visit Costa Rica

My dream is to venture into a rain forest and see untouched nature. I live in Chucago , a different jungle. I’d like to see a real one.

It looks so beautiful and its pretty cheap to fly there!

Hey people! well I’m back to COSTA RICA! Im here NOW! All i can say is that COSTA RICA is the BOMB! Im not COSTARICAN but i do love it! Im here now and i love it! zero stress! just seat back and enjoy the ride! Se los recomiendo! Especially JACO BEACH!
write me up! djdavidonthemix@hotmail.com

I went to a place called Pura Vida a few years ago. I was only there a week, so didn’t get to see to much of the country. People were friendly and I felt safe. Not sure if I would want to drive though !!!! We had some pretty close calls.

Before he died, my father was always making fun, crazy plans: buy a goat farm, make all the drinks that came in the book with his new blender, go to Costa Rica—I miss him so much.

He had found an ad for a Costa Rican cruise that featured a converted ferry as the ship and ports of call that could only be accessed by water. He really wanted to take that cruise with me, but he just didn’t have enough time left. I’d really like to know whether this kind of thing is still available. If it isn’t, no matter. I still want to go see Costa Rica.

The next day we were picked up early for a drive back to San Jose where we planned to spend the rest of that day and the next until we had to go to the airport. Our walk through San Jose that day was sufficient for me though. I can say that I’m not a big fan. For my taste, the city is too busy, smelly and generally crazy (and I’m from Los Angeles, and I love New York and Paris). Maybe it was just too much shock after having spent a week in towns with no street lights.

However, our hotel was truly amazing, the Hotel Don Carlos, and it felt like we were not in such a crazy city when we were there. The people working there were just as amazingly courteous, hospitable, funny, helpful as all the other people we met. I had sort of expected the big city to have people with big city attitudes, but this was not the case.

The restaurant we chose for dinner was fabulous (Bakea).

Each and every tour was professional, safe and great fun. The guides were expert, fun, friendly and willing to tolerate my crappy Spanish. Every group we were with was enjoyable and fun as well. We met some really nice people whom I am very pleased to have shared these adventures with.

I am also pleased with our choice to spend the whole week around the volcano and day trip out for some drives through some other type of scenery. I wish my Spanish had been more up to the task, but invariably we could get by with Spanglish on both parts. A few of the guides spoke better English than I do and one of them is a high school English teacher when not guiding rafts.

In short, Costa Rica rocks and everything my trusted friends said about how cool it is and how we had to go see it was all true.

Pura Vida!

In addition to being really damned fun to say, the Sarapiqui River offers some nice Class III rapids. Sara Peeee keee. Say it. Really. It’s fun.

The third day, we went white water rafting on the Sarapiqui, which was about a 2 hour drive toward Nicaragua. It wasn’t the most intense river rafting we’ve done, but the group we were with was awesome and the guide made it a lot of fun. We stopped for fresh fruit and some cliff jumping halfway.

The guide suggested that we take one of the Class II rapids out of the boat, floating on our backs. I’d never done that. It was pretty fun.

Saarrrrrra peeeeeeeeeekeeeee

Did you say it yet?

On the second day in La Fortuna, we went “canyoning” which was a rappel down waterfalls. I loved this and this is the part where we figured out that when my life is at stake, I prefer some control over it, even if I am completely without skill for whatever the activity is.

Again, the folks on this adventure were really amazing. Nice, funny, smart and fearless. Unlike the zip lining, our first cliff was 150 feet, which was the tallest. They strapped us into harnesses, gave a relatively short demonstration, and off we went: “Butt down, jump.”

Some of us found it too scary to enjoy the first cliff. I discovered that it is very helpful to look down at where you want to put your feet when you let rope out. sanvea refused to look down on this first one, but as she is far more courageous than I, she was kicking butt by the third waterfall.

I have to give special props to Terri and Gregor for both being charming, but also for having raised two amazing kids, Schlyer (sorry if that’s not right. sanvea saw your name only briefly and said it was with “sch”) and Ginwon (again, sorry for the spelling if not correct). They were both highly skilled and fearless. I was deeply impressed with both kids for their maturity and courteousness.

After 5 of these, I was totally ready to go back to that first one. This is the one I most wish we had time to do twice. I am tempted to find some rock climbing around here.

Oh, and sadly, none of the many guides were named Donatello, but there was a Mario.

[EDIT: It looks like it should be Schuyler and Jinwon]

From La Fortuna we took a day trip to the Celeste River to hike through a rain forrest near the Tenorio Volcano. Our guide was an amazingly nice guy named Leonardo. He was a biologist, so our tour was very informative; we learn a lot about the wildlife and forrest plants. The Celeste river itself is a “painted” river, with an incredible blue hue. We walked to where a clear river flows into the blue and it is striped with an amazing transition. We also hopped into a natural hot spring which smelled like sulfur. The green trail of sulfur where it flowed into the main river was quite a sight. I figured that for a once in a lifetime experience.

Then we hiked to a waterfall of this incredible blue stuff.

During this hike, I spied a little frog that the guide said wasn’t poisonous. It was called a “Brilliant Frog” because unlike most frogs that jump straight forward, this one jumped from side to side to evade predators. It jumped right into my hand. It felt just like those rubber molded creatures we made with those presses that would come out around Halloween.

We also saw a leaf cutter ant colony that was HUGE. They look like little sail boats with the leaves on their backs.

As part of the tour at the end, we ate at a tiny restaurant with the most hospitable family running it. The food was unbelievable with the highlight being a pineapple that the host had just twisted off a plant outside. Seriously. We ate a pineapple right next to the field it grew in. It was miraculously good as was everything this Dona cooked. I would like to go apprentice myself to her and learn her culinary secrets.

I would also like to point out that our horse guide was named Raphael. The Celeste river guide was named Leonardo. At this point, I became convinced that our next guide would be named “Donatello.”

In La Fortuna, we stayed at Arenal Paraiso. The grounds were amazing. The restaurant was solidly good, but not spectacular. The room was a duplex bungalow and sadly, the walls were really thin. The beds were not particularly comfortable. All in all, I think I would chose to stay elsewhere in La Fortuna next time. I wasn’t totally unhappy with it, but neither was I thrilled so I didn’t find it worth the price and distance from town. Still, though, the pool area was lovely and the view of the volcano was fantastic.

I don’t mean to sound dissatisfied. It’s just that it was too expensive for what it was. It was comfortable. The views were nice, but they’re nice from anywhere in La Fortuna.