Un tastet de Costa Rica

DAY BY DAY

Our first flight was delayed by 8 hours and this changed all our plans. We left Barcelona on Thursday 7th August in the evening, then had to follow Newark airport rules... long cues, checking our luggage again, wait till 3 am to drop it...

 

So we waited the whole night until we could take the 7 am flight on 8th August from Newark to San José. We had missed the first night in San José.

Collecting our car, last car (4th) from our group of tourists at Europcar. Additional insurance chosen, just to feel anything can happen (26 $ x 7 days). The worker at Europcar offers some tips: exchange money at the mall nearby and follow the North route to the Poás volcano. We are extremely tired, just dreaming of some relax. We decide not to go to the mall.

Despite the tiredness, we do not take the quickest road to La Fortuna, where we are going to stay tonight. We headed North and got 163.200 colones at Alajuela (130,000 inhabitants, 1200 m height). Looked like an active and very lively town. Shame we felt we did not have to time to stop by and were not sure about where to park safely.

Sometimes Spanish is used when you would not expect it!

Off we drive!! Up to the mountains.

Freddo Fresas, a great treat... a deserved full meal with smoothies (43€). First waterfall, La Paz, seen from below.

  

Up the  mountains. Difficult to find names of towns, detective guessing needed. Koaties right next to the road.

La Fortuna. Accommodation: no window, air conditioning.  In bed by 6 pm! Co-living with 3 workers.

9 August. La Fortuna.

Next morning we find out it is a nice touristic town, with a big central square.
The hotel has a Mormon owner, non Catholic. 25% population appears to be non Catholic in Costa Rica. Catholic mass, very open service, open doors at central church.

Expensive coffee overlooking main square.

Drive to Cerro Chato, 30 min.
 We do not take the official path, but ours is also a private property, wrong price: 10$ each. We learn that all properties were used with agricultural or cattle industry purposes before 1968. After that, the owners have to manage the fact that their properties can no longer be used with those purposes and try to do their best with touristic purposes. It is surprising from a European point of view. We start learning that everything connected with nature is dealt with privately and will therefore involve a cost for us. We start trying to accept that.
The climbing up is supposed to be easy, but it becomes a long excursion...... 9.40 to 16.30!!

 

Everything is green and wet around us. After much going up and down,we are exhausted when we get to the lake and cannot really see it, but Milena and Aniol get inside just to feel its magnificence. Eulàlia feels too wet and sticky already from the humidity and the rain to have any more water on her body.

We start meeting Catalan groups. One to meet again later. Catalan families will become a common feature of this trip. We will be speculating why that is: is it because trekking is a well-liked activity in Catalonia? Because they know the language?
Miquel Àngel remains at entrance cabin. Long talk to Saul, the guard, and son Keilor. Last Catalan couple shares tips on hot waters nearby, ficus tree in Monteverde and Manuel Antonio.
Back to the accommodation, it is time for a much needed shower, MA buys newspaper La Nación, the one that feels reliable and interesting.
Then, time for dinner at Soda La Hormiga... happy meal and little shopping (not at Cristian super... monopoly).

Friday 10th August
7.00 non expensive coffees for parents at La Hormiga. Later in the morning, 90 min hot waters in Tabacón just 60 m from main road with basilisk and mud on face treatment.

Look carefully. A basilisk is there, right in the middle, showing you how animal camouflage works!

          

 MA reading paper nearby.

Off we go again. Long drive in all kinds of weather: rain, wind... 10.30-12.30 Good road up to Tilarán. Pollos Pura Vida menu = large dish with 4 naturales (cas, guanabaya, maracuya tastes).
Three of us then go to the supermarket.
MA's shopping at bookshops with Bibles (low qualities, one school map and two English books).
Then asphalt road, 40km up and down. Five rural schools along the way. Schools seem to organise the life of villages, they are always visible, lively, well painted. Costa Rica looks concerned about its education.
We finally make it to Monteverde. We end up guessing Santa Elena must be the most important town. After passing the football field, we find ourselves in the middle of this busy little town. We visit the tourist info official center... and they have no maps due to their "paperless policy". We take a picture of the map of the area which is going to be extremely useful. The country looks very concerned about sustainability. In this way, toilet paper is not thrown into the wc but always in a paper bin set at the side. To the point that the United Airlines flight that will take us back to Newark follows the same procedure. If you want, you can!
Mapulin Cabins... Lovely setting. Only a ten minute walk from town, feeling far away.

     

Go down town to have dinner at local soda next to football square while MA remains with silly  key troubles. Sleeping in Monteverde not alone (American family in the next cabin).

11th August. Monteverde's green  peaks

Quiet breakfast in the cabin.

Booking for canopy trail 3 tickets, 9.40 at reception.

