All posts by ramblintraveler

Passionate traveler kicking back and exploring the world one country at a time:)
Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio National Park

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The next morning thankfully turned out to be a sunny one and we prepped ourselves for the Park.  As mentioned in the last post, the walk to the National Park was only about 300 meters from our hostel.  As we walked toward the Park up ahead in the Park trees a bunch of the tree tops began to rustle and a deep, penetrating roar could be heard coming from the rustle…  It literally reminded me of a scene from Jurassic Park with a T-Rex about to emerge from the dense forest, roaring as it did!!  It was a little unnerving until I was informed that it was only a Howler Monkeys making the noise and that there was nothing to fear.  When we arrived at the entrance (about 8am) there were already a ton of tourist groups lined up in various places getting their troops together to enter the Park.  B, A and I purchased our tickets (again $10 for tourists though this time I paid with colones and paid less than $10… perhaps it was because of the current daily exchange rate that the Parks do pay attention to) and entered the Park.

A few things we were told through the grape-vine about the Park prior to entering was #1 do not hire a private tour guide as many other tourists do this so you can always “bum” in their tours by simply looking where their tour guide is pointing to find something interesting and #2 go off the beaten path when possible away from the rest of the tourists and you will be guaranteed to see much more!

Keeping that information in mind we set in our walk without a guide.  Both pieces of advice above came in great handy as alone the main path of the Park several tour guides had already set up shop with their binoculars on tripods pointing out insects and crabs to their hired tourists or pointing high in the trees sharing interesting information on a particular plant or tree.  Luckily for us, B was a botanist (there is actually a more accurate name for his title, I just can’t recall what it is… Sorry B!!  But I do know that his work involves cataloging every species of plant and tree!)  and he knew just about everything there was to know about every plant so in a sense we already had a fabulous guide for that portion.

We made our way along the path sighting many spiders, a scorpion eating a wasp, a variety of crabs hidden in a variety of clever places, a toucan (YAY!!!) and lizards!!

At a certain point we came across a point of crossroads where we could either go straight, right or scootch our way around the “closed” sign of a path to our left… Well of course we chose the path to our left!! 😉  The path was closed because it hadn’t been groomed recently, but it didn’t bother us at all.  We made our way up the path to a quiet area where no sounds except that of nature could be heard.  It was amazingly blissful!!  So quiet with only the sound of the wind rustling gently through the trees.  It is quite an amazing thing to stop and just listen to the beauty of nature!!  We stayed there for a bit taking in the sounds until some new sound caught my attention high in the trees.  Of course curiosity took over good sense as I followed the noise only to spot my first Howler Monkey!!!!!

Such amazing creatures!!  These small, black monkeys with faces so familiar in human features and hands even more so familiar are just an incredible sight to take in!!  They travel in troops usually anywhere from about a dozen to a dozen and a half!  There is only one alpha male of the group and the rest are females or young males and it’s also pretty common to find a new mom in the troop as well.  Their hands and feet, as well as the underside of about the last 6 inches of their tail do not have any fur on them so they can easily grip surfaces.  The roar of the alpha male can be heard from great distances around!  I have since found out that they only roar early in the morning or to announce to another approaching troop that they are coming too close to their territory, or if rain is approaching!

As I gazed above me in wonder, they simply gazed right back wondering what it was I was up to!  I of course took a few photos and kept my voice low as I called my friends over to see them as well and then we continued up and up and up the path again passing many other lizards and even an Agouti or a Tapir that ran off too fast to take pictures of (hence why I’m not entirely sure which it was exactly… but it was definitely a land mammal).  The path ended on a platform at what seemed like the top of the world!!  Though it wasn’t a 360 degree view, it was still magnificent!!  You could clearly see the bay below and the jutting rocks that formed it, as well as a little cave carved into the rock, as well as the land clear south of us all the way to what we speculated to be the Oso Peninsula!!

After several pictures we headed back down the path to the main portion passing many other tourists who had also opted to take the “unbeaten” path.  Now sadly, it was about this time that the batteries in my camera started to fail… I was able to get a picture or two in, but then would have to shut the camera down, take the batteries out to rest for several minutes then reload them and pray they would work again for a few more pictures!!

There are about 5 walking trails in the Manuel Antonio National Park and we ended up taking each of them to their various destinations.  Along another path of interest, we came across a tourist and his young son.  They were surrounded by a large troop of Capuchin Monkeys!!  The Capuchin monkeys are most famously recognized from their white faces and black bodies, as well as their “star” quality.  They can be seen in movies such as Outbreak and the Hangover Part II, as well as in the TV show Friends.  Now I don’t advocate the use of wild animals for our entertainment, nor was I thrilled about the scene we had encountered.  Despite the Park rules that warned to NOT FEED THE ANIMALS this father was blatantly ignoring them as he and his young son continued to offer the monkeys a variety of fruits.  While it was quite an amazing feeling to have so many monkeys coming at you and around you in every direction all trying to get their piece of fruit, I opted to remove myself from the center as I do not agree with feeding wild animals, and this next bit is part of the reason why: At one point the young son was trying to offer one of the monkeys a piece of fruit.  The monkey was quite reluctant to simply take the piece of fruit from the boy’s hand, so it didn’t.  The boy, probably too young to understand the wrong in his behavior and not being told otherwise from his dad, continued to push his arm forward toward the monkey, trying to entice it to take the fruit.  A few moments later, the monkey had had enough and literally slapped the outstretched hand of the boy away and screeched!!  The father finally stepped in and told the boy to no longer feed the monkeys and they headed away.

Wild animals are wild folks, and should remain that way!!  We have no business interfering with their nature and even less business trying to tame them.  Ok, I’ve said my peace on that topic for now… moving on!

This particular path ended at a magnificent lagoon-like beach!!  Unlike the black sands of Manuel Antonio beaches in the “city”, this beach had white powdered sand!!  Hermit crabs were everywhere by the hundreds as well as a variety of crabs once again.  Sadly, myself nor my two companions had realized there were beaches in the Park to swim in, so none of us had our suits on to be able to swim!!  So for all of you out there who are planning to visit the Park, please take that bit of advice as your #3 lesson:)

We hung around this beach for a bit wading around the water and taking pictures (camera battery pending) and then started to head toward the exit.  The exit path went right along another large and lengthy beach portion that once again made me “tisk” at myself for not thinking to bring a suit.  Many tourists were lined on the beach taking in the sun and enjoying the water.  We even spotted some caper bandits (i.e. raccoons) going through some tourist bags that were left on the beach for some goodies they could eat.

All in all we had already spent about 4 hours walking around the Park, so each of us were ready at this point to exit and get something to eat and of course a cold brew.

