After a short stop in Panama City with a visit to the Panama Canal and the Old City it is another hour flying over jungle and beautiful islands to San José.My first stay is Xandari Resort & Spa, on an arc from the airport, a beautiful old hippie tent with a lovely garden. Mondrian?
A first introduction to the nice casual atmosphere and very friendly people…
I have a rental vehicle, a tough 4X4 that you really need in Costa Rica. I drive east to Puerto Viejo, via Limón on the Caribbean Sea. Beautiful hotel, Le Cameléon. No large-scale hotels here. Coconut palms and beautiful pile clouds, for which the Caribbean are known. Puerto Viego, a sleeping town with many pubs, some fine restaurants with names like Amimodo and restaurante La Pecora Nera with good Italian cuisine and yes, also a healthy population of rastafarians, who ask “Do you want to smoke?”. “No I’m from Amsterdam.” You immediately get a broad smile in response.
Gym at the locals, haha, what an experience! Outside, under a steel roof you can completely go crazy with rusty weights. The sweat from your body exercises, it’s 28°. But what an experience. Some Americans look like rusty old Mg’s wintering here and a bunch of French people in overdrive.
Tortuguero national park is my first introduction to the green jungle of Costa Rica. Wild beaches, no buildings, the nursery of thousands of turtles. Luis tells me there are still 24 jaguars out there, three species of monkeys and about 100 bird species. Tortuguero reminds me of the Amazon, water and swamps. In the afternoon I go looking for arrow frogs and ‘spider monkeys’. I take the stuka flies with it wholeheartedly.
My adventure continues from Pavona – where we leave the car – by boat, although difficult due to the low water. Then via Guapiles to Arenal. More than 3m of rain falls here every year. Nayara Springs is a top hotel with a beautiful garden. Here everything is right. The next morning I get to see the volcano, only in the morning, afternoon rain. The rain in the tropics feels like a warm blanket, not like ours. It also gives you time to read a book or enjoy a late lunch. I love this.
Via Gaunacaste, stay at ‘Rio Perdido’, a thermal spa lodge to the Pacific. Next stop Manuel Antonio national park. What a difference with the Caribbean. It’s like a carnival. Hundreds of hotels, villas, gentlemens bars, restaurants, golf clubs… Everything is here. Next morning to the park, early from the feathers is the message to avoid the mass of visitors who come ‘subject to’ the most beautiful beach of Costa Rica in the national park and have no interest in fauna and flora at all.
I’m starting to despair anyway. Is Costa Rica the jungle paradise or is it the playground of the USA with paragliding, abseilung, thermal spa, yoga and rafting that is offered everywhere?
No, i’m finally getting to a place where I feel completely at home. Local friendly people, nature to tell you, away from mass tourism. Playa Cativo is only accessible by speedboat from Golfito. No roads here. On the other side the Corcovado national park. Beautiful! I’m sailing over a tropical fjord! In August/September the wave is populated by humpback whales with young. Not only whales and dolphins but also, in the same period, whale sharks.
The lodge, six rooms and one casita located in the primary rainforest of Piedras Blancas national park, is a gem. An oasis of nature, I go out with a guide. It’s an eight-hour walk to the nearest road.
My adventure in Costa Rica is coming to an end. The ‘fast and furious’ on the local roads to drive past trucks in kolonne, the fairground attractions in Manuel Antonio and Arenal, the friendly people, the beautiful bird life with 95 endemic species, the howler monkeys that roar your morning out of bed.
What I won’t forget is the sports with the locals in Puerto Viejo and the owner of the gym Humberto, who said to me, “Joseph, relax, you are in heaven”.
