Mars 2022 - Costa Rica - Tortuguero, Cahuita

 The Caribbean coast was definitely our favorite part of Costa Rica, with beautiful nature and fantastic opportunities to spot wildlife. To get from La Fortuna to Tortuguero, we took a shuttle (minibus + boat) since going by public transportation we wouldn't even be sure that we would make it the whole way in one day (4 buses + boat). The shuttle service was expensive; despite the many shuttle companies in the country it was not possible to pay anything less than $60. At least, we really enjoyed the trip. The boat tour, which was about an hour, was almsot like a sightseeing tour, as the captain would slow down in several places along the river so we could spot crocodiles, caimans, birds, iguanas and various other lizards. The small village is quite touristy but had a really nice atmosphere, with just a single "main street" with some restaurants and shops on each side.

In the evening we went looking for something small to eat, since we had had a late lunch. We found some street food (which generally seems quite uncommon in Costa Rica) - some grilled chicken skewers, or tortilla stuffed with a big piece of cheese and some sourcream. At one of the restaurants, we ordered a plate of patacones - smashed plantains, fried, and served kind of like fries but in a different format, and with a few dips, like guacamole and pico de gallo. Patacones soon became a favorite snack or side dish, somewhat reminding us of the tajadas we had in Honduras, but quite different still. Getting fried bananas with your burger or fish might seem like an odd idea, but it was so good. 

The next day we were up extra early, to head to the national park. The main area of the park has a walking trail, but also consists of waterways that can be traveled and experienced by canoe, kayak, or a boat with a silent motor. Most of the guided tours start at 6 am when the park opens, and though we decided to go by ourselves (and by kayak) we opted for the same time, hoping we would get the opportunity to spot some more animals. I can say that this was one of our top 3 experiences of this trip. One of the first things that happened when we started to paddle towards the canals was that we saw an otter in the water! As we paddled on, there were quite a few guided groups around, and this meant we were sometimes able to see caimans, or a sloth high up in the trees, that a tour guide pointed out.

The main benefit of going by ourselves though was that we could keep going when the tour groups turned around to head back, since we didn't have a time limit. As we paddled on, further into the river system, we saw several lizards, including the green basilisks, turtles, monkeys, and - a tamandua! A small, tree dwelling anteater with a long tail munching on a termite nest high up in the trees. That was a really cool experience, and one of my favorite wildlife encounters. On top of all that, the environment was incredibly beautiful and it was pretty amazing just paddling around in the quiet, serene jungle.

Tamandua! yeah, you might need to zoom in a bit...

Since the national park entry was valid for a full day, we took the walking trail in the afternoon. We spotted some green macaws cuddling up in a tree, and two guilty-looking raccoons crossing the path, but most of the trail was just a path by the beach.

The next day we went to another, smaller part of the national park which meant we first needed to take a boat taxi to the small village San Fransisco. Around the entrance and along the path were plenty of big spiders, which we assumed were not venomous (although quite creepy...) since they had let them be. This area is known to host red poision dart frogs, so of course we went scouting for them along the trail. We found two of them, very small and cute! The short trail went up a hill and provided us with a pretty view of Tortuguero, but spent about as much time waiting for the boat back as we did walking the trail. In the evening we had a very nice dinner, having shrimps in coconut sauce with pineapple rice and (of course) patacones. 

View of Tortuguero

The transportation to our final stop in Costa Rica was also a prebooked shuttle - which included a three hour boat ride, just as beautiful as all of the Tortuguero area, and then a short taxi to Cahuita. A small village, right next to a national park, but with a bit more touristy and expensive restaurants. Our first afternoon we decided to walk to one of the beaches in the area, and on the way we saw two sloths! This was the first ones we spotted by ourselves, and close enough to the ground that you could actually see for certain that it was a sloth.

In the morning, we woke up to the sound of howler monkeys, loud enough that I almost thought they were in the hostel garden. After breakfast we prepared some lunch sandwiches and headed to the park, which nicecly enough had a donation based entry fee (i.e. pay what want). The trail was 8km long and went through different types of nature which was really nice - the only downside was that it wasn't a loop, meaning we had to walk all the way back again (unless we wanted to try to catch a bus or a taxi). Along this trail we saw several sloths, monkeys (howlers, spider, and white faced capucins), raccoons and toucans. The beaches here were incredibly beautiful, so we also took the opportunity to spend some time on the pretty, white beaches until the park rangers came to shoo everyone out around 3pm.

We decided to come back again the next day, to do a shorter walk and spend most of the day on the beach. Despite our lunch sandwiches being safely stored inside a backpack, we were visited by both monkeys and raccoons sneaking up silently while were reading our books. We had learned the day before that trying to eat anything in the beach area would attract cheeky, thieving monkeys (and clearly raccoons as well, though they were much more timid), so we had to walk a bit further off in order to eat our lunch in peace.

Aside from the beautiful surroundings and beautiful beaches, Cahuita provided the best sloth encounters in Costa Rica as we saw many of them, and several close enough to the ground that we did not need binoculars to see them clearly. Walking around the cloud forests scanning the treetops is not necessary at all, if you plan on going to Cahuita.

