Three Weeks in COSTA RICA or Costa Rica Through My Windshield – February 2021

A quick summary of details I have been asked on TripAdvisor before we start … feel free to cruise the Blog but this may be the info you seek.

TRANSPORT: We rented from Enterprise … good service, fair price, reliable vehicle, got a small AWD SUV in case we went off pavement … also provides a little more power and room. Taxis are abundant and not expensive. We used my stateside Garmin GPS with Maps I bought on-line from NAVSAT. Go to NAVSAT on Google .. go to the main site, select ‘en’ in the top right, select maps in the hash mark drop down menu on the left and order the map. They actually match their maps with your GPS … down load was easy. Driving is easy in the morning and gets more complex from noon to evening. Traffic get heavy but most CRs are courteous. Don’t try to speed and be nice and you will do fine. Ignore the motorcycles that zip around you .. it is up to them to miss you and you just get in trouble trying to avoid them … sounds bad but works well. Speed limits are low so don’t plan on going too far in a short time. Parking is crazy as the local park or stop anywhere and cause backups or go rounds … just work with it.

COMMUNICATIONS: It easiest and least expensive to just buy a SIM card for your smart phone upon arriving in Costa Rica. There are several companies that offer them. Most convenience type stores handle them and there are Kiosks at the airport. At the airport you can usually get the sales person to change it out for you. I put 10,000 Colones (About $20) mine and it lasted the three weeks doing a number of texts and phone calls. If you use your phone as a Hotspot for other devices it uses much more of your available time. I found pretty good service all over CR … except out in Corcovado NP

ROOMS: We booked all our rooms in advance through Booking dot Com. The actual Hotels we stayed at are farther down but suffice it to same some were better than others … ALWAYS GET A/C .. the humidity will kill you.

TOURS: We booked some tours ahead of time and some once we arrived … all booked on line. Pick the ones you want based on how much time you have and how much you want to spend. We always book private tours … rational below. Always get a guide if you want to see animals … this is the jungle and you will see very little unless you are accustomed for looking for things in a jungle.

MONEY: Credit cards are accepted most places … in the more remote places they want cash .. most will take dollars or Colones .. They all take Colones and the best place to get them is from an ATM (Bank Sponsored) with a debit card from your home account. Far superior rates. We never carry more than a couple hundred dollars of cash .. half US half CR. You can find Bank Sponsored ATMs most everywhere. Bank Sponsored ATMS have the name of the bank on them.

IMMIGRATION: We are US citizens … got our VISA stamp upon arrival. Make sure you get you COVID insurance before you leave home. We got our through the CR recommended company … figured less hassle here. You might save a couple bucks getting a US policy but it may cost you much more here if they won’t accept it. Make sure you do your Health Form BEFORE you leave home and print out the Q Form.

COVID: CR is very COVID conscious and they follow extensive protocols everywhere to help stop the spread. You must wear a mask at all times, except when you are seated and eating or drinking, in your room, or driving. Locals and the police will tell you to mask up if you haven’t. There are places to wash your hands entering almost every business or function. If no they have an alcohol gel or spray to use .. and they will send you back to use it if you walk by it on the way in.

COVID TESTS FOR RETURN: We went to two different Labs. One was advertising a one result using an approved quick test … it worked just like that. We had the results back in an hour. We also had the Full test that takes longer. They said they would have the results to us in 24 to 48 hours … we had them less than 12 hours later. This was at the Laboratories Echandi near downtown San Jose. They were just a store from shop collecting samples but were clean and professional .. they took a Credit Card for payment. We had friends who went to the Hospital Biblica near downtown and had similar results getting their quick test results back in less than two hours. The hospital has a reception desk set up on the six floor of their park garage to handle COVID tests. very efficient and you don’t have to enter the hospital … Good for you and them! They too took Credit Cards. Most importantly … IT IS THREE DAYS, NOT 72 HOURS prior that you must take your test. Go to the CDC website and look at their guidance … they even give you an example.

FOOD: You get a lot for not too much money … whether you like it or not is up to you. They eat a lot! Water is generally safe to drink, bottled water is abundant.

LANGUAGE: Spanish is the preferred language but many speak english … the farther out you go the less english they speak. Learning your numbers, days, and a few common phrases helps a lot.

WEATHER: We are here all of February … it is warm in the mountains, cool at night, and hot and humid along the coasts. It is the dry season but there has been quite a bit of rain … bring a light jacket and a raincoat that you can remove easily. Layer, layer, layer.

