Monday, July 16, 2012

Three Days in Costa Rica (June/July 2012): What to Bring, Where to Go, How to Be ... I’m Talking to You, Americano!

Since some of you will want to jump to the chase, here are the six destinations we visited in three days (scroll down to the end for before-you-go and other pointers):

  • Llanos de Cortez (waterfall)
  • Rincón de la Vieja (volcanic area)
  • Monteverde (Cloud Forest)
  • Arenal (volcano)
  • Tamarindo (beach town)
  • Ostional (las arribadas, i.e., where to see turtles)

If you check a map - and are smart enough as I know you are to do the conversions from kilometers to miles - you might think these places aren’t very far apart, and you’d be right. Costa Rica is not very big, and the distance between destinations is not much. However, drive times are another cosa all together. For example, a day trip from Papagayo (Ocotal/Playas del Coco region) to Monteverde and Arenal took fifteen hours, nine of it in the car. Why? While the two lane main roads are not terrible - few traffic back-ups and many opportunities to pass slower vehicles - there are plenty of unpaved roads that stretch for miles - eh-hem, kilometers - and you will literally drive for hours over rocks and potholes, bumping and bouncing with hopefully the right attitude about it. No, there’s no other way to get there, so learn to amuse yourself along the way.

Okay, let’s get started.

Day 1: Llanos de Cortez and Rincón de la Vieja

What to Bring: towels, swimsuit, change of clothes, binoculars, walking shoes, water, bug spray, sunblock, sunglasses, hat, camera (BTW, I highly recommend Polaroid's Dive-Rated Waterproof Camera Housing if you'd like to take photos in and out of the water).

From Coco, Llanos de Cortez is about an hour away. The side road you need off Highway 1 (headed south) is to the right with a large sign indicating the falls and a couple of tiendas where you can refresh. Most of the directions online are obscure. Just keep to the 1 and look for the small bridge crossing Rio Potrero. The road to Llanos de Cortez soon follows.


After you’ve driven a ways, another road forks to the right to reach the falls, and there is a guard collecting donations for a school. Pay something, customarily about 1,000-2,000 colones ($2-$4), and save a buck or two for the second guard in the parking lot as a tip when you leave. Note: coconut juice (from the nut) and other refreshments are available in the lot.

The falls are a short hike from the parking lot and well worth the trip. Enjoy a beautiful large waterfall with a swimmable pond and white sand beach. You can hike to the top of the falls as well (recommended).

From Llanos de Cortez, head back north to Rincón de la Vieja. If you’ve smartly rented a GPS with your 4x4, you can enter the destination and go (otherwise, I trust you have a map and have checked directions online prior to your trip). It will be about a two hour drive and a $10 per person entrance fee (less for Costa Ricans: “Ticos”). The ranger will give you a map and recommend trails depending upon how much time you want to hike. Stick to the paths the ranger highlights. Let me repeat: STICK TO THE PATHS. You will notice the ground off the paths has various colors and textures, all caused by incredible heat. By heat I mean HOT! Temperatures on and in the bubbling muds and smoking rocks range from 192-278 degrees Fahrenheit. Wander off, and you may cook. A strengthening sulfur smell should serve as a good warning of whether you have gone astray, but be very careful to avoid needing stink or melting shoes as a guide. Rincón de la Vieja is still an active region, and as with any visit to volcanic grounds, you chillax at your own risk.




That written, the experience is well worth the trip and any nerves you might have about thermal activity. Photos and even video simply can’t do justice to the scents and visuals of liquid and burning Earth, let alone the physical sensations associated with steam, heat, and frankly a little fear. Fauna/flora highlight: we (almost) stumbled across a very large vine snake crossing the trail.

Day 2: Monteverde and Arenal

What to Bring: binoculars, walking shoes, water, bug spray, sunblock, sunglasses, hat, camera, poncho or waterproof jacket.