When we reached the exit, we were greeted by a few men with little row boats.  Indeed the only way to exit the Park (unless you were willing to walk ALL the way back to the main entrance) was to cross a little river, too deep to wade through (another reason the suit would have come in handy!!) for $1.00 a piece!  With no other real choice we all paid and took the maybe 15 meter boat ride back to the “main land” and headed back to the hostel.

The rest of this day was spent simply relaxing, enjoying good food and of course some good beer on the beach!!  It was quite a nice ending to a fantastic Park day!  It was during this afternoon that B, A and I shared our plans for the next day.  “A” had only a few more days in Costa Rica and planned to spend them in Montezuma (on the tip of the Nicoyo Peninsula).  “B” opted to spend his remaining days in Costa Rica in Manuel Antonio, and I planned to continue heading South to Uvita.

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Manuel Antonio National Park Pictures:

Costa Rica

Manuel Antonio

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All the way down to Manuel Antonio I chatted up with the two fellow travelers, henceforth known as “B” and “A”.  They were from the States and were traveling friends down in Costa Rica for vacation.  Together we made our long journey through a long lay-over in Puntarenas and a drive through Jaco (which has been recommended to me by several people who have previously visited Costa Rica but locals have said not to travel there and frankly consider it one of the scars of the Country because of the large party and drug atmosphere there) and finally arrived late in the afternoon to our final destination of Manuel Antonio.

Upon exiting the bus (a small 15 minute and 250 colones ride from Quepos) we were instantly “attacked” by several people trying to get us to go to whichever hotel or hostel they worked for.  Backpackers are targets for these workers who get commission for every person they bring to whatever hotel or hostel there is in the area.  At first we were quite reluctant to follow the advice of the individuals who met us as most looked drugged out and some reeked of alcohol.  Nonetheless, since it was a backpackers hostel they were recommending to take us to, we followed.

We were led to the Costa Linda Backpackers, about a 500 meter walk from the beach and a 300 meter walk to the Manuel Antonio National Park and after checking out the accommodations decided it was a nice enough place to stay for the weekend.  We had also agreed on the way down that we would share a room while staying there to cut down on our costs.  For the first night we were able to score a private room with a private bath for $15 per person, but as this room was reserved for the next few nights, we had to move to another private room with shared bathrooms for $10 per person per night for the remainder of our stay.

Despite the initial sketchiness of the place, this area turned out to be one of the best places I had visited so far.  But I am getting ahead of myself…

As it was late in the evening with the sun already starting to set, there really wasn’t a ton to do except, well what else but get drunk!!  Ok, one other little factor played into our decision to leave the exploration to the next day, and that was that within an hour or two of us arriving there a fantastic thunderstorm erupted!!  So since we were bound to stay under shelter by a beautiful storm we opted to stay in the restaurant that was just at the entrance and part of the Backpackers to toast the day and the beauty around us.  I really don’t recall how much beers were at this location, but I do recall them being cheap as we had several rounds that night toasting the lightning and thunder as it clapped and struck around us and chatting the night away.

As all the drinkers out there know, once you get started the inevitable million trips to the bathroom begins.  I had not yet “broken the seal” but had need to at one point and borrowed the keys to our room so I could use the bathroom.  I happily made my way into the room, went into the bathroom and even though I was the only one in there, I closed the door to the bathroom…

BIG MISTAKE!!!  Or well, perhaps really it was much better that I did as you will soon learn… You see, behind that door on the wall was (no joke here) a spider with a leg span of about 5 inches!!!  I know that as an arachnophobia our memories and stories tend to make these fearful creatures out to be much larger than they actually are, but in this case I’m not exaggerating!  And this wasn’t one of those large daddy long-legs with large leg spans but teeny bodies… No sir!  This one had a long but slender body!!

So there I was, one hand on the button of my pants, my eyes focused steadily on the spider, my body frozen in fear.  Thoughts began to pass through my drunken brain… “What do I do?!?!?!”… “Perhaps I can just pee really, really fast then tell someone about it when I leave cause I really, REALLY need to pee!!”.  The showdown continued for probably another 30 seconds like this with me staring at the spider and the spider staring back… I was about 2 seconds from just peeing really fast then leaving when the spider moved a single leg about 2 millimeters to the right.  And that’s all it took, I was out of there!!  I flung the door open and ran as fast as I could to the exit of our room, out the hall and back to my friends at the table who were still chatting along happily.  I sat for a moment wringing my hands waiting for a moment to interrupt their conversation.  Then I shyly told them that we have a HUGE spider in our room and that I need it removed immediately!!!  I of course told them too that I was arachnophobic and was sorry to make such a deal out of it, but it had to go!  “B” got all excited as he was quite interested to see the large arachnid (Lord only knows why!!) and he said he would go take care of it.

While he was gone, “A” and I exchanged stories of fears, which for privacy purposes I won’t reveal hers here but I will say it was quite an unusal one!  We continued to chat until “B” finally came back and said “sorry it took so long, I first wanted to get some pictures of the spider, and then it took quite some time to get him out of the room as it kept trying to bite me!”  Thankfully he didn’t go into too many other gross details of how he removed the spider but as my relief for knowing the spider was out of the room set in, my now even more extreme need to pee returned!!  But before even thinking of returning to the room, I had to know exactly where the spider was taken too…  “B” then informed me that since it was so hard to get it out, he was only able to get it as far as the hallway… “I’m sorry, WHAT?!?!?!?!  You mean it’s in the HALLWAY right OUTSIDE OUR ROOM?!?!?!?!”  This made me even more paranoid and though I really didn’t want to have to go back to the bathroom, my body was telling me otherwise.  So I begged “B” to come with me and walk ahead of me to the room just in case the arachnid was in the hallway or on a wall of the hallway on the way to the room.  Such a nice person he was as he acquiesced and allowed me safe passage back to our room so I could finally relieve my bladder:)

The night continued much happier and arachnid-free from there as we continued to fiesta the night away until we all finally crashed and slept soundly.  We awoke to a stormy morning the next day and therefore opted to wait to go to the National Park until the next day when we hoped the weather would cooperate.  After breakfast and taking a picture of a “cute little guest” (see below picture) we moved into our new hostel room (private room with shared communal bath), met a local lizard who was always hanging out in one area and whom I fondly named Miguel, and generally hung around waiting for the storm to recede.

“A” had to get to a bank for more money, so about mid-day when the rain finally stopped, we all headed on a walk back up toward Quepos where the only ATMs were found.  Along the way we spotted several Capuchin Monkeys making their way across man-made ropes that stretched from one side of the road to the other.  These ropes are part of the “Children Saving the Rainforest” project and can be found throughout Costa Rica.  When electrical wires were first being erected to provide electricity to various areas, the monkeys thinking they were useful items to climb across to get to where they wanted to go, would often get electrocuted and die when they gripped them.  This was quite a large problem in the beginning, but it was quickly remedied as the “Rainforest” group stepped in with their fantastic idea of providing safe and non-electrical passages for the monkeys to use.

