Day 1 – Arriving
In the early hours of December 25th we headed to Toronto Pearson airport to catch our Air Canada Rouge flight to Liberia, Costa Rica. Our flight was fairly uneventful. The flight had very basic ammenities and no included meals but the flight was just under 5 hours so we just passed the time by reading and sleeping.
We had made a car reservation with Hertz weeks prior and when we arrived in Liberia we were greeted by a Hertz representative who told us there was ‘good news and bad news’. Apparently they had overbooked their cars and had no car available to us but they were able to ‘negotiate the same pricing’ with a local company so we could get a car. We were told that all companies were in the same situation and it was very difficult to get a rental car at the peak season (Christmas). Not knowing what other choice we had we went with them and got a car. For anyone reading this, I do not recommend travelling to Costa Rica on Christmas unless you want to pay 3x as much for a vehicle.
Our first stop was at a local Walmart where we picked up some supplies like a large jug of water, bread, peanut butter, jam, some fruit and beach towels.. and of course a SIM card for our phone so we could use google maps. It was the first Walmart we had been to where the parking lot was patrolled by armed guards (with “K9” written on their vests but no dogs in sight)
We traveled about 2.5 hours to the area of Tenorio Volcano National Park, Rio Celeste at a hotel called Posada Rio Celeste La Amistad. We had a late lunch/early dinner in the town of Bijagua before we went to our hotel.
Day 2 – Tenorio Volcano National Park
The next morning we got up early and drove about 2km to the entrance to the Tenorio National Park. We bought our tickets and started on the hike. The area was at a higher elevation and there was a lot of cloud cover so you couldn’t tell there was any volcano nearby and the clouds made everything so lush and green. We hiked about 2km until we got to stairs that led towards a waterfall. The waterfall was beautiful!
We continued our hike along the river feeding the waterfall and there was a point where you can see the water boiling at the surface and there was a strong sulfur smell so you could definitely tell you were near a volcano.
When we finished the hike (about 5km) and got back to the entrance we were amazed how long the line was to buy tickets. When we came we were the only ones and now there was a line of about 80 people. We went back to our hotel, made ourselves some sandwiches and hung out for a few hours.
We got a bit bored of laying around so decided to walk to the river.. on private property where swimming IS allowed. The air was a bit cool and we didn’t think it was warm enough to swim so neither of us brought our bathing suits. It was about a 30 minute hike down steep terrain to get to the river and by the time we got there we wanted to swim of course. Well.. one of us went in
After dinner we went for a night walk around the property of the hotel. There were a lot of ponds around and with the help of a local guide we found about a dozen different kinds of frogs but my favorite was the rainforest frog
Day 3 – Tenerio Volcano NP to Barva Volcano
We had a full breakfast at the hotel and left early because we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We headed south on some bumpy roads and our first stop was the town of Nuevo Arenal. The “original” town of Arenal is now under Lake Arenal when it was dammed in the late 70’s. We were hoping to get glimpses of the Arenal Volcano but it was completely covered by clouds. We were lucky enough to see the Arenal Volcano last time we were in Costa Rica about 8 years ago. We stopped quickly in Nuevo Arenal at a German bakery to get a snack.
We continued our drive around Lake Arenal with our next stop at a hot springs just before getting into La Fortuna. We read in our guide that there were many hotels offering various temperature thermal pools to relax in but most started at around $50US/pp. Our guidebook mentioned a hot spring that is free so we looked that up, parked on the side of the road and checked it out. You had to cross under the highway bridge but the water in the river was beautiful and as warm as a bath. We didn’t want to stay too long as we weren’t sure about the security of our car but we stayed long enough to soak it in (literally)
Our next stop was LaFortuna. A popular place for tourists and a town we spent a night or two in last time we were in Costa Rica. This town is right next to the Arenal Volcano but the clouds didn’t want to leave. We went to the town center to eat our PB&J sandwiches.