Now The Story!!!

We arrive on Sunday the 7th. I’ll start my updates then. Meanwhile, watch as the map gets updated with our planned journey around the country and an itinerary. Jungles, Volcanos, Sea Shore, Zip lining, Skywalks … it will all be here.

Here’s Our Travel Plan … Starts in San Jose and Goes Counter Clockwise

This is where we actually traveled … A Few Departures from The Plan but Overall A Very Good Trip

It’s Thursday and we are nailing down any loose ends we have. The pandemic certainly adds a great deal of work! Anyhow, tomorrow we pack. That’s when we discover if we have forgot anything. Saturday morning we pick up a rental car here to drive to Orlando where we are flying from. We are spending the night there, then Sunday morning we turn in the rental in Orlando at the airport and fly out to San Jose. The rental car thing has turned out to be the most economical way of getting to either Tampa, Orlando, or Miami, the three airports we use the most. Parking is very expensive anywhere near any of these airports and the cost of a shuttle is more than the rental cost and we don’t get packed into a van and driven all over the state picking up other people. Here’s our “Straw Man Itinerary” for the trip. On the 27th we return home.

See you in Orlando.

8 Feb 2021 – We are in Costa Rica!!! What a beautiful place … green everywhere, nice people, moderate weather. Our drive to Orlando, our stay there, and our flight to Coasta Rica yesterday all went very well. No hitches, we had all the right paperwork, the flight was on time and we had plenty of room and both of our bags made it just fine. We picked up our rental car at Enterprise , I got my GPS hooked up (It is loaded with maps of CR I got from NAVSAT) and paired with Nancy, they got us to our hotel. The hotel is nice. Not modern or fancy, but nice … Here’s some photos:

That was yesterday. We were quite bushed when we arrived here because we were up at Four AM to get ready and get to the airport leaving Orlando. The flight was good but flying always makes us tired. Then we got to the hotel and settled in, had dinner, and crashed. This morning we were up early, showered, did some research, had a lovely breakfast and started out on our day.

We saw two main attractions today. Both were on our list to see and both were absolutely incredible. The first was the Volcano named Poas. It last erupted in 2017 (yup, four years ago, and erupted until 2018. It is considered to be an active volcano so we were excited about seeing it. The second was Hacienda Alsacia which is a coffee plantation … not any coffee plantation but the Coffee Plantation that provides Starbucks it’s coffee!! A big additional bonus was the scenery and people we saw along the way. In this post I will not be mentioning how many miles we drove. Here milage is irrelivant, its time … it might take 3 hours to drive 25 miles so how far you go is not as important as how long it takes. Anyhow, no milage numbers, everything is not so far as the country is not so big. Here are some pictures from Poas:

Here We Are … Volcano Poas National Park

The Volcano was impressive and well presented. The Costa Ricans work very hard to present a progressive and historic country. More tomorrow on the rest of today. Going to bed.

Okay … That’s better … still working on the 8th. After the Volcano we headed back towards the hotel. Along the way was the Hacienda Alsacia, or the place where Starbucks runs it’s coffee bean buying business in Costa Rica. They have a very nice facility there and do tours in both Spanish and English throughout the day. Nancy had bought tickets for the two O’Clock tour but we got there just after noon and asked if we could move up to the one o’clock tour. Everyone agreed so we took a break and … had a Latte (what else would you do at a Starbucks place?)

We showed up for our tour and there was only one other person. A pleasant young lady from Monterey, Mexico. A side note here. Tourism is way down in Costa Rica. The country was shut down completely for five months until the population started demonstrating in the streets because they were all starving and loosing their businesses and jobs (sound familiar?). The country opened up to anyone from most countries last December and has been doing better but, as you know, fewer people are traveling so there are fewer people touring. Regardless, our tour started off with a polite young man doing the tour. His English was very good and he had an impressive knowledge of the coffee industry. I’ll take you through the tour via photos rather than write it all out. Here are the photos from our tour:

That finished our tour at the Coffee place. It was very interesting and contained much more information than I will ever need … but well worth the time. I guess you gain a greater appreciation for things if you understand the effort that goes into creating them.

From here we drove back to the hotel in San Jose. We had dinner at the hotel and spent the rest of the evening there. Another early bedtime … thus the interruption of this day’s post. I will close the day out showing some of the countryside, roads, and interesting aspects of driving in Costa Rica.