After our walk back up into town and a nice lunch and beer, we headed back to Manuel Antonio and A and I spent the rest of our afternoon “butt surfing” in the ocean!!  Now for those who don’t know what this is, Butt surfing is where you sit in shallow areas of the beach and allow the coming waves to toss you around the shallow beach as if you were simply a grain of sand.  It really is quite amazing the power of the Ocean as we literally were tossed and pushed and pulled and pommelled by the tiniest of waves!!  Due to the anywhere from small to large rocks and pebbles on the beach however, at times it was quite painful!!  But still fun nonetheless:)

Our night was spent again with good food, good conversation and company, and of course many great beverages.  If our hopes were to come true, the next day would be a sunny one so we could visit the Manuel Antonio National Park.

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Pictures of Puntarenas and Manuel Antonio (including Costa Linda Backpackers Hostel and critters of the area):

Costa Rica

Monteverde Horseback Ride Tour

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My tour was due to start around 11am.  As I sat in the common area of my hostel (Cabinas Eddy) I was surprised by a delicious homemade tamales that the Eddy family offered me, as well as to learn that I was the only one who had signed up for the horse tour!  The people who ran the tour however were very good friends of the Eddy family and as such, Eddy the first and his wife opted to come along on the tour with me!

Eddy Sr and his wife didn’t speak a lick of English, and as I was still learning Spanish, communication was quite entertaining!  But certainly not impossible as my knowledge of Italian helped a lot and hand gestures and charades made up for the rest.  All during the ride to the horse facility Eddy talked about Monteverde explaining how the majority of the land is used for the growth of coffee beans and chocolate.

We reached the facility about a half hour later and were greeted with open arms.  As mentioned earlier, the “horse” family and the Eddy’s were good friends so we were all greeted as such.  We sat in the main lobby area as the two families caught up on each others lives, then we set off on horseback for the tour.

The tour was led by a girl about 12 years old who knew the land like the back of her hand.  She was patient and kind and was very knowledgable about the land she grew up on.  It was quite entertaining because there were several times when she would begin to explain something about the area only to be interrupted by Eddy Sr. who would continue the explanation as if he were the guide.  I found this to be humorous as I could see that everyone was eager to share their knowledge of the area!

The horses are a much smaller breed than those found in the states, and since I had just come from a horse facility riding draft horses, it made these horses by comparison feel like ponies!!  But nonetheless it was great just to be back on horseback!!  It probably was a good thing that the horses were so small however as there were many areas that I literally had to throw the reins away and allow the horse to navigate their favorite path through the terrain!  Parts were so narrow and muddy and slippery and on the edge of cliffs and through rivers that it honestly made me nervous until I just allowed the horse to do their job and get us through safely.

Over hills, through jungle, along hillsides, to the top of a small mountain we finally arrived and my-oh-my what a view!!!  Our final destination felt like we had made it to the top of the world with a 360 degree view of everything around us!!  You could see Monteverde, Santa Elena and all the way to the Nicoyo Peninsula including the Gulf!!!  Though it was a little windy up there, the view was absolutely spectacular and honestly had it not been for the wind, we probably would not have been able to see so far!!

We got off the horses at this point and just spent time walking around enjoying the magnificent view all around us as the horses took a well deserved break, snacking on the grass around us.  After we all had our fill of our surrounding views, we mounted back up and headed down a different path to get home.  As some areas on the way back were safer to canter along, we did so enjoying the faster pace.  You could tell the horses were once again quite familiar with their jobs as though they would never take off without instruction, they always slowed down when they knew they were coming to the end of an area that was safe for speed.

All sorts of day-critters were spotted along the path, including a large variety of butterflies and birds, and of course spiders and webs!  Once we made it back to the ranch, I was shocked to realize that almost 5 hours had already passed!!  How time flies when you are having fun!!  I was very pleasantly surprised upon our arrival back to the ranch that we were greeted with a delicious homemade lunch!!  Now, I’m not entirely sure if lunch was ever part of the tour itself or if it was simply that I was being joined by friends of the family that I was served lunch.  Either way, it was delicious and I was very thankful to have had lunch as it had been a while since I ate anything as well:)

After our meal we all took a walk to their garden where we were shown a large variety of plants that they grow on their land including sugar cane and a very large variety of spices!  Our young tour guide cut some cane down and led us to and old shack that had a hand-crank machine designed to crush sugar cane.  She placed a bucket at the mouth of the machine and fed sugar cane bark through the machine as Eddy Sr. and I worked the hand cranks to make the machine work!  After several feeds of the cane through the machine we had several cups of pure sugar-water entirely from the cane!!  It was quite amazing to me how much sugar-water was squeezed out of only a few pieces of cane!!  We all took shots of the sugar cane juice and cheered to a wonderful day!!

After our garden tour, I was asked if I minded taking a trip off the normal path of the tour and instead join Eddy Sr. and his wife on a trip to one of their friend’s house.  Absolutely, I would love to join them was my response as any opportunity to see real life and real family life in different cultures is part of the reason for any of my travels to begin with!!  We headed off on foot to their friend’s house (who I later learned was the family of our young tour guide.  She was the eldest of the children in the family) where we were once again greeted with open arms and offered refreshments.  I was absolutely taken aback by the beauty of where they lived!!  The house was modest as all of them are, with only 3 bedrooms (to be shared by the parents and 7 children) and one bathroom, living room and kitchen.  I loved the kitchen as though it was simple, it was the largest of all the rooms and was completely open with a large table in the center just welcoming family and friends to join.  The roof was tin and as with most of the homes here the walls didn’t meet the roof but rather had a gap of about half a foot all the way around.  I could just imagine how wonderful the sound of rain would be off the roof, echoing around the vast area!!  How splendid!!

A better spot for the house as well could not have been picked as the land it was on had a phenomenal view of the mountains around them!!  The sun was getting lower on the horizon and it simply lit up the land around us in a fantastic glow that changed in color as it set lower.

Just being with the family, listening to conversation, being present in their tremendous hospitality humbled me.  There was nothing but love and fun radiating from them and though I couldn’t understand a lot of what was being said, the general feeling was of community.  We headed back to Cabinas Eddy about an hour later and though it was technically still early, I was definitely exhausted and just relaxed the remainder of the evening.  Of course I did make sure to thank everyone profusely for the fantastic day as none of it would have been possible without first the Eddy family joining me, and second for everyone’s amazing hospitality all along the way!!

On to Manuel Antonio

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Costa Rica

Monteverde

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Early the next morning, it was “on the road again” for me.  I was picked up at the tour office and shuttled from La Fortuna to Lake Arenal, across the lake in a little boat and met on the other side by another shuttle that took us to Monteverde.

