterday, we headed back to Coca for lunch.  Very good. The afternoon was spent chilling again before I cooked our leftover spaghetti and vegetables for a tasty wee dinner. That followed by another shite Netflix movie – our hit ratio has been sub 30% on the tour to date.  Terrible recommendations from the online critics. 

Deryn spent most of the following morning trying to sort out her phone. We’re not quite sure where it is – either at the DHL office or customs. We’re going to start with the DHL office and work our way from there. We were going to drive back to San Jose via route 2 (very mountainous) but decided with all the rain around visibility could be a problem.  Before heading away we went for our last swim in the ocean for a while. It was absolutely teaming down which made it even more special.

We stopped at Ridiculous (priced) Burgers again for another overpriced burger as we passed through Jaco. After that the traffic wasn’t too bad until we got close to the airport and the DHL office.  Initial discussions were promising but soon turned to dust and it now looks like Deryn’s phone is a lost phone. Incompetence. The drive to our hostel Finca Escalante– was slow but it was peak hour. 

The hostel was lovely.  It used to be a wealthy family home and was converted to a hostel a few years back.  It was in the heart of the gastrointestinal area of San José so their were plenty of decent restaurants in the area.  We met a friendly local so spent the evening playing cards and finishing off our alcohol.  The next day was very slow but we did venture our for a walk for lunch before retreating back to the hostel for movies and sleep.  We headed out for a meal – best meal on tour so far.  I had sweet potatoes gnocchi and Deryn had tuna. 

Our flight was at 1.50 so it was a leisurely start to the day before heading off to the airport at 10. 

Our first night’s sleep in Costa Rica was punctuated by fireworks going off at 10pm (OK) and then 4am and 530am (Not OK). The only reason given by Charles is that there is a firework factory nearby – not sure of that marketing strategy.

After an amazing breakfast – fruit, eggs and potatoes we started out for our 3 hour drive to Fortuna. The roads were really busy because it was the Black Madonna public holiday. The roads reminded us of NZ – hilly and windy. And slow. But it was lovely countryside to be driving through although it got a bit dodgy when we hit a really foggy patch at the highest part of the journey.  We stopped for a coffee in a little town on the way and to get a break from the really slow traffic.  We finally arrived in La Fortuna about 1.30pm and spent a fair bit of time trying to find our backpackers – Hostel Packpackers La Fortuna– basically because they have 3 hostels in the town.  The hostel was pretty cool, you are given a wristband which then gives you access to the facilities at all the hostels which include a pool and a hot pool.  We unpacked and them grabbed a feed at the bar across the road.  I ordered a local beer thinking it would be cheaper – no luck, $9 for a pint.  Amazing how expensive everything is – most people coming to Costa Rica are from the US, Canada and Europe.  They usually come for 2 weeks and pre-book everything so are not really noticing the pricing. We on the other hand have been backpacking through cheap counties and have got used to those prices.  We decided after that to cook more of our own food while here in Costa Rica.  

We booked our canyoning for the next day – US$80 each.  On our way to dinner we met a local with whom we had a bit of fun with.  A few games of cards and some rum/wine before we headed to the pool table to teach the other travellers ‘NZ rules’ at the pool table. We were tucked up in our beds by midnight ready for our early start.  We were picked up by Pure Trek Canyoning at 7.30 – and they arrived on the second.  Deryn assumed Costa Rica would be similar to our Colombian experience – we now know different!  It was a short drive to the start where we changed into our wet weather gear and given a helmet and a heavy duty set of gloves. Our adventure included 4 rappels (3 waterfalls and 1 rock wall), monkey drop and a rock climb.  The first rappel was over 50 metres so it was in at the deep end!  Being dropped into a pond and rappelling through waterfalls was pretty amazing but there wasn’t really the fear factor Deryn and I were expecting.  They wanted US$30 for the photos they took, but the twotightnomads just couldn’t spend the money.  The bus took us back to their head office for a traditional Loi local meal – beans, rice, salad and chicken, topped off by this incredible sauce called Lazana Salsa.  

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After that excitement we headed back to our backpackers for an afternoon chilling around the pool before driving 5km north of the town to some hot baths. It was 5000 colons/US$10 to enter but the facilities were pretty good. Including a couple of water slides that Deryn and I had a go on.  There was only 1 really hot pool, the others ranging from tepid to cold.  Still it was a couple of pleasant hours – would have been amazing if Arenal volcano has popped through the clouds for a bit longer.  

