62 days Quito – Belize: Costa Rica April 17 – 24

Hummingbird

White-face monkey

Quetzal

I was in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica for a weekend in 2005. Costa Rica has positioned itself as one of the world’s green countries with well-developed eco-tourism industry. I spent my time in the Manuel Antonio National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest and Arenal National Park during my 6-day stay in the country.

Costa Rica Today

Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by indigenous people before the Spaniards arrived. It became independent in the 18^th century without hard struggles: it won independence in 1821, became a state of the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823, withdrew from the republic in 1838 and declared sovereignty. In 1856 American William Walker invaded Costa Rica with a dream to annex it to the US. He was finally defeated. Though the country had also been ruled by dictators such as Tom Guardia (1870 to 1882), it has been evolved since the WWII into a civil and democratic society.

A country with 51,000km, Costa Rica is now one of the most stable, progressive and prosperous nations in Latin America. It is ranked fifth in the world in terms of the 2012 Environmental Performance Index. It has enjoyed steady economic growth since the global economic crisis in 2009. The GDP (PPP) and GDP-per capita (PPP) in 2013 is estimated to be $61.43billion and $12900 respectively. Composition of the GDP by sectors is as follows: services 72.5%; industry 21.3% and agriculture 6.2%.

An interesting insect

The country has a population of 4.586 million (2011 census). About 66%, 13.6% and 9% of the population is White/Castizo, Mestizo and immigrants respectively. About 25% of the people live below poverty line.

Costa Rica boasts three Natural World Heritage Sites namely Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park, Cocos Island National Park and Area de Conservación Guanacaste. Tourism is a major industry and revenue earner.

April 17 Thursday: Boquete, Panama – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica (300km; 5 hrs driving + 3hrs 30min at border)

The immigration service on the Costa Rica side is more efficient. Our group arrived at the counter at 12 noon, went through the immigration and customs service and continued our journey by 12:30pm.

It was getting very hot and I was sweating. While we were some 10km from our destination, we were suddenly stopped by several policemen (for the third time since crossing into Costa Rica). Yves was behind the driving seat when the policemen asked for documentation for the vehicle and the driver as well as information about the group and our journey. When they discovered that Tom was the registered driver and not Yves, they made a big fuss. More policemen arrived. After waiting for some 30 minutes, they were finally satisfied that Yves was the co-driver and allowed us to move on. What a drama!

We arrived at Mono Azul Hotel around 4pm. Victoria and I had a nice spacious room with air-con. While most of my friends headed to the beach, I decided to have dinner in the hotel and noted there was a ‘dinner for two’ for US$28.  Freddie (Sr) also planned to have an early dinner and we shared a meal with steak, fish and prawns. I enjoyed a quiet night with cool breeze and a ginger ale in hand.

April 18 Good Friday: Manuel Antonio

I had an excellent breakfast with red-bean rice, scramble egg, orange juice and coffee at the hotel at 6:15am. We set off at 7am for the Manuel Antonio National Park which is famous for its monkeys. We were divided into two groups and young George was our guide. He is enthusiastic and tried hard to look for mammals, reptiles and birds for us.

The most crowded national park I have ever visited!

A lovely sloth

As it was Easter holiday, the park was packed with enthusiastic and noisy tourists both local and overseas. It was so crowded that I thought I was strolling in Mong Kok, the most densely populated and crowded commercial area in Hong Kong. During a two-hour walk, we saw a toucan, numerous white-faced and squirrel monkeys, frogs and lizards. Moreover, we saw four 3-toe sloths all of which curled up like a furry ball high up in the tree. They spent most of their time sleeping.

We arrived first at the Manuel Antonio Beach which was packed with people. Then we walked to the other beach to meet up our mates. They were already in the sea trying to escape the intense heat. At the end of the walk, Yves took some of them back to the hotel.