Ok, technically we were taken to Santa Elena which is right next door to Monteverde.  Locals insist you use the proper name of Santa Elena, but tour groups and tourists call the whole area Monteverde.

When I arrived in Santa Elena I was dropped off at a place that some people recommended to me.  If memory serves correctly it was called El Toucan.  The reception staff however were not very helpful as when I asked how much the rooms were (private with a private bathroom if possible) they asked how much I wanted to pay instead of telling me the price.  Red flag alert!  I stated no more than $10 per night and they jumped on it!  Red flag alert #2… I asked to see the room first (always a good idea for any traveler) and they seemed nice enough but I did notice that the place was practically empty and the “private room” I was to stay in had 3 other beds.  So I decided to move along and see what else there was.

As I hiked up a teeny hill I spotted the tour van passing me, and the tour driver spotted me giving me a look of “what is that crazy tourist doing now?!?!” as I had just left where I was dropped off and was heading in the same direction he was driving!  In any event, I noticed many people being dropped off at the Monteverde Backpackers so I decided to check it out.  It was $16 a night and I don’t believe there were any private rooms left, so I opted to keep going.  I was told there was another hotel/hostel just down the road so I went to check it out…

Enter Cabinas Eddy… I literally get chills thinking of this place and the kind hospitality and beautiful accommodations that I was provided during my stay here.  I can’t say enough good things about the place and the people!!!  Cabinas Eddy is run and owned by 2 generations of “Eddy’s”, the father and his wife and his son (Eddy) and his wife and child.  For $8 a night, I was offered a beautiful and cozy private room with a private bathroom and HOT water!!!  I almost passed out when I found out the price for it and scrambled furiously to get money out to pay before someone else came by to snatch it up!!!  Well in all reality I first had to excuse myself politely to furiously get money that was stored in my bra out to pay, as I never travel with cash easily available but rather always store it in less likely places…

After signing in and settling in, I signed up for some tours.  One jungle night walk for later that evening, and after making sure the place was a good one that took care of its horses, I signed up for a horseback ride.

Monteverde/Santa Elena truly is a magnificent place!  Nestled in the cloud forest of Costa Rica the biodiversity is rich and the land literally reminded me of the hills of Ireland!!  Rich, lush and rolling, this area really was a beautifully magnificent sight to behold!!  Now, I should mention here that I have never been to Ireland, but the land is what I would imagine Ireland to look like.  Since being there I have met several people from Ireland whom have also visited Monteverde and have asked if it reminded them of home, and they have said absolutely yes!  So I really don’t mind so much making that comparison even though I haven’t actually been to Ireland…

Anyway once again I’m getting off topic!  I spent only 2 nights in Monteverde, which really unless you plan to do a bunch of tours is about the right amount of time.  They are also quite famous in that area for zip lining and for sky walks as they are in the cloud forest.  The weather while I was there was quite nice as it was sunny and warm in the day and got chilly at night!  The winds even picked up for the second night I was there, which locals said was very unusual for this time of year (normal for December time).  The cool mountain air at night was so refreshing and nice and made you want to bundle up making for some of the best night sleep I had had in a while.   The food was fantastic as I was once again indulging in casados, and the people all very friendly!  None as friendly as the Eddy family though as on my second day there they offered me a homemade tamales!  It was so darn scrumptious!!

I of course did find time to do a little fiesta-ing in the town too and on my way back from one bar ran into some people whom I had noticed around town in La Fortuna.  They were staying at the backpackers place which is where I ended up going and meeting a ton of other travelers.  I stayed up till quite early in the morning talking and drinking and playing cards with my fellow travelers and the hostel manager.  I know I’ve probably mentioned this before, but it really does still amaze me how many travelers are on the same path.  There are so many who have just had enough of where they were and what they were doing and decided to simply pack it up and move on.  One such case was of a guy from England I believe who was an architect there.  He once loved that occupation but then just got burned out and decided to pursue his true passion: photography of primates!  He has since been traveling the world in pursuit of every variety of primate!  There were and are of course just your regular garden variety travelers on vacation or on a sabbatical, but quite surprisingly to me even more who left everything from their previous life behind to just travel and try something new.

The morning of leaving Monteverde I ended up on the same bus as the people I had seen in La Fortuna and in chatting some more with them realized that we were once again going to the same place: Manuel Antonio.

On to Manuel Antonio

On to Monteverde Night Tour

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Costa Rica

Monteverde Night Tour

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Ok, here we go… There were pit vipers that were hanging out around the base of the trees, which we were told was a rather lucky sight as they are ususally much higher up during the time of year I was there.  There were tarantulas; one female that was nestled in her burrow on the side of a little hill whom the tour guide tried to coax out with a stick (I had to use extra zoom to get a close-up picture without actually getting in close, hence why the photo is a little fuzzy) and one male who walked across my path and decided to halt directly in front of me!!  Now, of course I didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone else because of my fear but then again I was so paralyzed that I couldn’t actually move.  Luckily one of the other girls on my tour stopped with me to lend some moral support even though she too was terrified of the critter.  Even more lucky was that another tour guide and group was coming by so the guide wedged the tarantula between his feet (not actually touching it but rather providing a barrier between it and me)  allowing me to make a literal run for it!

Now one thing I did learn about tarantulas that made me feel quite sorry for the little buggers had to do with their worst predator… No, not humans in this case but rather wasps!!  Wasps apparently will land on the back of a tarantula and inject it with a tranquilizer of sorts thus paralyzing the arachnid but not killing it.  The wasp will then lay eggs on the back of the tarantula and as the eggs hatch, the newborn wasps will feed off the tarantula, eventually killing it after 8 whole days!!  Being eaten alive… now that’s just NO way for any creature to have to die!!  Poor little buggers!!

Moving on however, another spectacular sight was the mama sloth and her baby!  The mother looked absolutely HUGE but apparently only weighed like 20lbs!!  These sloths (2-toed) are all fur and have the look of being humongous but really aren’t.  Her baby was really hard to see as unlike its mom, the baby was a dark brown color that blended in perfectly with the dark night.  What really suprised me the most about this pair however was how active the mom and baby were!  Sloths are named as such because of their slow movement and the fact that they sleep a lot.  But apparently at night they do become more active as we saw as there was a ton of grooming and movement, especially by the baby!

The tour guides were amazing and were able to spot the tinniest of critters from great distances!!  One such example was spotting a foot long walking stick!!  We were all huddled looking at this dense forest and the guide kept going “look, there is a giant walking stick”… We were like “where?!?!?!”   It blended in perfectly with the tree it was on and was only about 4 feet in front of us, yet it took a good 10 minutes for everyone on the tour to actually see what the rest were looking at!!  Quite impressive!