Seeing both parks in the same day is not for the faint at heart, but unless you’re staying overnight near these destinations, Arenal and Monteverde require many of the same roads that you really do NOT want to traverse twice if you don’t have to. If you are going to spend the night, I recommend staying somewhere with a view of Arenal. You can kayak on the Lake Arenal with the majestic volcano overseeing your adventures without feeling rushed. The Arenal paths are much shorter than those of other parks, so you really can make a full day of the area.

From Coco, it’s about a three and a half hour drive to Monteverde. There is a delightful coffee shop en route once you’re within a few kilometers of the park entrance where you can rest your bum, watch hummingbirds, and have a great mocha. Since I cannot remember the name of it, here's a pic of the interior.


If you’re trying to find it, look for the driveway to the coffee shop lot on the left side of the road, made of fine black rock, with a steep decline grade. Souvenirs, pastries, and wine are available as well.

Once at the park, a guard will (probably) direct your parking. When settled, head to Reception to purchase your tickets. You will receive a map and instructions on which paths to take depending on how long you’d like to hike. You really could spend an entire day if not two walking around Monteverde. The Cloud Forest is gorgeous with high winds in some places, so hold onto your hat! As it is mountain jungle, be sure to bring a rain coat or waterproof poncho and something warmer to wear along with bug spray. I was also über glad to have binoculars with me since so many of the forest’s fauna linger deeper off the path and can be harder to see clearly without some enhancement. If you do bring large camera lenses, etc., be prepared to protect them from rainwater.

Monteverde opens at 7am, BTW, so as you plan your travels, try to get to the park as early as a good night’s sleep will allow, especially if you are going for our loco itinerary and heading to Arenal afterward. Flora/fauna highlights: coati, monos, and some very talkative toucans, parrots, and other birds ... and a flower called “Hotlips”.



We left Monteverde around noon and arrived at Arenal shortly after 2:30. The sign at the guard’s station states that the park closes at 4pm and the last car is permitted entrance no later than 3 o’clock. The guard told us the entire trail(s) took about two hours and that the park closed at 6pm, so there should be no problem seeing everything. We indeed finished and left the park at 5 o’clock having walked the entirety.

While there was no hot earth to observe either spewing from the crater or bubbling around us, the volcano is amazing. A must see.



Day 3: Tamarindo y Ostional

 
What to Bring: towels, swimsuit, change of clothes, binoculars, water, bug spray, sunblock, sunglasses, hat, camera, astronomy flashlight.

Drive time to Tamarindo from Coco is about an hour. Water was turned off in San Jose the weekend we visited, so who can say whether the number of people about was normal. Still, it was clear that Tamarindo appeals to the sensibilities of large numbers of folk from the U.S.A. with many more and much more upscale establishments, a Western Union, and tons of souvenir shops. We came in search of a rumored $1 boat ride to an island off the beach that is supposed to be great for snorkeling. We never found the boat and swam instead closer to shore. It’s a long beach with an incredible tide line. You can walk out for a hundred meters and still touch bottom. The down side: no visibility or life under the waves. The up side: great for beginning and advanced surfers.

There was no flora/fauna highlight, but La Palapa - restaurant/hotel - was hands down the best place we ate at the entire month we spent in Costa Rica.



The food was tasty and beautifully presented, the happy hour lasts basically all day and the 2-for-1 drinks were strong, delicious, and garnished artistically. We ate on the beach with a perfect view of the sunset, and while we figured our four shared dishes (big plates, even if they are on the menu as tapas) and six drinks would set us back at least $100, our bill was only $76. Pura vida!

After sunset, we headed to Ostional for another long and bumpy ride, singing all the while. Again, find something fun to do to take your mind off the jostling. At this point in our three day adventure, I was driving like many Ticos and not taking the road particularly carefully but instead at the posted 40km/h speed limit. After several bridges, we crossed a river (yes, you will drive across a river; in heavy rainy season, it may be too deep to go through so get your eyeballing ready). After another long drive, we ended up at the guide station. For about 4,000 colones, a guide takes you to the beach to look at the turtles. Okay, so what I’m about to tell you is very important. Don’t be an asshole and do your own thing here.

