Our first stop was Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna. We flew into San Jose, Costa Rica but went directly to Arenal Volcano area on the first day. The main attraction was the active volcano, but we did not get to see the lava flow. It turns out, we were staying at the wrong side. The lava flow is only visible from north or west side of the volcano... La Fortuna, where it was cheaper to stay, is on the east side. But we got to enjoy Baldi hot springs.
After spending 2 nights, we moved onto Monteverde for some more nature intake. We visited Selvatura Park for walking around suspension bridges and Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. The cloud forest was pretty awesome but the guide did talk about how the climate change was affecting both animals and plants.
After spending 2 nights there, we went to Manuel Antonio area. There is a small park, Manuel Antonio, where we saw monkeys, sloth, woodpecker, crabs, etc. It's right by the Pacific Ocean so we got to relax by gorgeous beach too.
We arranged this trip ourselves, after deciding that the travel agent was not being totally honest. Guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Frommer's, and Fodors) were helpful to varying degrees. But they did not prepare for some things.
1) If you want to see the lava flow at Arenal Volcano, stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge or north/west side of the volcano. We met someone who basically saw quite a lot of activity because they stayed there. It's a bit pricey but you won't get to see any activity staying in La Fortuna. And you can only see red lava glow at night so you might want to hit the hot springs during the day and then look for lava in the evenings.
2) La Fortuna and Monteverde cities preferred US dollars over their own currency of colones. In fact, the price quotes were so horrible, we did everything we could to use US dollars. The lesson, don't change all your money (like my cousin did) to colones. You will be using US dollars quite a lot.
3) On the other hand, Manuel Antonio area preferred colones over US dollars. So before you get there, make sure you have colones.
4) Cost of goods is NOT cheap compared to the cost of goods at US. The exchange rate won't save you. So be prepared to pay basically what you would at US. For example, bottled water (small) cost $2.
5) We alternated between rain forest and cloud forest. Regardless of which forest, it's humid. And there are lots of bugs. Buy an insect repellent if you forgot to bring one.
6) Don't eat salads or raw vegetables. You might get food poisoning (which is what I think happened to my cousin).
7) Guidebooks will tell you that roads are awful in Costa Rica. That's kind of true. However, the road from San Jose to Arenal Volcano/La Fortuna is not awful. The road from La Fortuna to Monteverde is really really really bad. Our transportation from La Fortuna to Monteverde consisted of taxi, boat across the Arenal Lake, and then taxi to our lodging at Monteverde. As soon as we crossed the lake, we were on unpaved, gravel road all the way to our lodging. There were no road signs. Although lots of packaged tours will include rental car, you might want to stick with obtaining private shuttle/taxi service between cities to save yourself stress of finding the road and trying to drive stick shift for hours on unpaved road.
The road conditions from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio was similarly awful (although after a while, we did hit some paved road).
8) We flew from Manuel Antonio to San Jose on Nature Air, one of Costa Rica's domestic airline. The airplane is really small... 2 turbo engine plane. And there's no air conditioning. But the air time is very short so it might be worth trying to fly between cities to save some time on rough roads.
9) Restaurants and hotels automatically add 10% gratuity on top of 13% tax so don't feel that you need to leave tip. You already are.
10) At Manuel Antonio, we stayed at Vela Bar Hotel which was in a great location. It is literally right across from the free beach. And it's on the road, near the entrance of the Manuel Antonio state park. The guide books make it sound like this is the only hotel at that location. However, there are at least 3 other hotels. They seemed nicer ... and a couple seemed to have swimming pool. They are: Hotel Villabosque, Cabinas Espadilla, Hotel Playa Espadilla. Costa Linda, one right next to Vela Bar Hotel, appears to be a hostel for backpackers and advertised room at $10 per person. All of these hotels are located at probably the best location in terms of access to the beach and the state park. Other nicer hotels are kinda far (although you might have a view of the Pacific Ocean) and you would have to drive in order to access the beach and the park.
11) It's probably worth it to have guided tours at Monteverde. For Manuel Antonio State Park, we were fine without a guide.
There are too many pictures to try to upload. So here's the album link for Costa Rica pictures.
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| Costa Rica 5-2009 |
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