So That was the 8th. Great Day, two very interesting things to see. Our GPS is working well, driving is a piece of cake (everyone drives on the correct side of the road (unlike Australia) and most Costa Ricans are polite drivers. The trucks get a little aggressive but generally everyone is kind.

9 February 2021 – Started the day with breakfast and checkout from our hotel. We are going to La Fortuna that is 54 miles away … a four hour trip. Scenes along the way: (See Map at beginning)

So we got here and got our room and decided to go out and explore a little. We went to downtown La Fortuna, had some Nachos and a Beer, cruised some souvenir shops, and checked into taking a Sloth Watching tour. Checked out three different places before Nancy found someone who GUARANTEED us we would see a Sloth. Sloths are nocturnal and shy. They come from this region and the tours are very popular. So, because Nancy’s friend asked us to check out her relatives in Costa Rica we decided to take the tour. Our Guide was a very knowledgeable guy and did very well. We saw five Sloths, a couple poison frogs, a bunch of different kinds of birds and a lizard. The Sloths were difficult to photograph because they sleep way up in tall tress amongst the leaves. I did my best and here are some pictures.

See The Sloth in This Photo? … No, That’s Because There Isn’t One (Told You They Were Difficult To See!)

Okay … That’s it for today. Another busy day for us. Tomorrow we work some COVID issues. We need a test before we can get back into the states so we are finding a lab or hospital that will test us and get the results back in 72 hours before we leave. Then we are traveling on to our next destination. Its another Volcano but the weather looks like it may be socked in so it will be a slower day. Till Then .. take care.

10 Feb 2021 – Had a nice breakfast at the hotel. The young man at reception helped us set up a COVID test in San Jose when we return later this month so we can return to the states (Thanks Joe … you make life even harder!!). Then we started out for Nuevo Arenal where the Gingerbread Hotel & Restaurant is and where we are staying tonight. The trip was pleasant around this really large and picturesque lake. Before we went very far we saw the entrance to the Arenal Volcano National Park so we entered. This park is not nearly as developed as Poas was but it certainly had many things to see. We walked about four five miles, up and down hill, on narrow trails, some clear, some very rocky, some steps to see the lava flow from the 1992 eruption and a very old tree. Both were worth the walk plus the flora and birds along the way were very nice as well. The volcano was obscured at the top so we never saw the top of it but the middle to bottom was very impressive. Here’s some photos of the walk and the volcano … and the tree.

Our First View of the Lake was on our Walk Out To The Volcano

After the park we drove on to Nuevo Arenal where our hotel is. We noticed signs, many signs, for a German Bakery. Being excited about German Bakery we decided to go there first for lunch. We found it. It was a BIG disappointment. The baking was what you might expect from a cub scout and the service was lousy. Other than that we had a mediocre Latte and left. We are now secured in our room at the Gingerbread Hotel resting and waiting for dinner. We have planned our route for tomorrow which will take us around the west end of the lake and south to Monteverde … about five or six hours of driving. There we will stay for three nights. do some tours, walk some tree top sky bridges, and who knows what else.

NOTE: Costa Rica has a National Motto which is PURAVIDA … anyone know what that means?

See you tomorrow in Monteverde. I did not update our progress map today because we did not go very far.

11 Feb 2021 – We are in Monteverde (Green Mountain) which hosts the Cloud Forest. It is also a small town built up mostly to accommodate the tourist industry in this area. However, before I talk about Monteverde let me mention our departure from the Gingerbread Hotel in Nuevo Arenal.

Last night we decided to have dinner at the hotel and we are very happy we did. We had a delicious dinner that was nicely prepared and well presented. We split a humongous Greek salad for starters and then split a steak dinner that came with four steaks draped over a heap of mashed potatoes and vegetables. Very good. This morning we were up early, had a couple coffees in the room while we packed up and took everything out to the car. Then we went down to breakfast … which turned out to be delicious as well. So, well fattened we left the Gingerbread Hotel and drove to Monteverde. Here are a few photos from the hotel. I’m not going to post pictures of every one of our rooms but this one was kinda unique so please bear with me:

This Was Our Room … The Paintings Blended Right Onto The Bed

The Drive over was of concern because many of the books described the road as dirt, lots of holes, and dangerously steep in places. The road was fine … it was dirt in a few places but not bad at all. These experts that talk about roads make them sound really bad so you think they really did something. Only took a couple pictures on the road … just more green countryside.

