Costa RicaCosta Rica
Between December 26, 2000 and January 6, 2001 my family
visited Costa Rica. Costa Rica is located in Central America and is bordered by Nicaragua in the
north and Panama in the south. The country has a population of about 3.7 million and a total land
area of 51,100 sq km (roughly the size of Nova Scotia). To the right there's a map (from
http://www.tourism-costarica.com)
with the areas that we visited labelled.
We woke up bright and early on Boxing Day to start our Costa Rica adventure. We flew from Ottawa to Toronto and then on to Miami and San Jose, Costa Rica. Mom and Day flew Business Class while Allison and I were back with the masses in "hospitality class." We survived the cramped leg room and I think we enjoyed our cardboard dinner almost as much as Mom and Dad enjoyed their champagne and whatever delectable meal the chef had prepared for them.
Dad's luggage didn't make it between terminal 2 and 3 at the Toronto airport and so when we got to San Jose we were one suitcase short. This was an improvement over our last family vacation to Tonga when all four of our suitcases were lost but that wasn't really much of a consolation.
We took a taxi to the Orquideas Inn in Alajuela (just outside of San Jose) where we would spend the next two nights. On the taxi ride we passed by a Scotiabank branch and a Petro Canada station which made me wonder if we had actually left Canada or if the day we'd just spend travelling had all just been a joke!
Today we arranged a tour from our hotel to go and see the Poas Volcano. On the way up to the volcano we drove past lots of coffee plantations. Coffee is one of the main products of Costa Rica and there are plantations all over the hilly countryside. We also noticed that none of the roads seemed to have street names and the houses didn't have numbers (which makes one wonder how the postal service in Costa Rica works) but as was pointed out to us every single river or creek that we drove by was clearly labelled.
When
we arrived at the Poas volcano and our driver Eddie pointed out that all the cars
parked there had backed into the parking spots. According to Eddie this was so that if the
volcano erupts everyone can get out of the parking lot quickly. I'm not really sure
if he was kidding or not but seeing as I was about to walk to see the volcano's
active crater I appreciated the safety precaution.
It was cloudy around the top of the volcano but as we waited for the clouds to blow over we got several good views of the crater. We also hiked up to an extinct crater, filled with water and surrounded by forest. The hike was fun as we got to see for the first time how green and lush the vegetation is in Costa Rica.
Next
we went to the La Paz ("peace") waterfall. Then we went to a small
town named Grecia and visited the market. Mom and Dad bought some coffee beans to bring home and Dad
got a few pairs of shorts because at this point he was still luggage-less. I can't
report on how good the coffee that we purchased is because our coffee grinder is
currently snowed in up at my aunt and uncle's cottage.
When we made it back to the hotel we were trilled to find out that Dad's luggage had been located and was going to be arriving from the airport that evening.
Today we went to a small regional airport and boarded a tiny plane for the flight
to Drake Bay Wilderness Camp (DBWC). Our plane had 8 seats and Allison actually
sat up
in cockpit with the pilot. She was given strict instructions form the rest of the
family not to touch any of the controls! Once we arrived at the Drake Bay
airstrip we had a jeep ride and then a boat ride to get to the actual camp.
That afternoon we visited Rio Claro where we snorkelled off the beach and went on a short hike.
DBWC is an interesting place. I'm not quite sure this worked but somehow we got into the habit of going to bed really early (say 9pm) and waking really early (say 6am). The funny thing was that while we were there it was not at all difficult to get up so early. I can't really explain it.
Today we visited Isla del Cano (Cano Island) off the main coast of Costa Rica. Dad and Allison spend the day underwater scuba diving and Mom and I spent the day above water exploring the beach and hiking. The hike we went on took us to ancient native burial grounds where we saw rocks that had been carved into spheres.
This is also probably a good opportunity to show some pictures taken around the camp. The setting was absolutely gorgeous (think tropical paradise). One thing that really impressed me was the flowers. They were so colourful I sometimes thought I should check to make sure they were real (probably a reflex from all the plastic tropical flowers we find everywhere at home).
Today we went for a long hike in Corcovado National Park. This was really one of the
highlights of the trip for me. We saw a lot of wildlife including four types of monkeys
(howler, white-faced, squirrel and spider), lots and lots of birds (of special note were
the Macaws), leaf-cutter ants, butterflies, and peccaries (phew-ew those pig-like animals
really stink!).
In the evening Allison and I attempted to play Euchre again Mom and Dad. Unfortunately we quickly remembered that they are much better than we are and when they're paired together it's deadly. The game didn't last too long.
Today was our final day at DBWC and we hoped to be able to swim with dolphins. We were not disappointed. At one point out boat was riding along with a pod of at least one hundred dolphins. We got into the water twice with the dolphins to observe them. These were wild dolphins so they weren't swimming right up to us to be petted which suited me perfectly. The water was so clear and when you were underwater you could actually hear the dolphins making noises. We also saw two very large tuna swim past us. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
That evening back at camp there was another once in life time event for two of our fellow guests - they got married. We'd been hearing rumours of a wedding for the past day and had seen flowers being delivered and decorations being put up. Linda and Louie from Colorado were married overlooking the ocean on New Year's eve. All the guests and staff of the camp attended the wedding - neither Allison or I caught the bouquet (phew).