 MA at cabin... getting to know Californian couple, Helen and Jessy, who share waze app for Costarican maps offline.
12.30 meet Eulàlia  at Bon Appetit cafe with car. She has decided to drop her canopy tour after one Tarzan swing and three zip-lines. Back on the ground and after her walk down, she now feels ok again. At 13.30 we meet hungry children to go to local soda outside, a few kilometres back.
Painful drive (we are hungry!) 11km out to Kari soda, genuine ambience: casados and ceviche (22 euros for four people... no visa card)
Siesta and booking for night walk for two at reception with the same guide.
Meanwhile adults explore downtown  the vanishing Quakers community ending at big supermarket for late shopping.
Dinner consists of soup and remains at cabin
There are 8000 people in Monteverde and plenty of tourists (55.000 year 2001, 250.000 year 2016)

12th August

Home breakfast. To the road to find a much needed petrol station 3 km on the road.

 Slow road down to lowlands looking for a coffee place... for 45 minutes there is none.
Paved road and finally Las orquídeas hacienda on route 1 highway, 12 h with no luck.
Final coffee at La Cuenca restaurant next to ice cream local brand, Pops.

Long drive to the south... first negotiate direction road 1 > 23 > 27 >34 Tarcoles
Surprise stop over at reptiles bridge over river Tarcoles.
 
Ready for lunch looking for La Blanca beach... Too complicated
We learn about coast development for 8 km and go backwards to marisqueria La fiesta del marisco still in the municipality of Tarcoles at 14h. It costs 37 € for the four of us and we experience again the Pacific coast in all its splendour. Not bad!

 

 

Plentiful lunch  with rain by the natural environment but slow paying process (pura vida!) and parqueo tip.
First Pacific beach at Esterilllos west. Local people, family of red parrots by the waves!!

  

Rainy drive to Jaco, Quepos and Manuel Antonio. 17.30 h, check-in at Hotel Villas el Parque. We get two lavish apartments, one at each end of the hotel, all of it overlooking the ocean from far.
We enjoy the swimming pool and have dinner at top terrace.

 

Early tucked in... Eulàlia gets stressed as she cannot sleep after two hours trying, goes out as music is too loud with a broken key in bolt this time.
No problem! Next morning, everything is back in place. Service is a bit place, but they take good care of you. We cannot complain even if we wanted to.

13th August. Manuel Antonio area

Ready to morning excursion to best national park BUT... It is closed on Mondays! Cheaky tourist officer tries to lure us to 55$ trip to see manglares at Damas island!

We decide to enjoy playa Espadilla sur, beat the waves, explore the incoming river, try to go into the forbidden national park beach... while MA explores the quiet town of Quepos, buys animals plastic folded nap and refreshing fruit. Swimming pool chill out.
When we all meet, he proposes real restaurant Mira Olas at malecon while the tide rises, not Mexican or soda options (33 €, quite expensive for Costa Rica prices). Lunch and shopping in Quepos, a real town with real life apart from tourism. And ice cream at Pops before back to busy road to flat.
Mum goes to have a siesta at 16.15. The rest plan to go to nearby beaches if rains stops. No action. We remain at hostel. Dinner at top flat.

14th August. From Villas El Parque to San José.

Everything set. Today is the last day in Manuel Antonio area and we decide to make the most of it. There we are at 6.55 in front of the non official entrance to the national park. False guards make us pay to keep the car in their "official" area. Luckily, this is the only big disappointment with Costa Rican people during the trip. We then walk the 10 minutes needed to enter the official area and finally make it into the well signed park, very peaceful at 8 am and getting busier as the day goes by. Even without a guide, we manage to see all the animals we were looking for: two sloths, very many crabs, a mantled howler or golden-mantled howling monkey...
The beaches on both sides are as impressive as we expected, but the rain that starts soon doesn't help to give them all their magnificence.

 

MA goes to Las Playitas for a 50 min walk and everyone is back "home" at 10.30 soaking wet but happy. We then take refreshing and well needed showers, and finish our packing.
We are then set to San José singing in the rain trying to find a stopover on the way... But no stop till tailback at highway 27: broken truck and collision during 35min. Lots of cars and trucks for a small road... which means we get to the capital city right before 3 pm instead of 1 pm as planned. Luckily despite our internal debate on the best road and the best turning points, the hotel is not hard to find and we settle down in Inca Real with relative ease. The big room looks really ok.

We are very very hungry and check-in quickly despite a small parqueo issue. We go to have something to eat at corner soda (calle 5 between av. 9 and 11) with visa (17 euros for all of us). The tension runs high. Aniol goes back to hotel... MA to bookshops and ladies to museum. The National Museum of Costa Rica is worth a  much longer visit. But it closes at 4:30 pm and we make the most of it. We are overwhelmed by the richness of all explanations, given with social sensibility and respect.

We then arrange to meet right in the middle of downtown San José which luckily is not so big.

    

We end up with a good dinner, wonderfully treated by knowledgeable waiters at Rostipollos.