Another area we visited was the nest of a colony of army ants.  We were not able to walk on certain areas as putting too much weight on the ground had the potential for collapsing the Earth under us, plunging us into the depths of a million angry ants!!  If I recall my stats correctly, scientists have estimated about 2 billion ants in this one colony alone!!  What was most impressive about this spot was when the tour guide went to catch a soldier ant.  These ants guard the entrances to the nest and are the most fierce of all.  He picked it up by the body making sure to have a good grip on its head so it couldn’t bite him.  Then he picked up a stick that was about 4 feet long… He put the tip of the stick to the pinchers of the soldier ant and it immediately clasped on!  The ant was so strong and had such a good grip that it was able to hold on to the stick entirely on its own!!  Even more interesting, the ants were used by Indigenous people as stitches!  If someone got a cut that needed stiches, they would use soldier ants by making them bite on their skin to bring each side of the wound together and then they would pinch off the heads.  The head of the ant would not fall off for 8 days!!  Once they did fall off the wound was healed!  Quite impressive of the indigenous tribes!!  But also quite painful!

Perhaps the most interesting of all the things we saw on this tour was what we couldn’t see with out lights on… The tour guide picked up an old moldy piece of wood and stared at it with awe and fascination.  He said it was the most beautiful part of the forest!  We were all confused and wondered why an old piece of wood was so interesting, until we turned our lights off… Right before our eyes the wood began to glow!!  It was covered in rare bioluminescent algae!!!  We all stared in wonder and as we began to look around us in the dark, you could see all of the forest lit up in different areas by this spectacular algae!  We also spent part of our time chasing after a rare cat who, like most nocturnal critters, hunts at night but is very fast and therefore hard to see!  Even though we didn’t get to see it ultimately, the chase was rather fun!

Now for each tour it is never guarenteed of course that you will see a large diversity of animals, but again I would definately recommend it!

On to Monteverde Horseback Riding Tour

Back to Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Volcan Arenal Tour

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Arriving at the Red Lava tour office at 2:00 (they did offer to pick me up from my hostel at no extra charge but I declined) I was quickly accompanied by 3 girls from Holland, and 2 spanish speaking gentlemen.  We were told by the tour group that the last part of the tour would include a dip in natural hot springs so if we wanted to have an alcoholic beverage during that time, then we should go around the corner to the grocery store to pick some up.  They provided a cooler for our purchases and within a half hour we were all in the van and on our way to the Arenal volcano.

It only took about 15 minutes (including a stop for some afar pictures of the volcano and a stop to see some toucans which promptly flew away as everyone readied their cameras) to get to our destination.  Now, I really wish I could recall the name of the hotel that we were taken to, but sadly cannot.  The view from the hotel was amazing!  We were quite literally up close and personal with the volcano!  And to boot, the hotel was quite well landscaped so the views in the near vicinity were also quite spectacular.  We were given a little time to wander our new surroundings and take all the views in.  The hotel had a deck on the back-end of it that looked onto the volcano and a beautiful lake below.  The scenery really was breathtaking!  After some time spent on the deck (and several pictures later) we returned to the parking lot to officially start our tour and spotted a family of baby raccoons playing and hanging out in the trees just feet from us!!  Needless to say, the next 10 minutes or so were spent cooing over the baby raccoons and taking a gazillion pictures of their every adorable move!!  It was hard to tear ourselves away from them, but we were forced to leave the parking lot area soon after that… not because of the tour, but because of the storm that erupted above us raining down buckets of water on us!

Right about now is when the sensible traveler would say “Storm?  No worries, I have my poncho or umbrella or rain coat with me!”  I however, was not one of the sensible travelers on this day.  And even though I did contemplate bringing it with me, I didn’t because the sky looked clear and showed no signs of raining at all!  Lesson learned: no matter what the sky may or may not look like at the time, always bring your poncho as at any given moment the weather can shift and go from sun to pouring buckets.

It is for this next reason as well that you don’t want to be caught without a poncho when needed: none of the other travelers had a poncho with them either (except one) and as we all stood huddled under the porch shelter of the hotel, our guide suggested that we purchase a poncho so we could still walk in the rain.  Reluctantly one by one we lined up at the hotel desk and purchased a poncho for $2.40 a piece.  What we received in return was the thinnest, cheapest and lightest piece of plastic.  Seriously it was so darn thin that a couple of people split theirs just trying to get theirs on!  Once we were finally all “ponchoed” the guide said “ok, let’s go!”… Where did the guide take us first??  To an indoor room on the second floor of the hotel for a chat about the history of the volcano!  By the time we were done with that discussion, the rain had stopped and none of us had any use for the ponchos at all, therefore making the purchase of them completely unnecessary!  Hysterical, right??  Or perhaps ironic…

Well, ok I really shouldn’t say that the poncho purchase was completely useless as I have used it since to wrap wet or damp clothing in prior to shoving them in my bag when traveling from one destination to another… But it was useless for the specific intention it was purchased for.  But I digress.

Anyway, the chat about the volcano really was quite fascinating.  Apparently long ago when people were first settling in La Fortuna, they had no idea that the volcano was indeed a volcano.  They lived beside the volcano lake and swam in the waters and climbed the volcano.  There never was any issue with this lifestyle until, of course, the volcano erupted and wiped out a good portion of the people there.  Those who settled further (and on the ¨correct¨ side of it) from the volcano survived but the majority of the town was completely wiped out.  Also, there are actually 4 volcanos all in the same area.  The one that is and has been active most recently actually began at the base of the original volcano.  As the lava cooled from this ¨base¨ volcano it piled higher and higher until reaching and even surpassing the height of the original cone volcano structure!  You can see evidence of this when viewing the volcano from some of the angles, for there seems to be a cone peak that levels off and then it climbs higher to a higher point.  The lower cone is the original one, and the higher peak is actually the volcano that is erupting from the base!  Pretty cool stuff!!  The guide also mentioned how several people have tried to climb up to the top of the volcano since the first eruption that wiped out the original town (1968 if I recall correctly).  None were successful and one even died trying.

Once the history lesson was over (and rain) we headed off on foot to our next tour destination: a waterfall!  Now it was not the La Fortuna waterfall that is in the National Park, but another smaller one not too far a hike from the hotel we were driven to.  Along the way we learned about indigenous plants of Costa Rica such as the citronella (which we all plucked a fruit from and rubbed all over our bodies to naturally prevent mosquitos from dining on us), a cacao plant, banana trees and the Cecropia tree that indigenous tribes used to get high!  They would wait for the leaves to fall and dry them out, then smoke them to produce a high.  Interestingly enough, it is the leaves of this tree that sloths prefer the most to snack on and it is somewhat of a joke that it’s because they eat these leaves that they are so slow:)  Whether the leaves actually produce a high or not, I do not know but it’s certainly interesting information!  We were also pointed out a banana spider, which due to my arachnophobia I steered clearly away from and couldn’t even bring myself to take a picture of it for fear it would jump on my camera even from the 10 foot radius of space I gave it.

