Costa Rica Part 1: Buckle up – it is a long one!

His tale:

Coming to Costa Rica filled me with excitement and trepidation in almost equal measure. It has been top of my ‘wish list’ for so long that I cannot think of where the replacement will come from (probably Russia), there is also the old adage about never meeting your idols.

Fortunately, the capital, San Jose had been sufficiently researched to temper any high expectations. Unfairly in my opinion, most people say to skip it all together, but in my opinion it is worth a day.

The difference between Costa Rica and Guatemala is huge. From the moment we put our bags into the brand new 100% EV Uber, at the airport, I could tell we were no longer in Kansas.

San Jose had a very east Germany feel to me, maybe it was the feeling that it must surely have been flattened by the RAF at some point? The free walking tour was pants.

The underlying theme for most backpackers stories in Costa Rica is just how expensive it is, and costs will no doubt feature a lot in the coming weeks, but so far I would file it under ‘not cheap’ rather than ‘expensive’, that may well change.

However, the Ubers were cheap as was the transfer to Monteverde which had proven easy to book online, the two options were 6:30am and 2:30pm, we picked the latter so we could spend the morning relaxing and trying to steal cuddles off the puppy.

Booking the bus from San Jose to Monteverde was easy, the journey was easy and the roads mostly better than the UK. I had prepared myself for a Nepal type road trip, but it couldn’t have been further from that delight. TransMonteverde bus 8/10

Monteverde itself was another surprise, more like a small American town than I had imagined, mainly pleasant coffee shops and supermarkets.

Our accommodation had a Bates Motel feel to it, both in terms of look and the owner who greeted us, but both turned out to be perfectly charming, albeit that the ‘welcome chat’ contained rather dubious (mis)information!

So after some dithering we also found our guide for the morning, as someone who is inherently dubious of any guide, after all I am pretty sure my bird watching badge from 1976 remains valid, I had to lay aside my reservations that the budget blowing £101 would turn out not to be value for money.

Tea was in our first Soda, albeit more like a cafe/restaurant for tourists, but it said ‘Soda’ above the door, tick. My new found Spanish skills were given an instant critic when my “una copa de vino tinto por favor” turned up as a pint of beer, not my fault I am sure!!

The morning arrived, which is more than the minibus did! A short exchange of firmly worded messages and several grumpy old Englishman “not my problem” texts later, we were in a clapped out “taxi” on the way up the hill. It is still unclear who was responsible for the $8 mistake, but for once I am confident it was not me.

Steve, our guide, was a thoroughly nice guy, who was passionate about his job. Although a little theatrical in parts, like stumbling across a tarantula that had lived there for 4 years, or spotting a sloth that had not moved for 4 days, it was overall a fun experience, albeit that it did feel a little bit like jungle circuits as the guides moved their punters between stances on the whistle blow.

I still do not like hummingbird feeders!

The afternoon, fuelled on by a lovely cinnamon bun, had a little more walking, I even managed to find a small hill, with slightly less animals, but I did get much more satisfaction over finding something ourselves rather than being shown, so it balanced out. Overall, I would give the Monteverde Cloud experience a 7/10.

So our ‘spare-day’ in Monteverde.

I had set my expectations a little lower for the day, our plan was to walk around, see what we could find but mainly relax and drink coffee.

We also had to procure our onward travel which had already consumed many online hours. The town is geared up to sell tourists $90 (for two) shuttles, but we were hoping for the $22 (for two) public bus option. In my head I had worked out that if we caught the 4:20am bus we could exchange 3 hours of sleep for $68, Emma was less than impressed with my boy maths, but she found a 7:45am option which was obviously a lot more appealing.

Our primary objective complete, we started the rest day with a well rehearsed tree bridge stop, which for a small donation allowed me to impress Emma with my tree climbing skills, a least I am pretty sure she was impressed although it was not overly apparent.

The next stop was going to be lunch and we followed the “750 meter to the farm to table restaurant” sign. After a mile or so I was a little relieved it was Emma’s idea, particularly as we headed down a steep hill. When we arrived it was worth it and we hit Costa Rica gold, 4 hours of jungle walking, beautiful wildlife from the get-go, dramatic scenery and the thing that will always make me happy, it was FREE!