We headed out on the road again south towards San Jose. On the route we drove through some switch back roads up to to nearly 7,000ft elevation. Unfortunately it was fairly foggy but I’m sure the view would have been spectacular in areas. We stopped at the La Paz waterfall for a quick photo.
We arrived at our guest house (AirBnB) just before it got dark. This was in the town of Heredia. The hosts offered to cook dinner for us (for a fee of course) and since it saved us from trying to find a restaurant in the dark we gladly agreed. It was a delicious steak dinner.
Day 4 – Braulio Carrilo National Park
The next morning we had breakfast at our guesthouse. Our intention was to visit the Barva Volcano that morning but it was raining quite a bit. It was coming down in buckets and our guide book did not recommend driving the 3km stretch of un-maintained dirt road to the entrance of the park in the rainy season. We decided to not take the risk and skip it. It was strange because we drove about 10 minutes towards our next destination and out of the mountain region and it was clear and sunny. It didn’t stay this way though, there were scattered rain showers throughout our drive to our next destination.
Our next stop was the Braulio Carrilo National Park. We paid the entrance fee and there were 2 short hikes to do on either side of the major highway that runs through the park. First we crossed the highway and did the shorter, 1.5km hike to get a view of the river.
The second path was about 2.5km and closer to the visitors center. We walked the trail, drenched in sweat, trying to find interesting birds, animals or plants. It was all beautiful but it wasn’t until we got back to the parking lot that hanging in a tree was a sloth. I just find it funny that I barely needed to leave to car to find the one animal I was hoping to see.
We hung out at the visitors center eating our PB&J sandwiches then headed the rest of the way to our hotel in Guapiles. The hotel Los Rios had an outdoor pool so we relaxed by the pool the rest of the day after doing a bit of sink laundry. Gareth wanted to explore the town of Guapiles but the tour didn’t last long. It was not built for tourism and there was nothing really to see or do so we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant.
Day 5 – To the Caribbean!
We left early after having breakfast at the hotel and headed south east. We drove past many banana plantations. Once we reached Limon we headed south along the Caribbean coast.
Limon is a port city and a lot of cruise ships dock here. Its known that crime is a bit higher in this area so we didn’t want to stick around. Our destination was Manzanillo, about as far south as you can go on this road and not far from the Panama border. We made a few stops along the way including a black sand beach.
The next stop was Puerto Viejo de Talamanca where we stopped a plant nursery for a self-guided tour of native and exotic fruit trees. The owner was able to show us a red dart frog.
The self-guided tour was okay — it was muddy in spots and it wasn’t exactly clear in some areas which way to go but we found our way. All of the trees labelled.. if you could read the labels were in latin or spanish so the common names for some fruit were hard to identify. At the end we were given a cold fruit drink made from a fruit that I can’t remember the name of and we were given some raw cacao to try that they grow on the farm.
We arrived at our guest house just after 4pm. Its called the Manzanilla Wildlife Refuge Eco-Lodge. It was a lodge built in what is now the Gandoca Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge before it became a Wildlife Refuge. It was about 400m from the park entrance (we had to leave our car at the park entrance and walk so I was very happy that we arrived in day light). It was about a 1km walk to the town from our room for meals. We booked this room for 3 nights. We decided to go into town not long after checking-in to make the most of the remaining day light. We had dinner at a local restaurant. After dinner we were able to find our way back to our lodge in the dark with flashlights. Trying to watch for snakes or ‘highways’ of biting ants.
Day 6 – Manzanillo
We spent the day relaxing. We hiked to a viewpoint inside the park, less than 1km away from our room. There is supposed to be a trail that goes out about 12km but it was very muddy and we read it gets hard to navigate. We weren’t feeling that adventurous. We went to the beach. We read our books, ate some good ceviche and occasionally went in the water to cool off.
Day 7 – Manzanillo
It was new years eve. We spent another day being beach bums. We watched the howler monkeys, birds and lizards. It was a fairly uneventful final day of 2019, it was very peaceful at our beach hotel and we were asleep well before midnight.