Mars 2022 - Costa Rica - Monteverde, La Fortuna

Traveling to Costa Rica went a lot smoother than we expected. We had started early in the morning, taking a taxi from Popoyo to the border, in order to be sure that we would make it all the way to Monteverde in one day. However, while we were waiting outside the immigration office to get into Costa Rica, we met an American guy who lived in the country - Joe - who offered to give us a ride. At first he said he would drive us part of the way to reduce the number of buses we would have to take, but in the end he drove us all the way to our hostel! The road we took, which I guess was not the most common route, included some very steep dirt roads and had us going high up in the mountains - lucky for us he had a really good car! - and we got some beautiful views. On the way there we also stopped by the side of the road and he bought a bottle of vino de coyol for us to try, which is apparently a local specialty in the region which we were only passing through on the way to Monteverde. It's a palm wine, though with little to no alcohol, and the taste was something that could be likened with kombucha.

extreme touristing in Santa Elena

Our hostel was a little bit outside of the town called Santa Elena, with a very long and steep hill leading up to it, so we definitely got some good exercise those days. Monteverde and Santa Elena are quite high up, and the area is famous for its cloud forests (which we also visited in Honduras). Walking around in the small town, it seemed we had all weathers at once, all the time. It was usually windy, rainy and sunny, and there would almost always be a rainbow in one direction or another.

Our first meal in Costa Rica we tried some local things off the menu: empanadas, chorreadas (fried corn tortilla with cheese on) and tortilla aliñada (something like a cornbased "pancake", served with sour cream) and guanábana (soursop) juice! The guanábana was a favorite for me, and something we only saw in Costa Rica and a few places in Panama. That first afternoon we also went to a famous ficus tree in town, which has grown to look like a bridge and makes for cool photos.

chorreada (left) & tortilla aliñada (right)

the famous ficus root bridge

The next day we took a shuttle to the Santa Elena nature reserve, where the entrance fee is about half that of the Monteverde national park. We walked all of the trails, about 10km in total, mostly with our heads tilted back to scan the treetops hoping to see a sloth, or the quetzal bird. We didn't. But the forest was beautiful, and we did spot a few capucin monkeys and some hummingbirds. We had planned to walk all the way back to the hostel since the shuttle back was only at specific times, but then we were offered a ride by a passing car, which we happily accepted.

For a late lunch, we went to a soda, which is the name for a local, cheap restaurant. We ate casado, which is a cheap set meal: usually rice, beans, fried plantain, salad, and protein, and also includes a juice or other beverage.

The next day while strolling towards a lunch place, Valle brushed something off his neck and we wore both stunned when we realized what it was - a small scorpion! Later we found another one in our room, and our hostel owner assured us that it's not dangerous. Still, not something you want crawling around your neck. 

We decided to hike up to a viewpoint called Cerro Amigos. Along the way, and at the top if the weather is clear, you could see all the way to the coast. The road up was really steep, and when we reached the top it was unfortunately engulfed in clouds. Then we found another trail going down which went through the forest, which we were happy to explore instead of going back down the steep car road. We were treatet with beautiful cloud forest, just like in the nature reserve (but without the entrance fee), where we were completely alone. We emerged from the trail inside a huge resort area so it would not have been possible to find the trail from the other direction unless staying at that resort.

While not being an official restaurant, the owner of our hostel who used to work at a restaurant for many years would offer to make pizza for a reasonable price if asked. Tired from a day of walking, and not feeling like going down that steep hill in the dark and chilly wind, we ordered one for our last night. And it was so good! The owner also showed Valle some tarantulas by the side of the road (which I opted not to look at).

From Monteverde we booked a shuttle to La Fortuna - the most popular way to travel between the two places, as it also includes a one hour boat ride on the lake. It felt quite chaotic as there were a lot of people getting dropped off by the lake and a lot of different boats, and we didn't know which company or agency we were travelling with. But somehow it worked out! La Fortuna is a bit bigger than Monteverde, and more touristy. We didn't like it too much, and it didn't feel like it offered anything unique. Some years ago, the volcano near town was still active and thus was the main draw to the place, but currently it is not, and the top of the volcano is almost always covered in clouds. There are also several sloth reserves or areas where they do guided tours to see sloths (and other animals of course) but they can charge about $50 for a 1,5hour tour. We did see one sloth in a tree from the street as we walked past one of those areas, but we didn't feel like spending that money. (We also saw a lot more sloths in Cahuita, which you can read about in the next post!).

We had been recommended to hitchhike in Costa Rica as an easy way to get around, but we're not really used to it (and perhaps too Swedish?) and soon felt a bit awkward. We did manage to hitchhike some of the way to El Silencio, one of the cheapest hiking areas. We walked all of the trails and had a pretty nice day. We encountered a tour group that had stopped on the trail as there was a jumping pit viper snake occupying the path. Apparently very dangerous, we all had to stand back and wait while the guide slowly and very carefully poked the snake with a stick to get it to move away. We also saw a family of coatis running across the trail. 

On the way back we stopped for a quick bath in some natural hotsprings, though it was quite crowded. The next day we mainly walked around town, and in the afternoon we visited El Salto, a small waterfall with a rope swing, which was free. While there are more things to do in La Fortuna, many of them were quite costly. While the hike was pretty nice, overall La Fortuna felt like a place we could just as well have skipped.