The star of the show was the lesser anteater that Emma spotted from a good 100 meters across the valley. I must have said “this is amazing I cannot believe it’s free”, 50 times which I am sure was not annoying.

Her Tale:

Arriving in San Jose was an incredible contrast to Guatemala! Smart buildings, electric cars, no petrol smoke guffawing out of exhausts. Our ‘Jungle Urbana Bnb’ was just around the corner from the American Embassy and a smart Waitrose style supermarket. It was all clean and a little ‘San Francisco-like’ according to Stewart.

The city was weird when we went on a walking tour – it was as if they had missed their colonisation. There were hardly any ‘Spanish’ buildings and no central plaza, gardens or squares- the guide and internet did say that Costa Rica was treated as the ‘Gardens’ of Central America rather than somewhere to build towns and churches. The business end of the previous cultures and colonisers happened from Guatemala up (Aztecs and Maya) and Panama/Colombia (Inca) down. They were left to it and as long as they play nice with America, keep having no army, and spend their monies on development, like many Scandi and Nordic countries, they prosper technologically and environmentally.

Our goal, however, was Monteverde. Leaving San Jose was ‘hairy’ and I saw the more dangerous side of the capital that is written about as we passed the streets around Terminal 710. Definitely not a place to walk around! However, arriving in Monteverde, 3.5 hours later, on the cheap and comfortable Transmonteverde bus, was a surprise as I had expected a dirt road and a few shops, two ‘sodas’ (restaurants) and some places to stay but it was a thriving little town on the hillside with many a tour to soak up your money.

Our hostel/motel was the oddest place, largely because the host kept us captive at night, after a long bus journey, until he had supposedly talked us into several purchases (a bird tour, a shuttle to the Cloud Forest and an onward shuttle – which we pretended we were going to do just to get out the room). He spoke really slowly, leaving long pauses and answering our Spanish in English. He stared intently at us – so intently I could hear the knife music associated with horror films in my head!

Our tour of the Monteverde Cloud Forest was great; Steven was a young enthusiastic guide who had won the trust of the older guides and it was funny to watch them all share information and create a buzz around ‘finding’ creatures. I was really appreciative that he took photos through his telescope for us – his instagram page is all about his wildlife photography. Some of the guides were not as skilled at this or didn’t have the best tools so it felt great to be on a 1:2 tour with him and see some significant creatures: a Sloth, a Collared Trogan, an Orange-kneed Tarantula, Green-fronted Lancebill, a Coati, a Collared Peccary.

When Steven took leave of us, we spent the rest of the day walking the trails and marvelling at the sudden changes in climate from literal cloud forest with little to see over the Pacific and Caribbean ridge to blue skies and streams of sunshine making a verdant green jungle. It was fun spotting some little colourful birds by ourselves and watching a Coati take up the path looking for food. Overall, I would give the Monteverde Cloud experience an 8.5/10.

I was charged with finding ‘free’ things to do in Monteverde for our spare day and that I did. We had a great time exploring the tree bridge (Ficus La Raiz on the map) which I was not brave enough to clamber over like Stewart, but sat like a ninny on the edge! And we found a free reserve by following a ‘farm to table’ sign on our walk to Valle Escondida. We just ‘kinda’ walked into the hotel gardens as it was also a restaurant, and because we’re a bit old maybe we got away with starting a trail. I’m not sure if it was allowed or not but it could easily be replicated with a drink in the bar first if it felt awkward. We saw two Toucans and a Blue-headed Motmot within ten minutes of being there. It was such a beautiful place and I couldn’t really complain about the many ‘ups and downs’ as it was my idea (I was just thinking about the ‘table’ part of ‘farm to table’ not a full-on secret reserve that no-one talks about!) I got FOMO as I missed a waterfall which I was not ‘feeling’ as it was a big walk down but then I re-joined Stewart for another (!) Mirador and spotted a lesser Anteater across the valley! Cured my FOMO.