Day 8 – Heading back inland
We had a few hours of driving ahead of us so we left fairly early but because it was so hot, we stopped at Puerto Viejo along the way to have a quick swim. The water was much calmer here than in Manzillo and I wish we could have stayed longer. It was definitely a busier town and I imagine much louder at night than where we slept.
We left the Caribbean and took the old road to San Jose (there’s a new toll highway now which makes the trip much faster). It was very scenic in spots. We arrived at our final destination, an AirBnB apartment in the outskirts of Cartago. Cartago is a large city about 30 minutes from San Jose. The owner allowed us to park our car in her gated garage. The apartment was basic. It had a small kitchen so we went to the nearby supermarket and made our own dinner. Eating out in Costa Rica is nearly the same price (or more) as eating out in Canada and we were trying to not waste money.
Day 9 – Irazu and nearby
The next morning we got up early and drove up the winding road to the Irazu Volcano. We stopped along the way at a lookaround
After having a walk around and taking some photos we drove back down the mountain and visited the Lankester botanical garden. The botanical garden had hundreds of varieties of orchids, a japanese garden, a cactus garden and a native tropical plant area. Was a great place to wander for a couple of hours
After the botanical gardens we headed towards the town or Orosi but stopped at a viewpoint/park along the way.
The town of Orosi was nice. There was a town center with a soccer pitch and the cathedral next to it is from the 18th century, the oldest church in Costa Rica that is still in use. Many of the older churches didn’t survive the earthquakes or other natural disasters. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the town center.
After lunch we drove to Tapanti National Park. We convinced the staff that since they were closing in an hour and we already paid for the other National Park that morning to let us in for free. The National Parks are actually expensive for tourists. The Irazu volcano was over $20US/pp and this park would be at least $10US/pp. The money does go towards a good cause but $20US to see a view of a distant waterfall would not have been worth it.
After a short visit to Tapanti we started the drive back to our apartment. We spotted a long suspension bridge across a river and stopped for pictures. We also stopped at the Cachi Dam.
Day 10 – To the Pacific
We left early again as we had a couple hours of driving ahead of us. Our hotel that night was the Cerro Lodge near the Carara National Park. We drove through San Jose and on some toll highways. We arrived around 11am, a few hours before the check-in time. The temperature difference was very noticeable! It was about 20 degrees leaving Cartago and over 30 degrees at the Cerro Lodge. We hung out at the pool for a few hours and at 3pm we left to go on a boat tour on the Tarcoles river with Jungle Crocodile Safari.
The boat tour ended around sunset so we headed back to our hotel, about 20 minutes away, to have dinner.
Day 11 – The Ferry
We reserved a spot on the Ferry from Punta Arenas to Paquera at 2PM and it would take 1.5 hours to drive there so we had the morning to visit the Carara National Park. We got an early start as most of the animal activity is in the morning. First though, we had breakfast at the hotel and the hotel had put out fruit for the animals and we were watching the capuchin monkeys taking bananas and running away. It was pretty entertaining.
We walked about 4km through the park watching the birds, monkeys and other wildlife. We were fairly soaked with sweat though so went back to the hotel to go for a swim. As we were sitting by the pool the monkeys returned and other tourists threw bananas on the ground for them.
After made ourselves some sandwiches at the pool and then left to get to our scheduled ferry in Punta Arenas.
The ferry took about 90 minutes. Our hotel for the night was in Santa Teresa which is a big surfing town. We heard Justin Trudeau was leaving Santa Teresa the same day we were arriving so we missed him by a few hours. We did however arrive just in time for sunset.
Its pretty neat that we can travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific within a few days. We had dinner at an amazing Pizzeria next to our hotel and quickly fell asleep.
Day 12
We made ourselves breakfast since we had access to a kitchen at our hotel and then went on a canopy ziplining tour. I didn’t get many pictures but will post a video when I get a chance. I’m not sure what was more exhilarating – the zip lining or the staff scaring us with their sense of humour.