Playa Manuel Antonio

Playa Dos

I decided to do the 1.4-km Punta Catedral trail which affords fantastic views of the coastline and beaches in the area. Dave joined me and I am glad to have a companion. We enjoyed the scenery as well as the tranquility. I left the park around 1pm, took the bus back to the hotel and plunged into the pool to cool myself down.

Playa Espadilla & Punta Catedral (back)

At 4:30pm I joined others to go to the beach. We watched sunset at the Thai restaurant where George played music from 5 to 8pm. The sunset was not as gorgeous as I had expected. But I had my first cocktail in South America which was refreshing. The seafood soup I ordered from a café was most disappointing.

April 19 Saturday: Manuel Antonio – Monteverde (230km; 7.5hrs)

Another early rise and long driving day. I had a wholesome breakfast at 6am. We set off at 7am and stopped at a bridge en route to spot crocodiles. Wow, I saw over 40 crocs lying by the river bank or in the water. A couple of them are 2-3 metres long and look sinister.

Around 12:30pm, we arrived at Tilaran for lunch. I found a nice food stall in the municipal market and had fish for lunch for less than $4. At 1:30pm, we left Bessy (the school bus) behind, transferred our stuff to an air-con minibus and departed for Monteverde.

The scenery changed totally: rolling green hill with patch-work like ranches decorating the hillside. I was surprised to see a wind-farm with dozens of modern wind mills for electricity generating electricity. After driving for about two hours, we reached Cabanas Vista al Golfo where we stayed for two nights. Victoria and I were surprised to have a nice and airy room with windows on both sides.

I could feel the fresh cool air as soon as I stepped out of the minibus. I had to put on my windbreaker. There are many outdoor activities including walking in the cloud forest, canopy walk, night-walk, bird-watching, bungee jumping etc. As a guided cloud forest walk had been included in the group programme, I decided to do a night walk ($23) and a canopy walk ($45).

Mexican possum

At 5:30pm, I joined Yvonne and Gordon on the night walk which turned out to be interesting. We had a group of 10 people with a guide speaking with strong American accent and behaving like some brash Americans. As a professional tourist, I am critical of the guiding of the guide. First, despite darkness and the steep terrain at some places, he told us to walk fast or run when he felt something might be in the area. I almost felt twice and my hand was cut. It is a small area with several groups rushing past each other from time to time. Safety is of paramount importance and I pray no visitor falls or breaks his/her neck. The agent and park operator should warn participants about the danger of this hike so that people who are not too fit or have difficulties to walk in the dark are fully aware of the peril!

During the night walk, our group saw a sloth on a tree: it was coming down and we had a good view. Then we saw five kinkajous, an olingo, a green viper, a yellow-eyelash viper, a Mexican porcupine, a raccoon, a nine-banded armadillo, a Mexican possum and a white woolly possum, two types of frogs (eye-red tree frog and pigmy tree frog) and two toucans (an emerald and a keel-billed)

Back to hotel after 8:30pm, I found it too late to cook. I brought a big papaya for $1 which turned out to be a delicious and filling meal.

April 20 Sunday: Monteverde  

Volcano Arenal in the misty

We had breakfast at 6.30am and departed for the Monteverde Cloud Forest at 7.15am. The reserve was established in the 1950s by Quakers who left Alabama. We were divided into two groups and my guide was Roy. He is knowledgeable and passionate about his job. He walked at a good pace (a big contrast to the guide for the night walk) and we took time to spot animals and birds while enjoying the cloud forest which is beautiful, peaceful, quiet and atmospheric. Our group saw howler monkeys, spider monkeys, a gigantic spider, two toucans, a mountain turkey, a raccoon, countless hummingbirds and many birds.

Spider monkey

The highlight of the morning was the sighting of a quetzal at the end of the walking tour near the coffee shop. This majestic and beautiful bird stood on a branch for over 15 minutes! I took plenty of photos. But when I got back to the hotel, I discovered my small Leica camera had gone. Whether I had dropped it or it was stolen, I had no idea. (I reported loss to a tourist police in La Fortuna the following day).