Finally we arrived at our waterfall destination and my, oh my what a sight!!  It wasn’t spectacularly tall, but the sound of the rushing water just made your spirits lift and got me very energized!!  They are such simple constructions of nature, and yet the force and power of the water rushing off the edge is still awe-inspiring!  Our guide promptly upon arriving stripped down to his bathing shorts and decorated his body with mud from the edges of the river, capping his head with a dead Cecropia leaf.  The other two men on the tour immediately followed suit while the rest of us (all ladies) one by one surrendered to the idea of getting wet in the chilly waterfall waters.  By the end of our time there (about an hour or so) we had all taken our fill of jumping into the waterfall off of nearby logs that had fallen and that now served as great jumping boards, and of taking pictures and generally wading in the river beyond the waterfall.  Dark was upon us (which by the way it is pitch dark by 6pm in Costa Rica year round) as we all packed our things up and headed back up the trail to our van.  But before leaving the nature hike trail entirely, our guide had one more piece of interesting information for us…

First he asked whether any of us could guess how many spiders and insects were currently in the grassy area directly in front of us.  At this question, I immediately froze… My thought was ¨wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you see spiders directly in front of us?!?!?!?!  WHERE???  And which way can I go to avoid them?!?!?!?!¨.  My first thought was to back up very slowly away from the grass that lay ahead of us, until I realized that there was a ton of grass behind us too so surely there must be spiders in there too!!  Now I know of course that there are spiders around us everyday (statistically we are no more than 5 feet from a spider at any given moment in our lives) but I would rather just not know about it!  Ignorance to me in this instance is absolutely blissful!!  I once again froze and decided, well, perhaps if I knew where they were I could avoid those areas specifically.  As people guessed randomly how many critters we were surrounded by, our guide showed us a little trick to find out.  We all had headlights with us and we were instructed to place them on our nose and look around our areas with the lights on.  This positioning of the light allowed us to look directly onto the beam of light projected from our headlamps and suddenly dozens upon dozens of multiple pairs of little shiny spots all along the grass appeared… What we were in fact seeing was the eyes (sets of 8 for spiders) of insects hidden within the shelter of the grass.  It had just rained though so some of those shines were due to water droplets, but I did test out several shiny objects by moving in closer to see what they were and yes, in fact they were bugs or spiders (to my stress mainly spiders!).  Quite a useful trick I thought and interesting to boot, even though I again would rather just not know about a spiders presence to begin with.

Moving along, we got back to the van and headed out at breakneck speed along the dirt and stone road from which we had traveled before back to town.  Speeding and seemingly reckless driving is definitely prevalent in Costa Rica (in fact they are #1 for fatal accidents involving motor vehicles) but you get somewhat accustomed and trusting of tour guides and bus drivers whose job it is to drive tourists around.  In any event, at one point on our way back our driver sharply swerved and slammed on the brakes, put the van in reverse and proceeded driving backward for a little ways.  When he threw the gear back into drive mode he inched slowly along the road again finally coming to a stop in the middle of the road, just in front of something.  He instructed all of us to stay in the van as he got out and looked at a creature ahead of the van lit up only by the lights of the van.  After several minutes he returned and stated that there was a real fer-de-lance snake on the road.

I use the word ¨real¨ not to mean that it was alive (though it was) but to mean that it was an authentic one.  Apparently there is another snake species that looks very much like the fer-de-lance except that it does not have the triangular head of the real fer-de-lance, but it mimics the authentic one by triangulating its head when it feels threatened to make its predator think it’s more dangerous than it really is.  Unlike it’s imposter however, the real (authentic) fer-de-lance is considered to be the most poisonous snake in Costa Rica.  As told by several guides, if bitten you have 45 minutes to get anti-venom, and sadly as most hospitals take way more than 45 minutes to get to, chances are if bitten by one it will be fatal.  However, upon Google searching info on these snakes myself, I have come across varying information.  All do seem to say that it is considered the most dangerous snake in Costa Rica, and that this snake bite is the leading cause of death (among snake bites) but other sources (Wikipedia) state that the fatality rate is almost 0% due to the Clodomiro Picado Research Institute that is responsible for the production of snake antiphidic serums.  Hmmmm….

In any event, slowly we all crept out of the van one-by-one to see the fer-de-lance and to snap a few photos (zoom was of course used as I wasn’t going to get THAT close!).  Once we all got our picts it was back in the van we went and a little further down the road we once again pulled over to see the next critter spotted by our guide.

Now perhaps is a good time to say that the tour guides have the most amazing eye sight!!!  They are able to spot the tiniest of creatures from the most impressive distances!!  This was no exception either as the creature we stopped to see was a pair of mating Red-Eyed leaf frogs!!  Chances are you have definitely at least seen a picture of these frogs as they are the most photographed of all the Costa Rica frogs.  I know of people who have been here for months and still have not seen one of these frogs in person!  The aren’t poisonous at all and are absolutely adorable!!  We of course spent probably more time than we needed to photographing them to death (not literally folks, calm down) until resigning back to the van and heading to our final destination: a natural hot spring!

Known only to local ticans (or tourists who are clever enough to ask the locals about whether there are any free hot springs around), the natural (and free!!) hot spring we were taken to was actually a river that prior to the 1968 eruption ran cold, but after ran nice and toasting hot!  Just under a bridge where the river ran also naturally formed areas where the water pooled creating a wonderfully perfect jacuzzi!  Because the bridge was nearby, you could use the concrete slabs below the bridge as a hot slip and slide dunking off the edge and into the pool at the end.  Or if you chose, you could duck under the small waterfall created by the edge of the concrete and the hot pool to a space under the bridge that felt like a sauna!!  It did get a little claustrophobic in there for me, so I really just spent the majority of the time lounging in the pool and slip and sliding in from the bridge.  We busted out our beers and toasted a wonderful evening out, finally relaxing in the massaging waters.

One funny story here, if you recall we had brought a cooler of beers and all had purchased about 3-4 beers a piece.  When we arrived at the hot spring there were two tico (i.e. local) teenage boys playing in the springs already.  They hung around as we enjoyed our time there drinking our beers.  At one point all of us had ducked under the bridge to the sauna area and when we emerged and decided it was time for another beer, the cooler was still there, but the remaining beer was not… And the boys were gone!  Lol!!  The guide immediately ran up the river and searched surrounding areas to see if he could find them to no avail and some of my companions were a bit offended, but I just thought it was funny.  Typical teenage boy antics- just having some fun!  They really didn’t make off with that many beers, so really I didn’t consider it to be too harmful.