We then drove to the Reserva Natural Absoluta Cabo Blanco, a nature reserve on the tip of the peninsula that was transitioned from farm land to native plants and trees in the 70’s by dedicated land owners.
We walked about 3.5 km of trails looking for wildlife.. and we found some. Along side the path about 2 feet from where I was there was a snake.. the first we’d seen in Costa Rica. I instantly stopped.. yelled ‘snake’ and started running back the way we’d come. Gareth was behind me and I probably ran into him. It’s a bit of a blur and I wish I had taken a picture but at the same time was a bit panicked. It was a bit of a blur but I seem to recall it being yellow and black and when I looked back after turning around it was starting to follow us. I looked up snakes later and it may have been harmless (‘bird snake’ perhaps?) but I didn’t want to take that chance. After some time we slowly crept back and kept walking the trail after not seeing it.
We then drove to the Montezuma Waterfall. It was about 1-2km of stairs and climbing around rocks to get to the waterfall and we were drenched in sweat by the time we got there. The cold water from the waterfall was incredibly refreshing. Local kids were jumping from the rocks which seemed a bit crazy as the rocks were very slippery.
It took us about an hour to drive back to Santa Teresa. We got back in time to watch the sunset (a bit cloud covered though).
Day 13 – Driving North – the coastal road
Our next destination was the beach town of Samara. It was about 90km north of Santa Teresa but Google Maps projected the drive to take about 3 hours which should give some indication of the road conditions. I don’t believe we saw a paved road until we were about 20 minutes from Samara. We crossed several streams and one larger river where we had to stop on a sand bank in the middle of the river to figure out where the other end of the road was. The first hour we didn’t see another human being and we had no cell signal — that made us a little nervous. For the first time we turned on the 4×4 functionality of our vehicle. It wasn’t just that they were dirt roads – there were many giant holes to avoid. All in all it took is about 6 hours to get to Samara but we made a few pit stops along the way.
At a cafe we stopped at along the way it was suggested we visit a Macaw refuge near Playa Islita. We called them up and made a reservation. At the refuge they try to bring back the macaw’s back into the population after deforestation has brought down their numbers drastically. They breed them and socialize them with other parrots and release them. They feed them once per day and any wild macaw that wants free food are welcome to come back to have a meal. Not all of them do but when we visited there were 8-10 that arrived for the feeding.
We arrived in Samara just after sunset and found our AirBnB host.
Day 14 – Samara
We had a large breakfast provided by our AirBnB host and we lounged around her house for a couple of hours before heading to the beach.
We quickly fell in love with Samara. The beach was wonderful, the water was great for swimming as there was a reef that protected the shoreline from large waves. There were other tourists but it didn’t seem overwhelming. The temperatures were consistently over 30 degrees.
We decided later in the afternoon to try surfing lessons. The waves were great for beginners. We had a lesson on land first where they taught us how to handle the board and getting on and standing up. Then we took the boards to the water and I was able to ride a wave to the shore on my first attempt! Gareth bruised a rip at some point while we were out there. It was fun but extremely tiring.
After surfing we met up with a relative of a friend who has been living in Samara for 25 years. We went to their home and watched the sunset from there then went out for dinner.
Day 15 – Samara
The next day we spent most of the day relaxing on the beach again.
Day 16 – Samara to Playa Grande
The next (and final) 4 nights we had booked at Hotel Las Tortugas which is on Playa Grande, about 110km north of Samara. We took the main roads to get there so it only took about 2 hours. We left later in the afternoon to give ourselves some additional time in Samara.
We arrived at the hotel just before sunset. We booked an apartment owned by the hotel which was about 500m from the hotel. We got settled quickly in the apartment then walked to the beach to watch the sunset.
Day 17 – Playa Grande and area
This area was even hotter and dryer than Samara. We thought it would be nice to explore some of the nearby beaches recommended in our guidebook. It doesn’t recommend Playa Grande for swimming and the waves made it look a bit intimidating but I later changed my opinion on this.