The turtles are very sensitive to light, so the guides will walk you to the beach using either red gel over a regular flashlight or a flashlight similar to (or exactly like) those used for astronomy with a red bulb. If you have one of your own, by all means bring it. Before you get to the beach, set your camera so that it does not use a flash. Test it to make sure. Apply your bug spray before you leave the guide post. Do not touch the turtles, even if you end up with a guide who is trying to “be nice” and tell you that after she lays her eggs, it’s okay to give her a quick stroke on her shell. Leave the turtles alone. Remember, we humans are driving 200 species a day to extinction, so try not to live up to our reputation.

You will be absolutely amazed watching the turtles dig their holes, lay their eggs, cover up their nests, and lumber back to the ocean. Yes, your photos will be difficult to decipher what with the red and the dark, but your memories will fill in the holes.



You can also try your luck seeing the turtles at dawn. During the rainy season, pretty much every day has a sighting, even when it’s not arribadas when hundreds of Ridley turtles take to Ostional Beach in the third quarter moon. Most of the eggs are laid at night, but you might get lucky. You will definitely enjoy better photos if you do. Catching the turtles hatching is another adventure that we did not enjoy, but if you’re so lucky, be very careful about where you are stepping and help scare predators away.

It took more than two hours to get back to Coco, and we were ti-red! But the thrills exceeded our expectations. Since we didn’t want to spend $150 a person every time we sought to tour Costa Rica (most from the Coco region were priced thusly), the $80/day car rental worked out great. “Ha!” you say. “I got a $15/day rate on Expedia/carrentals.com/etc./blah blah.” Jokes on you, my friend. There will be extensive insurance premiums, additional driver fees, and other hidden costs added on, let alone that unless you rent a 4x4, you’re going to have to stick to the main roads and miss out on some exceptional excursions ... or freak out as you try to maneuver a sedan over unpaved roads. How long a drive will that be? Here’s what you do: get in touch with Ken Miller of Mi Lora Tours. He’s a transplant from Chicago who knows well tourism in Costa Rica. He can arrange airport transfers, tours, accommodations, and car rentals. Ken will tell you what it’s actually going to cost you and let you comparison shop if you want/ need to. The only information we misunderstood was that rental prices are quoted for manual vehicles, a $5/day bump tacked on for automatic transmission. Since I ended up badly spraining my ankle Day 1 slipping on a rock near a waterfall in Rincón de la Vieja, I was really glad to have an automatic. From the smell of some drivers’ clutches, they were probably wishing that had reserved similarly.

Pointers: some roads aren’t painted, and even on the ones that are, people walk and bike in the street, pets and wild animals trot alongside traffic, and drivers hug the middle lines that are indicated and ignore the center where not. Basically, I suggest you hang to the right as much as possible. On one of the unpaved from Arenal, a motorcyclist would have hit us head on around a curve had I not been sticking to “my side” of the road. His swerve did not get him past center, and there would have been no way to avoid impact. Bottom line, drive smart and plan 12 seconds ahead.

On another note, while most Americanos are used to posted speed limits on curves, I don’t remember seeing even one in the month spent in Costa Rica. Keep good judgment about any upcoming bend as you won’t necessarily be alerted to hairpins or other reduced speed zones ... or drivers in your lane. A GPS really helps here as you can catch a glance of the shape of the upcoming road and adjust your speed accordingly.

Okay, well, that’s about it. I’d tell you what I packed, what I bought, and everything I wish I’d remembered to bring, but this blog (dedicated to Damian!) is already a bit too long. Let’s just say that I’m thankful I packed snorkeling gear and hydrocortisone ... especially hydrocortisone. The bug spray didn’t deter everyone, and the itching was gonna drive me crazy!

Happy travels! Learn some Spanish, dammit, and guard your food from magpies. No seriously. The magpies will steal your food.






¡Pura vida!