We scouted out a couple souvenir shops after we checked in and walked about the town. Just vegging out this afternoon, will do dinner sometime. Tomorrow we take a hike in a Rain Forest Reserve.

12 Feb 2021 – Another grueling day of touring completed. Today, actually very early today, we went out to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. It is a large area that strattles the Continental Divide in Costa Rica. This causes the Reserve to have three different weather environments. The East side is moist and cloudy much of the time due to clouds coming in from the Caribbean. The Pacific side is more dry and the topic a mix of the two. They call it the Cloud Forest because it if frequently shrouded in heavy fog or clouds. This has decreased from having an average of 30 sunny days (Blue Sky) a year to over 118 a year now … although I think the high average does not include as many years as the low average. The Reserve is famed for all the plant and animal life it sustains and tours of it were highly recommended. So, we booked an early morning tour when the animals were supposed to be more active. We were early but the animals forgot to come. We saw some birds, lots of different plants (they can’t go too far) and only one animal (mammal).

Not seeing much was a disappointment (still better than the best day at work!) but it was interesting and although our guide tried to recite the Encyclopedia Britannica to us regarding birds and plants, we did enjoy the three hours of hiking through the Cloud Forest. After our guided tour Nancy and I walked to a different point to view a Cascade of water as it flowed off the mountain. they call them water falls here but they are really a series of drops from rocks to rocks … still very nice.

We finished up just before noon and had logged about three and a half miles of hiking up and down hills in the jungle. We stopped by for a Latte and a sweetie and then scouted out the location of our activity that we have scheduled for tomorrow. More on that later but now, the few pictures I took. In addition to not seeing many animals or birds, they were usually sitting inside of some brush or leaves which makes them difficult to see, then you are shooting your pictures from a dark jungle floor up into the bright sky .. so you get a lot of black shadows hiding in leaves. Here is what I got today:

This Is A Quetzal. A Rare Bird To See Here. It Is The National Bird of Guatemala. Our Guide said only About 5% of The Folks Who Come Here See One

Image result for quetzal — This is A Quetzal … I got the Picture from Google. Just Want You To Know What They Look Like

A Little Potpourri here. Following are just random shots as we waked and saw interesting things. At The end will be some shots of the water falls.

A Coatie … A Raccoon Like Mammal That wanders the Forest. they Had A Couple That Became Accustomed To Humans and Hung Around Looking For Handouts

Now we will view the water falls. It too was difficult to photograph due to the tree branches, palms, and weeds.

So that was pretty much it. Would’ve liked to see more animals but we have several more tours over the next couple weeks so maybe we will see some. Regardless, touring here is better than going to Walmart. the people are great, the weather is warm but not hot … but very humid.

Tomorrow we go to “SKY ADVENTURES” to walk amongst the treetops on high bridges and ride an areal tram above the trees. Sounds like fun but we will see.

13 Feb 2021 – Yesterday we walked through the jungle and tropical forests. Today we walked and rode above them or at least along the top. Our morning started with a cup of coffee in our room before we went to breakfast. Then had a great breakfast and drove out to Sky Adventures. The drive was about 20 minutes so we were there in plenty time for our Eight AM tour. We were told they did not do private tours and we would be with a group. However, we were the only English speakers in the group and that guide suggested that it might be better and less confusing to everyone if we just went with our own English speaking guide and his group do all Spanish … Good For Us!! Consequently, we ended up with a very polite and well versed guide who really knew his stuff and provided useful and relevant info without flooding us with worthless minutiae several times over.

Our first tour was a trek over a distance of about 2.5 kilometers and crossing five different suspended bridges that were across valleys taking you above the top canopy of the jungle. Here’s the course.

The Bridges are numbered counterclockwise but we went clockwise starting with the one on the bottom, bridge 5, and also the longest and highest bridge.

Bridge 5 … 774 Feet Long and 164 Feet above the Ground AT Its Highest Point

Nancy and Our Guide Starting Across The Bridge

The variety of vegetation is incredible. Some Grow Up from the ground, other grow down from the tree tops. Birds, monkeys, and other animals and insects spread the seeds and the weather promotes fantastic growth.

A short walk through the jungle and here we are at Bridge 4 … a little smaller.

So That was it. We Crossed all five bridges. learned a great deal, saw a lot of tree tops and varieties of trees. Here’s what the course looks like.

