As we left the US, we were excited, nervous, sad, and honestly a bit scared for what was to come; new adventures and all. To ease our transition (and for a great vacation) we crashed our close friend’s Costa Rica vacation!
We spent the first five days on our own, exploring the Caribbean side and the northern, middle part of the country via a van-yep, another van trip! After that we met up with our friends on the Pacific side for surfing, swimming, and all-around chilling.
As this was the girls’ first time visiting a non-English speaking country (in their memory), they were pretty nervous at first. When they’re nervous or uncomfortable their preference is, understandably, to stay put in some place familiar-like a hotel room or the car or anywhere where they don’t have to interact with others. Unfortunately for them, they only had one night in the airport hotel before we were driving on foreign, narrow, mountainous roads, heading to a town of 1,500 people and no cars. So much for familiar! After the initial culture shock and forgetting to be nervous, they had a great time and were quickly putting their Duolingo Spanish to the test.
Tortuguero
Parque Nacional Tortuguero is a National Park in the northeast part of the country and can only be reached by plane or boat. The town of Tortuguero is on a narrow spit of land with a lagoon on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. That part of the coast is a critical nesting site for the green turtles.
We arrived to Tortuguero via their public boat transportation from La Pavona, where we parked the van for the three nights we were away. The boats are long, narrow and powered by outboard motors. For the hour-long trip we wove our way through a shallow canal, surrounded on both sides by dense jungle. Our accommodations had only two guest rooms with a shared balcony overlooking the lagoon; the staff were wonderfully helpful, booking all of our tours and giving us recommendations on what to do in between. Shortly after arriving, we noticed that no one was swimming in the lagoon nor the ocean and learned that the former is filled with crocodiles and the latter, sharks and strong rip tides. No swimming for us, then!
Over the next two days we went on self-guided tours along the Jaguar Trail in the National Park proper and to the top of Cerro Tortuguero, the dormant volcano with excellent views of the surrounding area; we had a canoe tour through the lagoon and smaller canals. We braved darkness and spiders during a two hour, private night tour through dense ‘trails’ to spy on the nocturnal creatures. On all of these excursions we saw many species we’d only seen in books or movies and some we’d never heard of: two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, leaf cutter ants, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, tiger heron, great green mccaw, leaf insects, anhingas, profunatary warbler, small and big snakes, orb spiders, poison dart frogs, northern jacana, porcupine, toucans, lizards, and more! Unfortunately, we never spied the elusive jaguar or ocelot, but not for lack of trying.
Even with all of that, my favorite part of our time there was getting to see the green turtles! In coordination with the National Park’s turtle trackers, we followed a guide through the trails, under the cover of darkness, to the beach where we watched a green turtle lay her eggs. She dug a big pit in the sand and proceeded to lay dozens of eggs. She was much bigger than I would have imagined, with a carapace (shell) that looked liked a small dinner table and weighing over 500 pounds! We were not allowed to have any light in the area, hence no photos, but it was a sight none of us will soon forget.
The next morning we woke up before the sun and were fortunate enough to see newborn turtles hatching and making their way to the ocean. Talk about full-cycle! In addition to the turtles, we saw a cool jelly fish, a beautiful sunrise, and dozens of small fish getting washed up onto the shore.
La Fortuna Area: Fortuna Falls, Arenal Volcano, Hot Springs
Our next stop was in the area near La Fortuna, a small town northwest of the capital, San José. We stayed two nights in a wonderful two story treehouse on 70+ acres of land filled with giant bamboo, a waterfall, dozens of bird species, monkeys and the nicest staff you could ask for.
We spent one, very full day in the good company of our entertaining and incredibly competent guides, Marco and Julien, as they led us on a hike up and down a narrow, wet trail and over a swinging bridge to Fortuna Falls. Swimming in the river was a treat before feasting on lunch and meeting representatives of the Maleku, a dwindling indigenous group. Our afternoon was spent trekking over the lava fields along the flank of Arenal Volcano followed by an evening soak in nearby hot springs (perfect ending!). During the hike we were caught in a downpour and it only added to the fun! We learned so much about the area and saw even more cool animals including two different pit viper species and the red eyed leaf frog.
Tamarindo
Continuing west, we met our close friends on the Pacific Coast, in Tamarindo, to finish out of time in Costa Rica. We missed them so much-it was a very sweet reunion! After nearly a week of touring daily, it was wonderful to just relax and play. Staying only a block away from the ocean, we made our way there multiple times a day to run, surf, walk, or just hang out. When we weren’t at the beach we were in our pool or strolling through town. We made most of our meals at our rental house but would treat ourselves to fruit smoothies and the occasional meal out and found delicious food each time.
All in all, Costa Rica was pretty enchanting and we can see why so many Americans spend their holidays there. We had a great mix of touring and relaxing and created memories full of bright colors and jungle sounds!