First we drove on a dusty and bumpy road to Playa Conchal. This is recommended in our guide book for snorkelling but the wind was so intense it was causing large waves and sand was blowing everywhere. We didn’t stay long. Next we drove further north towards Playa Danta. We stopped at a viewpoint along the way
We drove until we got to ‘Las Catalinas’ which was a newly constructed town made to look like an Italian villa or something like that. Most of it looked under construction but this town, when finished, will be for the luxury seeking tourists. The parking is all outside the center forcing people to get out of their cars. We parked on the side of the road and walked to Playa Danta and spent about an hour on the beach and swam with the pelicans.
We slowly made our way back to our room. We stopped for lunch at a beach front restaurant and then had a beer at a brewery owned by a Texan. We stopped at Playa Flamingo but the swimming wasn’t very enjoyable there due to the large waves close to shore. It was a bit more developed in this area with hotels and condos.
On our way back near the hotel we stopped at the side of the road to watch monkeys in the trees.
Day 18 – Playa Grande
We started the day with a 6am guided canoe tour of the estuary near Playa Grande where crocodiles live.
We spent the afternoon hanging around the hotel pool and making friends with the local birds.
We watched another beautiful sunset then joined a tour to see sea turtles laying eggs on a beach.
We drove about 40 minutes on a bumpy road in the dark to the Playa Nombre de Jesus. The guide showed us turtle tracks that led from the ocean up to the soft sand and investigated. The turtles start by digging a large hole, then they lay their eggs, then they bury the eggs and camouflage the area. We all had red flashlights as to not disrupt this process. Once the turtles start laying the eggs they go into a bit of a trance and it is ok to get closer to watch. We waited on the beach for the mother to finish digging the hole so we could get a closer look. It was a challenge to take photos in the dark with flashlights and I converted most to black and white as I find its easier to look at.
About 50 yards further down the beach there were signs of hatchlings. The local guides found some baby turtles that were having difficulty digging themselves out of the nest and pulled them out and placed them at the top of the beach. We formed two lines and watched as they hobbled towards the ocean. It was incredibly fascinating and cute!!
Day 19 – Last full day
We woke up and had breakfast and I went upstairs to our bedroom to get ready for the day and noticed a monkey laying in the tree outside our balcony. Within about 15 minutes there was a parade of monkeys that were walking over our roof and into the trees just feet from us. It was fun to watch.. there were probably about 20 howler monkeys in all with mothers, fathers and babies.
In the afternoon Gareth walked to the town of Tamarindo while Sandy stayed at the pool. To get to Tamarindo there is a short ferry to take you across the estuary as to not get eaten by crocodiles.
When Gareth got back we rented a boogie board and spent some time in the ocean.
We also enjoyed watching other people surfing
Our last sunset in Costa Rica
That evening we went to the restaurant next to the ‘Wil-Mart’ where there was an American band playing and they had BBQ
Day 20 – Going Home
We had to leave our hotel around 11am to get to the airport on time. We had one final walk on the beach. While we were out there there was a commotion about 50 yards away and when we got closer we could see there were a group of people helping a beached dolphin get back into the water so we got there in time to see it swimming away.
We left for the airport in Liberia and it was fairly uneventful drive back. We returned the car and waited in line to get our boarding passes. I wore a dress and my sandals to the airport with the idea that I would change into winter clothes just before boarding the flight. So I went into the washroom to change and I put on my boots. A few moments later I felt something moving in my right boot so I quickly unlaced it and pulled it off. I turned it upside down and tapped it but nothing came out. I pulled back the tongue and I could see eyes or the tip of a head. I gasped and gave the boot to Gareth who shook out a small gecko into the mens washroom. I have no idea how long it was hiding in my boot but I nearly took it on the plane with me!
Shortly after we recognized the leader of the NDP in the hallway (Jagmeet Singh) and later saw he was on our flight home. I went up to him to chat with him a little bit. He was eating a sample of chocolate covered coffee beans and offered me some. He was very nice and I asked if we could have a picture. So.. final picture from this vacation!