This was the end of the Sky Walk. Our next event was the Aerial Tram. We have rode on many cable cars over the years but we wanted to get a view from the top of the mountain where these facilities were located. So we climbed on board the tram and off we went. We were very fortunate in the it was a particularly clear day and we could see the Pacific Ocean way off in the distance and, to our great surprise, we saw the top of Arenal Volcano! Remember … we were there but never saw the top of it. So here are some pictures of the tram ride and mostly views while we went up and from the top.

A Suspension Bridge From Reception to The Tram (Left)

That ended our touring for the day. We didn’t Zip Line because we had done a quite a bit of it in Australia and didn’t want to harness up to do it again. Nancy hit a couple souvenir shops and we went back to the hotel to rest up for the evening. The Hotel hosts a special dinner, with music, tonight and we are going as guests of the Hotel’s Manager. We are looking forward to an interesting evening.

Tomorrow is Nancy’s Birthday so we getting a slow start, breakfast, then moving on to our next location. We are stopping there for the night because it brags having huge groups of American Crocodiles. Guess we will see. Till then, take care.

A comment about the Costa Ricans and their COVID Protocols. Everyone must wear a mask at all times, inside and outside. Exceptions are in your home (or hotel room), and when you are eating or drinking … actually eating or drinking … sitting at a table or bar stool does not count until you have your food or drink. There is alcohol rub for your hands everywhere and upon entering or leaving a building there is usually a hand washing station (sink with soap). They take your temperature every time you enter a business or function, and don’t mind reminding you to put your mask on. Consequently we feel pretty safe about being exposed. They do have cases here but not a real high rate … not sure of the figures. We still have to have a negative, less than three day old, Swab test before we can board our airplane home. We have that schedule for … you guessed it, three days before we leave.

14 February 2021 – Happy Valentines’ Day!!! … and Happy Birthday Nancy.

Nancy with her Birthday Presents and Valentine Heart

We were up, had a little party, had a couple cups of coffee, packed our bags, and went down for breakfast, all by 7:30. After a leisurely breakfast we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the Suzuki, and we were off to Rancho Capulin. This is a small B&B we decided to stay at as it was close to the National Park that had the crocodiles. It was about a three hour drive, quite mountainous and a big change in environment. As we were heading south and west we left the Caribbean side of the Continental Divide and were on the Pacific side … where we will be for most of the rest of this trip. As I mentioned, the Pacific side is much dryer and dry it is … almost desert like with far fewer trees and a lot of stressed plants since the rainy season is over. It made for an interesting drive. I didn’t take many pictures as there was a haze that does not do well in photos. I did take a picture of an interesting fence, and some crocodiles. There is mostly farming through the area we traveled so cows, horses, and a few pigs and dogs. Here’s the fence:

The Posts are actually Trees that They Trim Off every so Often

We ended up not going to the National Park itself … Just before the park entrance there was a fairly big bridge and people were walking out on both sides and looking down. There were a number of virus sizes of Crocodiles on both sides.

Most of Them Were Laying Partly In The Water … This Is A Smaller One

So that was it for today. We are having an early dinner tonight and going to bed early. Last night’s dinner was great and we enjoyed the music and the wine. Tomorrow we are driving to Manuel Antonio, and area on the beaches of Costa Rica. We are about half way there now.

15 Feb 2021 – We got a nice start after a pleasant breakfast and arrived in Manuel Antonio just around noon. The trip over was interesting … we stopped and took some more pictures of the croc’s. Before breakfast there were some Coaties (pronounced coe ah tees) running around behind our room and climbing into a nearby tree to eat fruit. Then at breakfast our hostess had an interesting Bird tree, then the cross:

Enough Croc’s!!!! The drive here was interesting as we were driving along the Pacific Ocean most of the way. Sometimes right on the edge and others inland a bit or in a town. Here’s some photo’s of the journey:

We finally got to our hotel but had to wait a while to check in … so, we went to their restaurant, had some lunch and a couple beers while we waited.

16 Feb 2021 – Yesterday we scheduled an early pickup and a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park. This is a small park but one of the most famous in Costa Rica. Two brother, Manuel and Antonio, were rich farmers in this area but decided to move. They sold much of their land but donated a large track of it to be a park … which became. We had a small group (5) of folks on the tour so it was comfortable and a very good guide. He took us into and through the park showing us many, many things we would not have seen if we had just walked through by ourselves. Here are pictures from the park: … Oops, I forgot to mention that on the way to the park we came across a bunch of monkeys playing on the phone and electric lines .. here they are … Then the park:

It was a fun and successful day in the park. We spent the afternoon vegging out in our room. It is very hot here and very high humidity so frequent breaks in air conditioned areas are good.