In any event, we left the hot spring and were dropped off around 9pm at our relative hotels/hostels.  Needless to say I slept quite well that night with my body having been treated so well by the heat and motion of the spring!!  Good thing too, as the next day I would once again be departing for my Jeep-Boat-Jeep tour to take me to Monteverde.

On to Monteverde

Back to Costa Rica

Costa Rica, Travel

Cell Phones

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For those who would like to have a cell phone down in Costa Rica (all the locals do, you may as well too!) and don’t want to pay the absolutely outrageous phone charges that companies in the States would charge to use your phone here, well you have come to the right place!  Before ever leaving the States, my mom and I talked to just about every cell phone carrier available and while all had “international” plans, they were first off quite expensive, and second not at all what I needed.  What each of the carriers considered an “international” plan was to allow you to call from the States to various countries in the world.  However if you were in a different county and wanted to call the States, well that wouldn’t be covered in the plan and would cost you even more of a fortune!

Luckily, the prepaid SIM card came to the rescue!!  I learned most of this information once I got in Costa Rica and talked with people so here is the full skinny on what to do, where to go and what to expect:

Before you get to Costa Rica:

  • Determine whether your phone is capable of being used in Costa Rica.  This is done quite simply: if you have a SIM card in your phone currently, you are all set.  If not, you may want to look into getting a phone that does have a slot for a SIM card.  If you don’t know what a SIM card is, might I suggest Google? 🙂
  • Call your cell phone carrier customer service line, tell them you will be going out of the country and that you need to have the code that will UNLOCK your phone.  This is a VERY important step!!!  They may run a quick check on the type of phone you have to ensure it is capable of being unlocked (i.e. it has a SIM card/slot) but it is quite fast and easy.  This method is also the free method.  There are some people who will charge you to get your phone unlocked and it’s really just not necessary.  The code will be a long series of numbers.  Be sure to write this number down and store it somewhere where you will recall where it is and that you will have it with you when you need it.

Once in Costa Rica:

As mentioned in my La Fortuna post, ICE (e-say) is the local utility company.  They are also responsible for assigning you a prepaid SIM card.  The easiest way to find an ICE location is by simply looking around for the tallest tower (like a radio tower in the States but much shorter) and go to where it is located.  Or you can always just ask a local:)  Now some tips when going to ICE: avoid going at the end/beginning and middle of the month.  This is the time when locals go there to pay their utility bills so they are very crowded.  Get there when they open.  Most open around 8:30am.  I suggest this trick because you at least have the chance of being within the first 5 to get there and therefore will probably only spend about a half hour waiting for your number to get called instead of a couple of hours wait.  And yes, they do serve people in order of the ticket number you get, so be sure to look for the ticket number dispenser when you arrive (it’s red).

Once you get called, simply tell the clerk you would like a prepaid SIM card.  They will take some information, ask how much you want to put on the card ($5, $10 or $20) and then will give you your card along with your receipt that will have your new phone number listed on it.  To this day I still have to refer to that receipt when telling people my phone number as it’s still not committed to memory.  It’s really quite humorous when people ask for your number… instead of asking for your number they ask “do you know your number?” because for some reason, not knowing ones number by heart is actually quite common here!  Well, at least among the expats…

Now along with the SIM card, they will also give you the accompanying card that also has VITAL information!  It is the size of a credit card and contains 2 very important numbers that you absolutely will need if your phone ever shuts down and turns back on.  So whatever you do, do NOT lose this card either!!  If/when  you power your phone off and back on again, it will ask you for your “pin” number.  It gives you three tries to get it right and the “pin” number is on the original card they give you at the ICE store.  I had an incident in Bocas where my phone died and when I went to turn it on, I had no idea about the pin required to turn it back on and almost got completely and forever locked out of my phone because I didn’t know what “pin” number it was looking for!  Luckily I did retain my original card and looked to it for help… hence when I discovered the value of the card!

The gentlemen assisting me at the ICE store was quite helpful and he basically took care of entering in all the necessary information in my phone in order to turn it on (i.e. pin and PUK numbers that are written on the “credit card” given to you at ICE).  Once the phone prompted him for the UNLOCK code, I provided it to him and it fired up with no other problems.

And that’s it!  I originally paid for $10 worth of service and to this day (it’s been over a month and a half now) I still have not had to recharge it.  I’ve made several lengthy local calls, calls to the States, texts and even a call to Italy and it’s still going! I’ve heard that prepaid cards expire after 90 days if unused, but I’m really not sure how true that statement is… Something else to investigate at some point!

Now if and when you do need to recharge your prepaid SIM card, you can do so at literally just about every store you pass!!  Just look for the carrier symbol of Kolbi with a little green cartoon frog that states “recarga” below it, and you’ve found yourself a recharge place!

One last thing to point out, your phone will now ONLY work in Costa Rica.  Once you cross the border to another country, your phone will no longer have service.

Costa Rica

La Fortuna

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I arrived in La Fortuna the next afternoon and headed to the hostel I found on the internet called “Sleepers Sleep Cheap”.  The word ‘cheap’ of course caught my eye immediately when searching for somewhere and the reviews seemed good enough.

About 100 meters south of the bus terminal, I arrived at the hostel which was set back a little from town than most of the others.  For $10 a night, I got a private room with a private bath, hot water and breakfast!  I paid for 2 nights and proceeded to get settled in.  Honestly I don’t have any negative words for the hostel.  It was a very basic set-up and nothing fancy by any means, but it was cheap, my room was clean, the staff were very friendly and accommodating, and the breakfast area had one of the best views in my opinion… I will later divulge what that view was;)

Now, I wanted to state my opinion about the hostel before writing about this bit: interestingly enough, weeks later when I was in Bocas Town (Bocas del Toro), Panama, I met a couple who just happened to stay at the hostel at the same time that I was staying there!  But they had a very different opinion of the place… Though they did agree it was cheap, they said they believed they had bed bugs and that their door wouldn’t close all the way so all sorts of critters would come in during the day and night.  Their room wasn’t clean and they weren’t that thrilled with what was served for breakfast (toast, eggs, fruit and coffee).  So, I guess it just goes to show you that not everyone’s experiences are the same!

In any event, after getting settled in it was about time to eat something, so I found a local soda that was recommended and that was just down the street from my hostel and had a fantastic fillet de pollo casado!  I absolutely love those casados!!!

