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Jay & Nicole's Trip to Costa Rica - May 2007 (click any small picture to get enlargement) |
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| This
page begins on the second week of Jay & Nicole's trip to Costa Rica.
During the first week, they cruised along the south Pacific coast, ending up
near Jaco; see '0' on the map.
The following are the places they want to visit this next week: 1: Manual Antonio Park 2: North Pacific Coast 3: Arenal Volcano 4: Poas Volcano 5: Southern Caribbean Coast Let's pick up the story in Jaco and see where they end up ... |
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| Before
we left Venezuela, Nicole bought a tour package which included eight nights
lodging and a rental car with four-wheel drive.
A travel agent met us and turned over the car to us; he was very prompt and courteous. We were also given hotel vouchers and a brochure listing 140 different places we could stay. Since there was no need to make advanced reservations, we just headed towards Quepos to see what we would find. |
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| Our
first stop was to a shopping center to load up with snacks, water and other
more potent drinks. We were amazed to find that the store was HUGE, much bigger than anything we had in Venezuela. It was also air conditioned, so we took our time and looked at everything they had to offer. |
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| We
began driving again and found the scenery to be outstanding. There were bright green fields
with deep green forested hills behind them ... and in the background were the
dark, cloud-covered mountains.
This area had many herds of cattle ... which were lucky to have such lush pastures. The fence posts were live trees ... brilliant! |
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| The
farmland ended and we entered a park area. There were so many parks that
we stopped trying to keep track of them.
It was nice to see wide expanses of unspoiled land ahead of us. |
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| Along a curve we had a wonderful view of the southern coast. The beach looked great and was virtually empty; no wonder Costa Rica is rated so highly as a tourist destination. | ||
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| The
traffic backed up and we couldn't figure out why. It turned out there
was a one-lane bridge with no controls ... which means if traffic consistently
comes from the other side, you are stuck!
As we crossed, we realized the bridge was in terrible shape ... there was no room for error! |
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| We
had read about places that offer 'Canopy Tours', where you walk on
bridges suspended along the top of the forest.
It looked like it might rain soon, so we decided to stop at one place and go for a tree-top walk. |
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| It
was strange to walk near the tops of the trees, but the perspective was very
interesting.
The walk was supposed to be good for spotting birds & animals that are hard to see from the ground. Nicole wanted to see a sloth, but unfortunately we didn't see any wildlife. |
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| We
drove through Quepos and looked at the city hotels; we were not impressed with
any of them.
We kept driving and came
upon ... an airplane under a roof ... huh? |
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| Nicole
asked where we could find an eco-hotel that she had read about; it turned out
to be just across the street, by the car.
Costa Rica is well-known for having very nice hotels which recycle most everything. From the street, this place didn't look that great, but we took a peek. |
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| We had a tour of the place & found that it was an EXCELLENT resort ... we moved in right away! | ||
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| After a relaxing swim, we took a walk into the 'back yard' which was expansive and steep. After seeing the stairs, we knew this was truly an eco-lodge, as they had transformed old tires into steps ... what a great idea! |
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| Nicole began looking for a sloth, but all we saw were lush green plants and pretty flowers ... with NO noise ... quite a paradise! | ||
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| On
the return path we saw some strange art objects, which turned out to be their
septic system. Almost everything had an artsy look, with some kind of recycled material in it ... mainly glass. |
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| We
found the 'factory' where a couple of guys were cutting glass bottles into
different shapes. They had an endless supply of materials since there were so
many tourists around.
Below is the unique planter-box from the front of the hotel ... all made from recycled material! |
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| The
next morning we went to visit the large, well-publicized, Manuel Antonio national
park. When we got there we found the entrance closed ... for maintenance on Mondays ... what bad luck! |
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| We decided to just hang around at the beach for a little while; this area had quite a few people. | ||
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 We walked along the beach and found less crowded areas. |
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| This iguana didn't want us to take a rest on his log. | For a Monday, there were more local people, especially teenage boys, at the beach than I would have imagined ... no jobs ?? | |
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| A cute family of monkeys passed by when we stopped to re-think our plan for the day. We were dressed for hiking, not for the beach ... so we decided to find another place to go for a forest walk. | ||
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| We found another canopy place right up the street from the hotel. In was not in great shape, but the price was right ... free! | ||
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 The river and all the vines hanging down were reminders that we were in a true rain forest. |
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| We
decided that we had seen enough of this general area, so we checked out of the
hotel and began driving again.
There were more beaches further south, but they were supposed to all be quite similar to what we had seen. We headed back to Jaco and would then go to the Northern Pacific coast. |
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| We came to a big river which flowed from the mountains; made muddy from recent heavy rains. | ||
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I
looked over the side of the bridge and could see a large gathering of
crocodiles... this would not be a good place to go for a swim! |
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| The
landscape got much flatter once we left the mountain area.
We saw many orchards and nice looking farms. The were also palm plantations that went on for miles. It turns out that palm oil production is important for Costa Rica. |
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| Palm
oil is found in a variety of foods but is primarily used in margarine,
shortening and vegetable cooking oil.
The workers gather the fruit bunches from the tops of the trees. The palm oil is then extracted, as follows: 1. Steam sterilization The kernels are sold to nut oil extractors. Any leftover fiber is dried and burned as fuel. Once trees get too tall, the tops are cut off. They rot and provide nutrients for the young trees. |
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| Cruise (part 1) Cruise (part 2) Central Coast Area Northern Beaches Volcano (part 1) Volcano (part 2) this page next page |
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