17 Feb 2021 – Today is an off day but we are doing two things. One is to walk down from the hotel, which is high on a cliff above the ocean, to the shore and back up. The other, Nancy wants to check some souvenir shops to see if we have forgotten to get some things we really need. First the walk:

The Road Down From Our Room, Past Reception, and To The Beach Path

The walk was hot and took a while but we made it. The Name of The Hotel is Shana By The Beach but it really is nowhere near the beach. So Then we went out and explored some shops … nothing special out there … and some more beaches.

And a restaurant with an airplane in it:

We spent the rest of the day in the pool, by the pool:

A Mural A Guy Was Painting In The Dining room AT The Hotel

18 Feb 2021 – Today we head south and a little west to Sierpe which our gateway to the Osa Peninsula and the Corcovado National Park. See you when we get there.

Ok … We are here … Sierpe in the Province of Osa. Our final destination here will the Corcovado National Park. Stopping in Sierpe is the first step. Tomorrow we take a boat down the Sierpe River to a town named Drake in Drake Bay. The next day we take another boat to go farther south then hike into the park, look around a bit, hike back out, take the boat back to Drake, spend the night, take an early boat back to Sierpe where we left our vehicle. Once we get the vehicle back we will drive to Puerto Jimeniz on the opposite side of the Peninsula and check into a hotel there. The next morning we pick up a guide and drive into the other side of the park a little ways and hike into the parks interior from there. Then back out. Enough itinerary for now. The drive here was interesting but mostly the same terrain I have have been posting so I won’t bore you with more pictures of palms, bananas, and the ocean. We did find a golf course though:

Here are some pictures of our hotel here in Sierpe … bear in mind we are off the beaten path and few tourists come here so things are fairly rural. The hotel is highly functional (even has A/C thank God), is operated by a very pleasant lady named Daisy, and is centrally located so we walk to most of the places we go … as in THE restaurant, THE bakery, THE boat dock, etc. The Hotel has made some interesting use of old tires:

I walked around A Bit And Took Some Pictures Around Town:

We reshuffled our suitcases because we are only taking back packs on the boat. The suitcases and all our other junk will be left in the car at the hotel. After repacking we decided to take a walk down to the dock and see what’s going on:

(Upriver) The Dock From The Club Las Vegas

So that was our day … kind of exciting but all in a days work of a serious tourist. We had some dinner and are back in the room. Waiting for the appointed hour to go to sleep. Tomorrow we are off to Drake. My Next Post will be from there.

22 Feb 2021 – No, You did not doze off and just wake up missing three days. We left Sierpe on the morning of the 20th and made it to Drake, were picked up by our hotel, and checked in. We did nothing the rest of the day but they internet was very weak and intermittent so I was unable to update my posts. I was able to take pictures the entire time so here goes. 19 Feb 2021: Getting up and boating to Drake … it was about a 90 minute boat ride, in a fairly small boat. It became very rough when we got from the Sierpe River into Drake Bay. Here are some photo’s from along the way and our hotel. But first, let me tell you a little about Drake. Drake is a very small village on the edge of Drake Bay. The streets are all dirt, the buildings are mostly shacks with no order or much upkeep. It is there mostly to facilitate tourism on the OSA Peninsula and the Corcovada National Park.

When we left our hotel in Sierpe we heard a bunch of noise and saw two Parrots feeding on the Guavass

We had dinner at the hotel and because the next days activities started at Five AM we went to bed early. The trip down the river was interesting but uneventful. We were not sure what to expect at Drake but were still rather surprised at how primitive it is. The only constant is the people, they continue to be friendly and helpful. 20 Feb 2021- We were up at 4:30, cleaned up and dressed and at Breakfast at Five. We knew we were going to get wet wading out to the boat that takes us to the National Park so we put on water shoes and no socks with intentions of socking up and putting our hiking boots on after we waded ashore at the park. So, after breakfast we climbed aboard the family truck and they took us back down to where we landed the day before. There we loaded up again in boats just like the ones we rode down from Sierpe and headed off to Corcovado National Park … another 90 minute boat ride. The trip down, both the Sierpe River and down to the Park was mostly mangrove trees palms, and jungle. You would see an occasional hut, sometimes a more substantial house but very few and far between. The Trip down along the coast from Drake to the Park:

Loading the Boat At Drake … The Captain and First Hand Hold The Boat, You Wade Out and Climb In

We disembarked in our usual awkward manner, feet wet from wading ashore and top wet from the rain. Once you got Ashore your guide checked everyone in with the Park rangers (It was mandatory to have a certified guide). Some groups were larger (10+) and some smaller. We had a Private Guide so it was just Our Guide Melvin, Nancy, and Myself. Having a private guide is my deal. I cannot stand waiting for inconsiderate people who are constantly late, talk while the guide is explaining something, and asking questions the guide answered while they were talking. I find paying a little more for a private guide saves a lot of time, allowing the guide to show you more and provide more info, while avoiding rude people who refuse to recognize they are part of a group. So, Melvin signed us in, we socked up and put on our hiking boots, applied some repellent, and we were off. Nancy and I often do these things without guides but here, I must admit, we would have missed everything if not for having a guide to point the animals, flowers, birds, and insects out to us. Walking through the jungle makes everything invisible! So here we go:

We made it back to Drake mid afternoon and went directly to the room, showered, and came down to the restaurant for a cool afternoon beverage. The telescope Melvin uses is exceptionally strong and puts whatever you focus on right in front of you. A Unique feature is that the guides can take a picture with your Smartphone of whatever you see in the Scope. I had Melvin Take a number of shots for me so here they are: We saw many animals and I will name them only if I know what they are … the rest are just birds or whatever:

This Is A Spider Monkey … He does not have An Opposing Thumb and Therefore Uses His Tail For Balance

That was our day at the National Park. Long, tiring, but very rewarding. Again, to bed early as we had a Five Thirty breakfast before being taken down to the boats for the trip back to Sierpe.

This Is What A Tucan Looks Like …. Remember Fruit Loops?

21 Feb 2021 – Our 51st Anniversary. Up early, eat breakfast, bounce in a truck down to the beach, get wet wading out to the boat, and off we go on our way back to Sierpe::

We got to Sierpe about Nine, walked back to the hotel we left our vehicle at, hoped in and departed for Puerto Jimenez which is on the other side of the Osa Peninsula but you can’t get there from here so we had to go all the way back up to the main highway, then west, then south to PJ. The drive was good but took a while. Speed limits here are mostly 35 MPH except on very good roads where it goes up to 50 MPH. In towns or congested areas it drops to 25. Anyhow, we got to Puerto Jimenez, found our hotel, and checked in. A Nice place. PJ is a bigger town and consequently has paved and organized streets, shops, a gas station, etc. We were tired when we arrived and decided we were just going to rest for the remainder of the day and all day on the 22nd. We had a Drive into the heart of the Park (From the West Side) and a long hike scheduled with a guide for the 22nd and cancelled it. We had seen sufficient jungle, animals, birds, insects, and rivers for the time being and we felt we needed a break. We took no pictures on the 21st. We did have a nice afternoon. Our Son Andy called us and wished us a Happy Anniversary, we received a nice note from Candice, Andy’s Wife, about our anniversary and Nancy exchanged emails with many of our relatives who shared our Anniversary last year. We had a nice dinner and turned in.

22 Feb 2021 – Okay!!! We are caught up. Nancy and I slept in this morning. Got up around eight and went down for breakfast. After breakfast and a couple coffees we decided too drive to the Southern tip of the peninsula. So we did. It wasn’t fr but the pavement ended at the edge of town and it was washboards, potholes, and narrow bridges the rest of the way. We didn’t mind as we had all day. Here are some pictures:

A Banana Plantation … Notice the Mistletoe In The Trees

So that catches us up to right now. Dinner t, then up tomorrow (Not Early), Breakfast, then our longest drive to the Orosi Valley just west of San Jose. On the 24th we will find a clinic to have our COVID tests done and if we test negative, we will be home on Saturday. More on all that each day.