Restful day deserved... the jazz music from a nearby concert hall very good but much  too long. Hard to believe it does not stop before 1 am!

15th August. San José, the capital, and departure.

The night becomes a hightmare at the hostel. There is a late party celebrating Costa Rican mom's day.
Till 1.15h the latest encore! Bad sleep.  Nervousness
3.55 h alarm clock... early packing
Car in parqueo with 2 cars reverse outing.... lonely dark  drive to airport with no tolls. After very long minutes looking for our car key (which felt into one of our bags) we leave the UNlocked car with the key inside. Only an email one day later will give us peace of mind.

At 5 am the check in is successfully done. At 7h the plane leaves to Newark  ...time to relax and half sleep. Painful cues at New Jersey airport procedures, this time we expect them and they feel less stressful. We had kept our United food vouchers, but they are not valid. Slow motion. Asleep in our second flight. And we keep our Costa Rican carrots throughout the trip. They will be eaten with some Catalan vegetables once we get home!

Tired and happy, we have made it. So short, so good.

UN TASTET DE COSTA RICA

Un viatge triat sobretot perquè fos possible en família i en pau, en una època de bonança econòmica.

Del camp a la muntanya i a la platja del Pacífic, aquesta ruta caiguda d'un tour per Costa Rica pensat i pagat en pocs dies ens permet tenir quatre pinzellades d'un país amable amb els forasters, en què tothom et tracta bé i fa el que pot per tu. Pura vida!

Des de la pujada del primer dia cap al volcà Poàs, tancat per erupció, passant per Freddo Fresas i paradetes de maduixes arreu, hem anat veient com tenen moltíssima fruita natural, però és molt cara als supermercats. Prou més cara que als fruiters marroquins on compro jo. I la resta, preus espanyols. El salari mitjà no ho és pas, d'espanyol! Difícil imaginar com s'ho van arreglant. Però sí que sembla que hi ha feina per a tothom. D'indústries de transformació agrícola, de tots els tipus. Melmelades, mantegues, llet... Sembla que tot és d'aquí. I no hi ha mcdonalds ni burgerkings fins que en descobrim algun a la capital. Agradable i interessant.

I què és un país del Tercer Món? Jo anava a Costa Rica, un país democràtic sense exèrcit que s'esforça per anar creixent. Però el Marco de Logitravel de cop em va treure aquesta etiqueta. És un país on la desigualtat social és més bèstia? On hi ha moltes persones que viuen de fer serveis miserables als turistes, oferint-los pàrquing o guiant-los quan no els fa falta o venent gelats i fruita en miserables paradetes del carrer? D'això també n'hem vist a Nova York, no? Potser són els carrers sense clavegueram, amb aigües grises ben visibles que, per sort, només hem vist baixant del camí de les tirolines a Monteverde? O bé és la quantitat de mà d'obra barata per als serveis, que t'atenen a la perfecció en bars i a l'aeroport? O bé són els curiosos problemes per ubicar-se, la falta de noms a l'entrada de pobles i ciutats, el no saber on ets i haver-te de fiar de molt bons mapes que només tenen informació parcial amb detectivesques deduccions lògiques?

Potser és un país del Tercer Món, però original, amb obsessions ecològiques que no permeten tirar el paper al vàter en cap cas, en cap situació. Un país que sembla que ha crescut negociant per posar-se d'acord més que no amb llargues lluites violentes sense solució. Un país que vol mostrar oficialment la seva cara més alternativa i progressista, més avançada en els drets de tothom, de cada minoria, en tots els moments de la història.

L'últim dia, tornant del parc Manuel Antonio, contents perquè hem pogut cridar estafadors i lladres els qui ens han obligat a aparcar lluny de  l'entrada i ens han fet pagar 1000 colons de més (un euro i quaranta cèntims); contents perquè, abans i durant la pluja que ha començat cap a les nou, és a dir, des d'un quart de vuit, hem viscut dins de la màgia de la selva tropical i hem anat veient prou animals, des del primer peresós menjant la fulla eixarrancat fins als crancs i als micos; contents perquè estem molls, però no xops, i hem fet una bona caminada, tornem a casa i trobem el Miquel Àngel de bon humor, que no ens retreu res ni ens diu que és tard per marxar, que ens explica que ell també ha anat a caminar i ha arribat a una platja preciosa, que s'ha banyat molt i es vol dutxar, i mengem una mica i ens dutxem tranquils. Dura uns vint minuts de tranquil·litat, de calma i companyia. Després hem de pensar a marxar i tornen els crits i l'estrès. Però ha estat maco.

Un país on jo he descobert que soc una senyora gran, amb uns cabells i una cara que ho mostren, i amb una por creixent a les alçades i als equilibris en moviment.

Per mi, i si la família no hi diu res en contra, és l'últim viatge com a turista, després de Bòsnia (2015) i Gal·les (2017).