We headed out for an early meal before getting back into the routine of a few games of cards and the rum/wine.  We popped out and saw our new local friend after a couple of hours but were in bed by 10 as we planned a hike the next morning.   We picked the Arenal 1968 walk (that was when it last had a significant eruption – its been erupting regularly every few years since – nothing as major though). It was a 35 min drive from La Fortuna, and then US$16 each for the hike!  We got there at 9 to it wasn’t too busy.  It was a 5.1km walk around a lake and then up to a lookout where you had a great view of Arenal Volcano (assuming there is no cloud).  We saw a few birds, but the highlight were these inedible ant trains carrying chopped off leaves as fuel for the fungi in their nexts. Amazing. The walk was OK but sorry to sound like a stuck record, but not worth the US$16 each.  The walk was basically natural with very little human involvement – be good to know what they do with the money?

On the way back we stopped at the Scratch River for its famous free hot water pools.  It was really busy so you had to use some local parking lads who charged you a fee for their advice and to clean the river.  When asked how much he said between 3000 and 5000 colons (US$6-10).  I gave him 1400.   You had to walk under an over bridge to get the pools but it was definitely worth it. It was busy – the damn Black Madonna – but still easy to find your own spot in the river. We hung there for 30 minutes to so before heading back to our backpackers.  We chilled for a few hours before heading out for dinner – Dits did a scout run returning empty handed saying she would rather buy some pasta in the supermarket and cook it ourselves. Which is what’s we did and it was really good!!  Then it was back to cards and rum/wine.  I ran out of rum around 10pm so we headed out to buy some more and had a bit of wonder around town.  There were quite a few weirdo’s out and about, including a very pissed local who enjoyed a swig out of my bottle of rum.  We got quite a few offers of cheap cocaine from various drunk locals.  Thanks, but no thanks. 

It was a bit of a slow start the next morning but we managed to get away just before our 11am checkout time for our 2 hour drive to Monteverde.  Amazingly the town was 26km as the crow flies but over 110 km by road.  It was a lovely drive around the western bank of Lake Arenal and then into the hills of The Children’s Eternal Rain Forest. The last 45 minutes was on dirt roads which made for slow going.  Monteverde on first impressions was a lot more laid back than La Fortuna. Our hostel, Cabinas El Puebla, was near the centre of town, and given the prices we had been paying in Costa Rica, incredibly cheap at $26 per night.  We had our standard Costs Rican lunch of cheese and salad sandwiches in the hostels cute kitchen and then chilled for a few hours.  Deryn booked us a zip lining session the next morning with Extremo Canopy after which we headed out for a late meal (for us) at 7pm.  The place was packed with northern hemisphere tourists so it took 4 goes before we could find a place we could eat. 

It was a 20 minute drive to Extremo. We got there at 10.55 to be greeted by 20 people standing in the queue to check in and another 10 or so already checked in. We had read about the crowds but hoped for better. We finally got checked in, got our harnesses on and the went for our briefing. One for the English and the other Spanish. There was about 20 in each group. The Spanish finished first but waited for the English group to go first – tourists are more likely to complain on social media?  I made sure I got to the front of the queue so for all 12 zip lines it was Deryn and I first and second!  It was a real blast. 4 of the lines were over 400m, one superman line was 750 (you lie down with your feet in a harness for the superman zip). A couple of lines Deryn and I went together.  We finished with a Tarzan swing where you are 100ft up a platform and drop into a huge swing.  A real adrenalin buzz and not too bad value at $50.  We met a young English couple – Jack and Yasmin – who had a phone and took some photos of Deryn and I.  In return we dropped them off back at the village so they didn’t have to wait 45min for the tour bus.  Before we left a couple of Scarlet Macaws took a liking to Jack and chased him around the Extremo office.  Hilarious. 

We spent the afternoon investigating some free walks in the area but nothing was that inspiring so decided to flag it. I headed up the the very popular Taco Taco Taqueriato grab an outdoor table about 5.30 to wait for Dits while she did her daily yoga. Tried a few local beers and then a spicy margarita – nearly blew my head off. The meal was ok – not sure why the place was so popular? We managed to get away reasonably early but had to detour to a local cafe to access wifi so we could cancel our booking in Playa Hermosa as it was the wrong Playa Hermosa nearly 300km from where we wanted to go. We found a place in Jaco and headed off. 

The drive was pleasant – again the roads reminded us of the back roads in NZ. We stopped briefly on Crocodile Bridge over the Tarcoles River to marvel at the many very large crocodiles cruising in the muddy waters below. We arrived at our Beach Break Resortin Jaco just after midday.  The place was very ‘resorty’ but perfect to chill for a day before we headed up to Manuel Antonia National Park.  We headed into town for dinner at the famous Ridiculous Burgers before heading home for a Netflix movie. 

The next morning it was a buffet breakfast with the American tour groups before Deryn headed off for the oldest surf group lesson ever.  I finished “The Power Of The Dog” (incredible read) and chilled by the pool after a quick dip in the very warm sea.