23 Feb 2021 – Big Day today. Hard drive over two mountain chains, two cities, and beach traffic. For the first time since we were here we traveled a long distance … nearly 200 miles. Plus … we changed some of our plans .. quite a few actually so here’s what happened. We left Puerto Jimenez around seven after decided not to have breakfast. The weather was nice and driving was good. We had initially thought we would go kinda straight north and go up into the mountains while were still down by Panama but we decided we had long enough of a way to go so we followed the route we came in on until we were farther west, then cut up to Cartago where we were supposed to be staying. When we got to Cartago traffic was horrible and we were way out on the far side of the city. This meant that tomorrow we would have to drive back through the city to get to San Jose to get our COVID tests. Finally we decided to cancel the hotel in Cartago and get two more nights in the hotel in San Jose … all of which we did. We then drove in to San Jose and are staying right in the center of downtown for the next four nights. We located a couple Hospital Labs that were doing tests so we are off tomorrow morning to do our tests. It’s cram city tonite!!! I hate taking tests. I think we will be getting two sets of tests in case one does not make it back in time. It cannot be more than 72 hours old and the labs say they can turn the tests in 48 but there are many comments that they didn’t get the results in time. We’ll see what happens. Anyhow, I took a few photo’s on the way here and some in the city so here they are:

After Coming Up From The Osa Peninsula we drove west … these Mountains are Next

So that’s it for now. Have a lot of studying to do for our tests tomorrow. We have no definite plans for the next three days but I’m sure we will think of something. On a side note … it’s good to be back in civilization. We had a nice dinner and are enjoying our city stay.

24 Feb 2021 – I guess all the studying last night paid off because today we were tested and we both came up NEGATIVE for COVID-19. That means we will be able to get back to the US this Saturday as planned … isn’t that comforting? We also turned in the car. We are finished touring and the hotel charges an arm and a leg to park the car so it just made since to turn it in. The remainder of our time here we will be on foot or using a taxi. Consequently we turned in our little Suzuki SUV and got a ride back to the hotel. Not much else to report today. We did get COVID tests in two different places (A small insurance in the event of a false positive result) … four were negative so far (Two results not back yet) so all is good. Here are a couple of pictures … the first is of a tree that stands on the far side of the center from our hotel … it has beautiful blossoms and they continue to fall … like a Cherry Tree but much larger. The second is looking back at our hotel from the far side of the far side of the square towards our hotel.

25 Feb 2021 – Nice day today … It is cooler here in San Jose as we are at a higher altitude so the heat and humidity have not been bad. We slept in a bit so we had a late coffee and sweetie and decided to do some tourista stuff. So we walked around a bit, saw a couple of museums, a couple churches, and some interesting architecture. Then Nancy decided to do some souvenir shopping so went to this big market. Target rich environment for shopping tourists!! We are not back in the room and getting ready for dinner in an hour or so. Here are some random shots of things we saw today:

So that completed our touring for today. By the way, we did get our third set of COVID test results back … this was the serious test that takes 24 – 48 hours to get. We got them last night … again two negatives so we are good to go. Looks like we are having dinner at the hotel tonight and doing some more shopping etc tomorrow be fore we do our final packing for departure on Saturday. An interesting observation. While we were in the more thinly populated areas we seldom saw beggars or street people. Here in the city they are everywhere selling ink pens they find in the trash, odds and ends of stuff they found, or just standing there with a cup or their hand out. Just proves to me that cities are not good for humans. More tomorrow.

26 Feb 2021 – Our Last full day in Costa Rica. Not much planned, some last minute shopping, repack our bags, etc. Took a couple pictures last night. Had a nice dinner in the hotel. Here are the pictures I took:

Late Afternoon, Sun Was Setting, The Moon Coming Up

That pretty well wraps it up. We had a great time in Costa Rica … our schedule was more leisurely than most of our others and we kind of liked that. Issues such as time, work, health, money, etc always affect how you travel, how long, and how far. Hope you enjoyed the trip … we enjoyed sharing it with you.

A COMMERCIAL: This trip has been published as an ebook on Amazon. I’ve reformatted, cleaned up, and wrapped the entire trip so you can download read it at your leisure. If you use a Kindle Reader on a color capable device you can enjoy the photos in color and expand them to see more detail. Just put “Bill Rumpel” in the Amazon search engine and this book, and several others I have published come up. Feel free to buy as many as you like … they are very inexpensive.

Author: Bill

Bill Rumpel served America as an Air Traffic Controller, a Commander of forces, and as an advisor to our country's senior leadership in peacetime and combat in the US Air Force for nearly, forty years of his adult life. Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm and living most of his early years working hard or enjoying the outdoors, he has devoted his retirement years to telling stories based on true events with an intriguing mix of fiction and adventure. His books are published in 14 countries and in 9 different languages. View all posts by Bill

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Three Weeks in COSTA RICA or Costa Rica Through My Windshield – February 2021

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