Waiting for my meal to arrive, two guys whom I had met on the bus showed up so we dined together.  I spent that evening wandering the streets of La Fortuna with them, drinking beer in the central park. Since we had all arrived in the late evening, there really wasn’t much time to get our barring of the area, so at this point none of us really knew where the famed volcano was.  Sitting in the park drinking, it became a little bit of a game trying to figure out where the volcano actually was.  If the volcano had been active, it would have been quite obvious, but alas the volcano was dormant while I was there.  And mind you, it had been dark since before dinner, so there wasn’t any way to see around us…

The next morning I rose early determined to check several things off my list.  First off, I wanted to do a tour of the volcano and perhaps the hot springs and second I wanted to go to the famed La Fortuna waterfall and finally, I wanted to get a plan in place on where my next destination would be.  Even though the purpose of my trip to Costa Rica was not to be a tourist, one really can’t help but do a tour or two once here!  They can be pricey, that’s for sure but I did a lot of tour “office hopping” prior to settling on the final place to book at.  And since it was the off-season, there were more deals available than not.

Red Lava, a tour office located at the bus terminal offered the best prices and most unique tours.  Through them I booked a tour of the Arenal volcano that was 5 hours long, including a nature hike to a waterfall (not the La Fortuna waterfall but another one), a history of the Arenal volcano and finishing off with a night dip in a natural hot spring.  I also booked for a Jeep-Boat-Jeep package that would get me from La Fortuna to my next destination of Monteverde via, well you guessed it: a jeep, a boat and a jeep:)

It was mid-morning by the time I got all my bookings complete and since my volcano tour wasn’t going to start until 2pm, I opted to spend my time in between by going to the famous La Fortuna waterfall.  Since my motto on spending money was “the less you spend now, the more you will have later” I decided to walk to the waterfall, located inside a National Park, instead of taking a bus directly to the entrance of the National Park… I really should have just paid the darn $8 for the bus!!!!!  But oh no, I decided to keep that money and hike there myself instead!  Afterall, it was a paved road to the park so I figured a little exercise would do me some good!  I have no idea what the temperature was outside, but the sun was shining and it was definitely humid!  I had my little personal bag with me so I could bring my camera for the trip and take plenty of pictures.  And I was off for my hike…

About 8 kilometers (about 3 of which were straight uphill- the end 3 of course) later I arrived to the park entrance red-faced and completely dripping in sweat.  In fact I was so saturated with sweat that both my t-shirt and breathable pants were completely soaked through!!  My bag, supposedly waterproof, even began to soak in some of my sweat so that the inside contents became damp!  The very first thing I did when I got to the park entrance was go to the bathroom and practically bathe myself in the sink with my clothes still on!  Thankfully I did have along with me my vapur water bottle and therefore was hydrated the entire way, but I still had to refill it twice before ever leaving the bathroom because of my extreme thirst!!  People were looking at me like I was crazy, but all I cared about at that point was that I had made it!!

But then, I glanced at my watch… it was noon… there was NO way I was going to be able to actually get to the waterfall and back down to town by 2:00 for my volcano tour:(  You see, I had made it to the park ENTRANCE but the waterfall itself was still about a kilometer deep into the park.  And tack on the fact that if I wanted to even try to see the waterfall I would have had to pay the $10 entrance fee, well, it just didn’t make much sense at that point to even try for it.  So I decided to simply head back down to the town, perhaps get a bite to eat and make it in time for my tour.

The walk back to town was much nicer!!  All downhill with a little breeze to boot!  The little breeze did wonders to dry my clothing on the walk down and by the time I made it back (about 1) I had just enough time to grab a bite to eat at the soda where I had dinner and get ready to meet my tour.

Oh and I promised I would divulge the breakfast view from my hostel… It was indeed the volcano!!!  I had been staring at it all morning during the first morning while enjoying breakfast yet never realized I what I was looking at, lol!!!

On to Volcan Arenal Tour

Back to Costa Rica

Travel

Money

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The local currency in Costa Rica is Colones.  They do also accept US dollars in most places.  Now we all know that exchange rates change daily, so if you are planning to travel to Costa Rica it would be best for you to check what the current exchange rate is prior to leaving from a reputable source, so you don’t end up being taken advantage of by currency exchange places once you land.  Here are some quick money tips for traveling Costa Rica.  Below the bullet tips are more in-depth explanations and ramblings on money:)

  • Avoid airport exchange rate centers.  They are notorious for giving the worst rate and for slapping on extra charges.
  • Carry smaller bills.  Many places won’t accept $100 bills due to counterfeit issues and many places don’t like giving lots of change out from larger bills.  So stick with $20 (10,000 colones) or less.
  • ATMs: If you are in a larger city, get there EARLY!!!  My first night in San Jose as I wandered the streets I looked for places to exchange my money for local currency and for ATMs to simply get out some local currency.  However the lines for each of these tasks were easily a mile long.  No joke!  Perhaps it was because I arrived on a Saturday, that perhaps was the only reason for every line being that long, but in any event it was enough for me to decide not to join the lines but rather to wait for a less crowded area to get or exchange money.  I have never had to wait in line in smaller locations such as La Fortuna, Puerto Jimenez and Puerto Viejo.
  • Store money smart: As a general travel safety tip, I would recommend to store your money in different locations.  For example, I always had a little bit of money in my travel bag for incidentals like taking the bus or getting something to eat.  But the vast majority of my money was stored in my bra.  Ok, perhaps that’s TMI, but I’m just being honest here:)  The more prepared traveler would perhaps consider a money belt or other clever device that looks innocent enough, but that stores the majority of their money.  Just food for thought!

Now for the ramblings…

Generally speaking, 500 colones is equivalent to 1 US dollar.  So 1000 colones (also called one Mil) is 2 US dollars.  The one Mil bill is actually quite cleverly designed.  It’s plastic believe it or not!  Practically indestructible and I would assume recyclable… They also have a 2,000 bill ($4.00 which is also my favorite bill because it has an image of a shark and coral reef on one side) a 5,000 bill ($10.00) a 10,000 bill ($20.00) and a 20,000 bill ($40.00).  I don’t know if the bills get higher than the 20K one, and honestly I’ve only seen the 20K bill once.  In general it’s best to have smaller bills (10K or less) since many places either won’t have the change for larger bills, or won’t want to accept them because you will be taking all their change!

That brings me to another quick point.  Avoid bringing $100 US dollar bills here.  They have had a lot of problems with counterfeit $100 bills and many places will not accept them because they aren’t sure that they aren’t counterfeit.  I have personally seen this occur to a few travelers at a hostel in Manuel Antonio.  They tried to pay with a $100 bill and were asked to pay with another form of payment because the hostel owner couldn’t verify that the bill was real.

Most places that are tourist related will simply use the base exchange of 500 colones to the 1 US dollar.  So for example, if you have a tour for 15,000 colones, they will accept $30 US dollars no problem.  Other places however are much more in tune with the exchange rates and will convert the colones to US dollars using the current exchange rate.  So if the exchange rate is low (i.e. less than 500 per 1US) then you could be paying more dollars out than if you simply had colones on you.  Unfortunately there isn’t any way for me to say “use this place or that” as per the places that will use the 500/1 rate vs. the places that are checking rates daily.  It’s simply something that I noticed along the way.