Costa Rica – San Jose, Manuel Antonio, Montezuma and Puerto Viajo
Travel companions : Dad and Lauren
For the next part of my trip I was joined by my Dad (Joe) and surrogate sister Lauren who flew out from London to meet me for a crazy two weeks in Costa Rica and Panama! Yet again there was no time to keep the blog or journal up to date – here’s an account of the first week from the capital to the Pacific to the Caribbean in Costa Rica…
We found each other in the immigration queues in San Jose airport which was lucky for me as we could enter together – the officials on the Nicaraguan side almost didn’t let me board the flight as I couldn’t produce an onward ticket out of the Costa Rica. It was one of those situations where he knew that I knew that he knew that I was lying but he backed down first.
On day 1 we started off with a wander around the somewhat edgy capital city, San Jose. Sadly it hasn’t grown on me since my last visit almost exactly one year ago. We visited the national museum which included a tropical butterfly garden to our surprise – including a load of cocoons which we mistook for gold jewellery. There isn’t much else to do so after a delicious casada (rice and beans, veggies, avocado, fried ripe plantain) we caught the first of many buses, heading south to the Manuel Antonio national park on the Pacific Coast.
We stayed in Hostel Selina which was amazing – three pools where we could have one to ourselves after a great dinner at the on site restaurant and bar. The first of many plates of patacones – fried green plantains served with black beans and guacamole.
On day 2 we took a guided tour around Manuel Antonio where Dad and Lauren were quickly introduced to central American travel when the guide said we’d go in his car for 5 minutes – cue 15 minutes with four adults in the back of a tiny car, Lauren squashed on the window and me sitting on top of a very annoying Swiss man who offered me a massage for my backache.
We got to see Sloths (which I failed to see last year anywhere in Costa Rica), bats, agotes, numerous birds, iguanas and monkeys. The downside is the number of tourists all clamouring for a photo – luckily most don’t bother venturing far into the park.
The beach is simply stunning – it’s protected so no developments, not even a single shop. You can only take certain foods into the park as there are lots of monkeys and raccoons ready to steal it – I witnessed a monkey run off with one tourists bag of fruit!
Day 3 we were on the move westward via a speed boat to the hippy jungle beach town of Montezuma. Backpacker Dad was more prepared for wading into the sea to board the boat than I was!
Here’s a video of our neighbours :
Our hostel here was again amazing, Luz de Mono, and the owner warned us that the resident monkeys would throw mangoes at us. The beach here is beautiful – we all got up to watch the sunrise which meant venturing out in the darkness to the eery sounds of the Howler monkeys. We were joined by a random dog who watched the sunrise with us then disappeared as quickly as he arrived.
In the afternoon it sounded like someone was breaking into our room. Just the monkeys jumping up and down on the roof and lobbing half eaten mangoes around. I’ve never stayed anywhere with so many animals! Iguanas walking the paths and climbing trees, monkeys everywhere, raccoons wandering around. It’s worth coming to Montezuma just for this!
One of the highlights of Montezuma is hiking to the waterfalls. This actually meant jumping across rocks in the river and scaling along the sides with precarious ropes – we loved it! We went early and missed the crowds apart from some skinny white guys with dreads who were off their heads at 9am. Lauren took a sneaky video. We finished the day with a swim in a pool shared with a huge Iguana.
Day 5 was a travel day of local buses and ferry to Puntarenas, complete with a DJ playing salsa and bachata music. San José was even less appealing at night with our hotel covered in barbed wire. We ventured out for dinner carrying only the minimum cash needed for dinner and still felt uneasy with most of the city shut down for Semana Santa (Easter week).
The next day we took yet another bus north to the Caribbean town of Puerto Viajo. Five hours later and lucky to have bought the last seats on the bus and not be sitting on the floor like some, we arrived in a town with a very different feel. All bright, colourful Caribbean style houses and sing song accents. Although we spent our three nights in an airbnb ‘apartment’ owned by a very German German lady who lived upstairs.
Day 6 was taken up by a visit to the Costa Rica Sloth Sanctuary, 45 minutes on the way to the bad boy town of Limon. We got there eventually on the bus after a few false starts like the Easter timetable and buses changing destination at the last minute. Unfortunately it didn’t feel right from the start when we were introduced to their oldest Sloth Buttercup, sitting in a hanging basket in the reception area. Then the injured Sloths, all in cages that bore little resemblance to their natural habitat. I understand that a blind Sloth cannot survive in the wild but we got a bad vibe from the tour, where the American grandson of the owner was more interested in showing off his language skills than telling us anything about the animals we had come to learn about. He did say that when the santuary closes to the public in the afternoon they take the Sloths outside – I hope that’s true. 
Eventually bored of roadside bird spotting and thinking every passing person was about to rob us, we decided to get on the next bus regardless of it’s destination and made an indirect way back, too late for the sunset yoga we’d planned.
Day 7 we had vegan pancakes and coffee next door before some beach and jungle horse riding. After much research to find a reputable stable we found Caribe Horse Riding Club which includes rescue horses. This was one owner who really loves her horses. Dad was in his element at lunch, where a local restaurant on the beach was serving beer and showing the football.
In the afternoon we hired the oldest rust buckets of bikes I’ve ever seen, the kind without brakes, and cycled out to some stunning beaches. Great fun even if the rip tides were strong enough to knock us over (a dog managed to surf though!). On the way back Dad’s bike fell apart and he had to walk in the dark – yoga really wasn’t going to happen. Here you really have to abandon the concept of any kind of schedule!
And that’s our whirlwind week in Costa Rica – next stop Panama!
Maz On The Road 