Costa Rica has been incredible! We arrived here from Ontario after vising my family on April 12th into San Jose. It's not the most exciting city in the world but has its charm. We made the mistake of arriving on Easter weekend when everything was closed for the week, however we managed to find a couple of places to eat and had a relaxing day 1/2 before meeting up with our tour group. We're on G Adventures Costa Rican Adventure 16 day tour. Day 1 we departed San Jose on a local bus 3 hours to Quepos, a popular beach town with locals and visitors. We arrived late afternoon and headed straight for the beach. The beach was packed with Easter Weekenders but that didn't matter much to us because we all b-lined for the ocean and body surfed big waves for the better part of an hour before sunset set us home. The other big draw to Quepos is the small but mighty Manuel Antonio National Park. Costa Rica has over 30 protected zones and national parks. Conservation and Eco tourism has made Costa Rica a unique and popular destination, it's what drew us here. Manuel Antonio National Park is one of the smallest parks in Costa Rica but one of the most beautiful. The park is lined with trails that are easy to walk through and leads to small beaches only accessible through the park. We left at 7am so we could get a prime location on the beach before it filled with visitors. We did a few of the trails and managed to spot sloths (even a baby and mother!), black iguanas, a huge group of flying squirrel monkeys and the ever so mischievous white faced monkeys and raccoons. We saw a bunch of the white faced monkeys and raccoons sneak into people's bags all along the beach, you really have to watch your stuff around them! After 2 nights in Quepos we continued our journey to Monteverde, one of the coolest places on earth! Along our drive there we stopped for a pee break and to see a river filled with massive crocodiles measuring 5-6 meters. Thankfully there was a bridge separating us and the crocs! Getting up to Monteverde was a bumpy ride into the mountains but worth it for the views. Monteverde is made famous for the Cloud Forest Nature Reserve, one of the most bio-diverse places in Costa Rica and incredible zip lines! During our 2 days in Monteverde we did a night walk. The idea of tarantulas and 23 species of poisonous snakes was unsettling to say the least. We managed to spot the elusive 2 toed sloth early into our walk. They are more active at night with thick grey fur compared to the cuter 3 toed sloth we spotted in Quepos. We also saw sleeping birds, a green viper and lots of bugs including the tarantula hawk - a wasp that offers the second most painful sting of any bug on the planet. We got through our walk unharmed and then went for a fantastic local dinner trying some local moonshine to top off the day. Our second day we got up early and headed to the Cloud Forest. The cloud forest borders the Pacific coast and the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica attracting a wide range of wild life from both sides. That combined with the fact it's a perpetually wet climate in the clouds the forest is teaming with life. Prior to 1972 when the government purchased the land the cloud forest was farm land largely cleared of trees. Since then the land has been allowed to regrow and is now a thriving ecosystem. The unique thing about the Cloud Forest is that it's managed by the Education Board. This allowed Monteverde to create schools teaching young people about eco-management, tourism and studying the bio-diversity of the area setting up camera traps and so on to record the health of the ecosystem. It was an amazing morning walk, we didn't see too much because it's so thick with trees but was really fun regardless. After our morning walk in the cloud forest we went zip lining! The first few were good starter runs before we did 2 long runs and 2 superman zips waaaaay up above the trees. For the superman runs you lay on your stomach and they stop you at the other end. The one superman run was 2000 meters long, the longest zip line in Costa Rica! After 10 thrilling zip lines we finished the day off with a Tarzan swing, basically a bungee jump sitting down. It was terrifying to make the leap but so worth it! After 2 incredible days in Monteverde it was time to leave and drive, boat and drive again to La Fortuna. The name 'La Fortuna' came from the the 1968 eruption of the local volcano that thankfully blew out towards the lake and not the town resulting in a relatively few fatalities. The town offers fantastic views of the two crater volcano and local adventure activities. Our first day we kept it chill and went to a local water hole under a bridge with a huge rope swing into the deep water surrounding the waterfalls. It was a beautiful afternoon. Theft is pretty common here so you really have to watch your belongings, some of our group nearly lots their bags but fortunately caught the thief before he got too far. The next day in La Fortuna we went on a waterfall jumping excursion. It was amazing! We started by repelling down a 43 meter cliff near a waterfall then jumping our way down 10 waterfalls. The highest waterfall jump of 7 meters was saved for the end. Felt like a kid again, was an amazing day! At the last point there was also a small rock face we could rock climb over the water which we really enjoyed. Part two of our tour being posted soon!
1 Comment
Judy pearce
4/30/2017 07:30:14 am
Thank you so much for sharing your adventures. I love reading all about the things you're doing. Stay safe.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Nicole & ChrisWe've left our jobs to travel the world! Categories
All
Archives
March 2017
|