Today we left DBWC and flew back to San Jose. We had arranged for Eddie (our driver from Day 2) to meet us at the airport and drive us around for the next five days. We left San Jose right away and started the drive up to the Arenal volcano. The weather by the ocean had been quite warm but as we moved inland and up to higher altitudes it started to get a little chillier, it also got cloudy and wet.
When we arrived at our hotel the clouds were low and there was no sign of the volcano.
We were staying at the Tabacon Resort and Spa. You would have thought that we'd never seen a hotel room
before because Allison and I were so excited once we got there. Our room was really
nice but the bathroom was even nicer (this explains why we took pictures of it).
If only there were a bathroom as nice as the Tacabon's at our house in Ottawa...
Since we couldn't see the volcano we spent the afternoon in the Tabacon's hot springs. This was a new experience for me never having been to hot springs before. Basically we'd sit in one of the mineral pools (that have a water temperature of about 39 degrees Celsius) for about 10 minutes then get out run down the path and hop into the next one. The hot water was especially nice since it was raining.
Driving back from dinner that night we got a brief look at the volcano. It was dark but we were able to see glowing red lava coming down the side of the volcano. We were fortunate to see this as many visitors never see the volcano active (although they may get to see it during the day). This was actually the only glimpse of the volcano that we'd get since the rain continued the next day.
Back at the hotel that night Allison and I decided to jump into the Jacuzzi that was on our balcony. Allison read one of the many many books that she'd brought with her and I proved that
h
lim = 1
h > 0 sin(h)
Allison had run into this problem in OAC Calculus and her teacher had suggested that they take this on good faith as being true. Well of course this wasn't good enough so I had to prove it. (Note to mathies: this is realy a pretty simple proof, I used the squeeze theorem but since Alli hadn't learnt that yet I proved it too). Good times in a hot tub!
Today we decided not to let the bad weather dampen our spirits and so we went for a
hike. The last time the volcano had a major eruption was in 1968 and we wanted to hike to one of the lava flows from this
eruption. As we started to walk through the forest there was light rain but that quickly turned to
heavy rain. About 20 minutes into the hike I resigned myself to the fact that I was
going to get soaked through. It was much easier to hike once I stopped trying to
avoid the puddles. By the time we got to the lava flow the rain had cleared a bit
but we were definitely wet. This is a picture of my sister and I sitting on the old
lava. You can tell how wet I am but somehow Allison is managing to maintain the
appearance of dryness.
Today we left the Arenal volcano area and headed to Monteverde. There two places are very close as the crow flies but the drive between them took us about 3 hours. Our route took us around around Arenal Lake (a man made lake, the result of dam construction) and along some very winding, bumpy, un-paved roads.
The Monteverde region was settled by Quakers in 1951 who were avoiding the Korean War draft in the United States. Our main reason for visiting this area was the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. This afternoon went on the Sky Trek which is a series of suspension bridges that allow you to walk through the rainforest canopy. We didn't see too much wildlife but the experience of looking down on the jungle was amazing.
This morning we went on a hike in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. The hike was much easier than some of our previous ones because the trail was well maintained and lined with tree-section "cookies" covered in chicken wire. Our route took us over the continental divide (the line at which water to the East flows toward the Atlantic Ocean and water to the West flows toward to the Pacific Ocean) which I thought was pretty cool.
We spent the afternoon at the local butterfly museum learning about the different kinds of butterflies that live in Costa Rica and then trying to photograph the butterflies in the enclosures.
At this point I'd like to take a moment to pay tribute to my MEC RAD pants. I basically wore them every day we weren't at Drake Bay (go see the La Paz, Arenal or Monteverde hiking pictures). These pants are wonderful and they dry quickly which was a big bonus after the Arenal hike. So if you're ever going to be trudging around a rainforest I highly recommend that you go to MEC and pick up a pair.
Today was our last full day in Coasta Rica. In the morning we went to
a private ecological
farm (finca ecologica). We spent the morning hiking through the trails (which
were much drier than in the cloud forest). We had heard that there was a
sloth in the area and eventually had someone come and show us exactly
where it was - apparently they don't move much so once you know what tree to look in
it's easy to find them. There was also a pack of Coatamundi near the
parking lot. These animals reminded me of racoons and were fairly tame as
they knew they might get fed by visitors.
In the afternoon we drove back to Alejula. We hit some serious traffic on the Pan-American highway but we made it back in one piece. We spent the night back at the
Hotel Orquidellas.
Today we flew back to Canada to face lots of snow and get back to work and school. We had a wonderful trip to Costa Rica - kudos to Mom for the excellent trip planning and organization. Note to family: this vacation thing is good, I'm free the last few weeks of August 2001 ...
Last updated: April 1, 2001