After lunch, I set off with Yvonne, Gordon and Dave on a canopy walk on zip-line. It’s my first time on a zip-line and I find it exciting! After putting on harness and hooks, we had briefing on how to hold on the zip-line and stop by pressing down the right hand on the zip-line. We began with two short rides in a sitting position: I was anxious and tried to pull back too hard with my right arm. Hence it was sored for the next few days. Then we had a rappel before taking on two longer zip lines going over a wide valley. Here I was hooked up with my face down and flying through the air like a super-man! My helmet was too loose and hided me from my view. I virtually did not see where I was heading and was a bit scared. On the second 1.5-km zip-line, I had my helmet fixed and could see. It was fun then. Before leaving, I had a Tarzan jump of over 100m. I did not scream at all when I jumped off the platform. I had a great day.

April 21 Easter Monday:  Monteverde – Arenal & La Fortuna (140km)

A minivan picked us up at 8am to an artificial lake where we had a 40-minute ferry ride. We arrived at Hotel Cabanitas in La Fortuna around 11am. Victoria and I had a spacious room with a balcony facing a lovely garden. I could see the Arenal Volcano from the hotel.

Before lunch, we went to a local travel company in town. I booked a hot spring tour and a boat trip for $99. At 5pm, I set off for Baldi Hot Spring which boasts 25 pools with different temperature. I had fun in trying all the pools (except half a dozen of pools which are either exceedingly hot or cold). I also watched a beautiful sunset with glowing pinkish red clouds over Volcano Arenal. But as I did not have a camera with me, I could not take a photo.  The buffet dinner was excellent too. Value for money!

April 22 Tuesday: Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge

Victoria, Michelle and I joined a trip to see wildlife today. We set off at 8am and had the first stop to see green iguanas. The owner of a restaurant/shop began to preserve some 40 iguanas many years ago near the river. Now the iguana population has grown to over 400. They are gigantic and colourful (the blue ones are females and the brown ones are males): most of them stay high up on the trees away from predators.

The boat ride on Rio Frío started after 10am. The river is not too wide and we could watch wildlife on both sides of the river. The boat moved slowly and stopped whenever the guide spotted something interesting. We had a fantastic morning sighting keel-billed toucans, three kinds of monkeys namely spider, howler and white-faced monkeys, dozens of turtles and caiman, snake birds, herons, many waterfowls and birds, snake birds and Jesus lizards. On the way back, we suddenly saw a large jabiru standing still in the middle of a field (I last saw a couple in Brazil in January)

	Sloth
	Jesus lizard

I was back in the hotel after 3:30pm and cleaned the bus (as I was on cleaning duty). Then I spent the rest of the day working on my website.

April 23 Wednesday: La Fortuna, Costa Rica – border crossing – Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua (265km: 6hrs + three and a half hours at border)

Another long travel day. We had to set off at 5:30am and reached the border at 10:30am. The Costa Rica immigration control is not too bad and we left the country around 11:45am.

Remarks

I had a good impression of Costa Rica after my brief visit in 2005. This time, I spent all my time in national park or reserve. It has developed good and consistent policies and infrastructure to preserve its natural assets and positioned itself as a prime eco-tourism destination. I had a pleasant stay and particularly enjoyed the canopy walk on zip-lines in Monteverde, the hot-springs in La Fortuna and the boat ride on Rio Frío. But it is most expensive country in Central America and has less to offer other than a green and relaxing holiday.

I had my fourth mishap on this trip: I lost my small Leica automatic camera. It is the first time I have ever lost a camera. Though most of the 2000 photos in the memory card taken since February (except those taken in Panama and Costa Rica) have been downloaded to my computer, I do not like the idea that someone who has taken/picked up my camera is looking at my photos. Fortunately, I have no obscene or prize-winning photo in the card! Anyway, it is a nuisance to try to claim insurance on my return to Hong Kong.