Better Outside Than In: Costa Rica

This year my family went to Costa Rica from 12/25 until 1/2. My sister found an air B&B house in Esterillos Este which is on the Pacific coast about 2 hours from San Jose. We flew in and out of San Jose which is a pretty good size city. Crazy traffic there with deep (4 foot) ditches on the side of most roads. Lots of cars, bikes, motor cycles, and people sharing the road with no apparent rules.

The house was on the coastal highway which goes from Nicaragua to Panama. This is a good road by Costa Rica standards with speed limits ranging from 40KM to 80KM. Lots of different speed vehicles on the road and passing is legal anywhere anytime. Saw one guy on a bicycle with pallets stacked in the front so it wasn't clear if he could see and sticking out a few feet on each side.

Esterillos Este is right near the ocean. The beach wasn't crowded in this area and there were good waves. It is a surfing area. We got out on boogy boards some and also just swam in the waves. You could walk for miles on the beach in either direction. Scarlet Macaw's were in the almond trees at the beach every AM until about 7:30. A number of surfers were out there first thing in the AM. Saw a Coati just off the driveway one AM.

There were three National Parks in the area that we went to. Carara was about an hour North and had maybe 6KM of trails in the forest. Three loops. This was an uncrowded park. We saw many monkeys, lizards, and something we thought was an ant eater. The forest itself was interesting with some very large trees and many trees with structural wings at the base for stability. We saw some leaf cutter ants. They were walking in a clear path. Apparently they release something that kills everything in the path. They live in very large mounds and don't eat the leaves. They use the leaves as fuel to grow fungus or something that they eat. The closest park to us was Manuel Antonio. This was crowded but also very nice. Right on the ocean with some paths in the forest and a lot of beach. We had a guide at this park and saw Sloths, various iquanas, monkeys, frogs, crabs, and bats. Lots of Capuchin monkeys running around right on the trail. Also baby monkeys. Fun to watch as they jumped in the trees and moved around right near you. We saw 2 and 3 tow sloths at this park. A guide was a good idea here as you needed a spotting scope to see the Sloths well since they were way up in the trees. Also saw a racoon at this park that looked bigger and different than the ones in the USA. The last park was Marino Ballena. Here we took kayaks out to a spit of land (called whale tail) that was under water at high tide. We went snorkeling in the area and saw a number of fish. Lobster, parrot fish, seargent majors, conch, trigger fish, etc. Then we kayaked into a mangrove area on a river. This was very interesting. Lots of little crabs on the mangrove roots. Also saw a number of toucans. One was in a branch right above our heads and flew into a hole in a tree where it had a nest. Saw scarlet Macaws here also and a green egret. Very nice area. Saw a long thin green snake on the way out which was called a parrot snake? Saw various types of bats at Marino Ballena and at Manuel Antonio. The guide at Marino Ballena grew up in a small town on the beach in a fishing village. Larger fishing boats started coming to the area. The town talked to the federal govt and they decided to stop all fishing in the area and create a protected park. He said it was tough on the village for 2-3 years as fishing stopped abruptly and they had to find work doing other things. Mainly tourism. The town was moved back off the beach at this time. Now the area is more developed with tourist businesses although still a pretty small sparsely populated part of the country.

I went diving two days near Manuel Antonio NP. The bottom was volcanic rock with many caves and slots. This area had pinacles that came up out of the ocean. We dove around one of these and also dove in various sites maybe 1/2 mile off of shore. The visibility wasn't great the first day but was a lot better the second day. There isn't a lot of coral in the area. Mostly volcanic rock with some coral and some plant life on the rock. Lots of fish. Saw 4 white tip reef sharks and a few large fish (dog fish?). Also the usual small fish that we saw snorkeling plus a few nudibrach, star fish, eels, lobster, octopus. There was a black snake with white stripes that was actually a type of eel. Some of the green morays were very large (4 feet). Good diving. Not as good as Bonaire due to worse visibility and lack of coral formations.

The group went on a few trips inland. I went with my mother and sister on a waterfall hike outside of Jaco. Much cooler in the forest. The waterfall had a number of pools where you could swim and a few had platforms to jump off into the pools. Others in the group went zip lining one day and riding on 4 wheelers another. We also went to Herradura to the beach there. Much more crowded than our area but a nice swimming area.

Costa Rica was building a lot prior to 2008 and was effected a lot by the down turn. There are many abandoned houses and condos in the area. These vacation homes are made of cement and most had roofs and some had windows. They sit there with the forest growing around and in them. There was an abandoned house right next to the one we rented. A similar house.

Costa Rica has no military. One day, at the beach, I was talking to the guide on the kayak trip. Around 20 pelicans flew over in a V formation. He said "there goes the Costa Rican air force"!

Pictures from Manuel Antonio:
Most of these pictures were taken through a spotting scope.

Strange Crab

Sloth

Bats

Capuchen monkey

More of Manuel Antonio taken with my camera:

I went diving around the larger rock in the background

Carara National Park:

Leaf cutter ants

Esterillos Este where the house was:

Macaw at beach

A few abandoned houses in the area:

Marino Ballena park:
Kayaking to Whales Tail (spit of land) and river into mangrove area.
I didn't take these pictures!
I wish I had an underwater camera diving. These were taken by the guide when we were snorkeling.