Costa Rica in 4 Days
Hi! This is Ali, stepping in to write about my adventure in Costa Rica, sans Lydia. It was a 5 day jungle blitz with my sister and 2 nephews. Our window for this trip was pretty limited, so we had to pick just a few highlights to explore. We started out considering a self-driving itinerary, but after reading about the road conditions, car accident rates, parking scams, and extortion, we opted to do a private guided tour. I found “Best Of Costa Rica“ tours online, and with the help of their agent, we planned a very compact loop which hit the top sites: Manuel Antonio National Park, Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, Arenal Volcano. We planned for a buffer day at the start of the trip, which could double as an opportunity to check out San Jose, and get settled in. Thankfully it was the shoulder/rainy season so crowds were thinner than normal.
Day 1: San Jose
In San Jose, we stayed in down down, within walking distance to the Jade Museum (lots of pre-Colombian treasures), National History Museum, and Central Market. Crossing the streets took a little getting used to a lot of streets did not have pedestrian lights, and the traffic lights were suspended way above eye level, that we entirely missed seeing them at first. Food was excellent! Mostly consisted of rice, slow cooked meat/chicken, plantains, and fresh tropical fruits. Desserts were a treat as well, particularly Tres Leches and Arroz Con Leches.
Day 2: Manuel Antonio
First stop of our trip was Manuel Antonio park, which has a beautiful beach jungle brimming with wildlife. Getting to the park was pretty chaotic, and we were thankful for not opting for self driving. We were fortunate enough to have close encounters with sloths, capuchin monkeys, snakes, iguanas, locusts and several other critters. After a walk through the jungle, you are rewarded with some beautiful beaches.
Later that night we had a Kayak tour through the mangroves of Isla Dolma. It was pouring that night, so everyone else cancelled except us, which made for nice 1:1 time with our guide. In retrospect, headlamps in the dead of night meant mosquitos devouring your forehead/face…
Day 3: Monteverde
Monteverde was probably my favorite stop. It’s basically a mountain rainforest with clouds rolling across it, nearly whiting out visibility. Unbelievable. It was very wet and lush all throughout, vegetation upon vegetation. We were lucky enough to spot some Capuchin monkeys stirring trouble with Howler monkeys, and felt the force of the howls. We also stopped by a humming bird sanctuary and saw dozens of them buzzing around. Our favorite was the elusive purple one.
The next morning, we had went to a Zipline course, which included a gondola up the mountain, bridges along the jungle top/canopy, 8 ziplines down the mountain, and a bungee jump at the end. The gondola trip over the forest was the scariest of them all! With billowing clouds/winds and pouring rain, the carts were swinging wildly. The zipline course was fantastic, and several of the lines go through rolling clouds. The bungee at the end was unexpected but we went for it anyway despite the wild winds.
Day 4: La Fortuna / Arenal
Our last stop before returning to San Jose was La Fortuna, were we went on a hike along the Arenal Volcano 1968 eruption trail. Afterwards, we did the Don Juan Coffee and Chocolate tour, where we learned about coffee and chocolate farming and preparation. We got a chance to make our own chocolate bars from scratch, and seasons with local ingredients. We learned that coffee has 10 attributes it gets graded for. Coffee was delicious, and I happily drank the nephews shares. I could have ran back to Washington state after that.
