More hotels in Costa Rica

As we are leaving Costa Rica now, we wanted to do one more review of the other hotels we've stayed at here. Scott did these reviews, with one exception of one I added to.

at Poasito (south of Paos Volcano):

Steak House El Churrasco
- few options in area, great location at midpoint between both Poas Volcano
and La Paz Waterfall Garden
- decent restaurant
- attractive rooms with TV, but very few stations, non in English
- sewage smell

at Montezuma:
we could basically do a guidebook on Montezuma, the town is small and we
stayed at a different hotel 3 of the 4 nights in town

Hotel Lyz
- located just west of town on a small strip of beach, the beach is not very
nice
- escape the noise of town, but the hotel was quite loud
- room was probably the smallest we stayed, located next to kitchen, and
several kids staying there...we had a bad experience
- shared bathrooms seemed to be too few for number of guests
- decent location but better options in this area

Cabinas Mar y Cielo
- first mistake, located behind Chico´s bar, which is the only big club in
town
- room was spacious and right on the beach with a small garden area in front
- Saturday night the music played until 2:30am and it sounded like we had a
speaker outside our door, plus a large group partied till nearly 4am
- Tiffany got tons of bug bites

This is an understatement. I had over 50 bites (I counted) on my bottom and lower back - I have never itched so badly in my life! Do not go here - the bed bugs are terrible! -Tiffany

Cabinas Pargo y Feliz
- finally a good find, cheaper than the last place, but nicer
- large, clean rooms with large attached bath
- balcony with table, chairs, hammock, near beach and good restaurant next
door
- still relatively close the Chico´s, but music on Sunday and Monday´s must
be less loud and not as late, because didn´t have any problems with noise
- good choice in the area

Hotel L´Aurora
- did not stay here, but viewed several rooms
- large dorm style rooms for big groups
- private rooms were decent
- good kitchen and communal area, top of hill at edge of town
- choose not to stay because group partying when we arrived, but looked like
a good option

at Quepos & Manual Antonio

Widemouth Frog´s Backpackers Hostel
- in Quepos just dos quadras east from bus station
- relatively new place
-.private bath rooms very large and nice, shared bath rooms were clean but
very small
- nice pool, TV lounge with movies for checkout, nice large kitchen area,
and communal area in front
- fast internet (by Costa Rica standard) for a fee and laundary service
- great place to stay in Quepos

Cabinas Picses
- close to Manuel Antonio

This was a wonderful cabinas owned by a local woman whose mother opened the hotel. Her mother had the astrological sign picses, hence the name. There were tons of squirrel monkeys that lived in the trees nearby and they would come through every afternoon and play. We love contributing most to locals. -Tiffany

at Puerto Jimenez

Cabinas Oro Verde
- in town, quiet, clean, large rooms with private bath
- simple, but very nice

Cabinas Iguana Iguana
- on the edge of town, rooms are dark, smaller, and not as nice as Oro Verde
- a nice outdoor bar

at La Leona by Corcovado Natl Park

La Leona Ecolodge
- only 200 meters from La Leona Ranger Station
- amazing location on a bluff over beach
- large raised square tents with raised beds and balconies
- great meals, but very expensive $10-15 USD per meal
- cheaper options in area near Carate, but still $50 pp per night with two
meals

Encounter with the Costa Rican Police

(By Scott) It all started when we met Reed on the colectivo bus from Puerto Jimenez to Carate. As Tiffany mentioned earlier, the colectivo bus is not a bus at all, but rather an old pickup truck with a homemade wooden seating area in place of the bed. Colectivo basically translates to: stop along the way for any person on the side of the road, deliver groceries and other supplies, and serve as the school bus in the area. So, this meant a 2.5 hour trip to cover less than 35 miles. During this time we met Reed. After a few minutes of small talk I discovered Reed lived at 518 W. Mifflin St., just two doors down from me at 514 W. Mifflin in Madison. Not only was he two doors down, but also lived there at the same time. The timing was easy to reference since this was the year of the famous Mifflin Street Block Party riot (chairs, tables, couches, and a car on fire, fire department responded, but was pushed back by the crowd, so finally police arrived in riot gear to clear out the area). I found it odd that Reed lived only two doors down and I never knew him. Turns out he is a rich, spoiled trust fund kid, with a huge ego, and an anger management problem...hence I probably did not take the time to get to know him back then. Well, he married into a family which owns the La Leona Ecolodge near Corcovado (600 feet from the ranger station by the same name). We stayed at this amazing lodge at the one of the most beautiful locations we have encountered yet. Also staying at the ecolodge was a group of 20 high school kids (once again a large group impacts our stay) from Wisconsin and a couple from Missouri. Geoff, the guy we met from Missouri is a hard-core backpacker and climber...he slept in a hammock every night while the rest of us were in raised tents with comfortable raised beds. So, over the course of our stay we got to know Reed better and disliked him more and more over time. Finally we had to say goodbye to this amazing place and take the "stop every 20 minutes in the old homemade pickup truck" ride back to Puerto Jimenez. After hiking 30 minutes along the beach we arrived at the colectivo bus ticket office/restaurant/store. A few minutes later Reed came speed walking up and looked quite upset. He approached Geoff and calmly asked "Geoff, did you steal my camera", to this Geoff replied an obvious "No." This is when Reed completely lost it. He became aggressive and began emptying the contents of Geoff´s bag and making threats. I then asked, "Why do you suspect Geoff", to which Reed replied "Oh, I don´t know, did you steal my camera." I assured Reed I had my own camera and did not steal his, but to feed his insanity I offered my backpack up for the crazy search as well. Off course, the camera was not in Geoff´s backpack. Reed made a quiet and empty apology and walked off to hide over by the beach. On the trip back to Puerto Jimenez the four of us discussed the surreal incident for a few minutes, forgot about it, and enjoyed the rest of the ride. When we pulled in Puerto Jimenez two police officers were waiting for us. Upon exiting the truck, we were asked to empty all our bags in the ongoing mad search for Reed´s precious camera. Reed´s wife or girlfriend was also present to identify the “stolen camera.” After searching three of our bags and some discussion as to why we were being searched in the first place, the police gave up and apologized. Tiffany must look innocent because they didn´t search her bag. It was at this point that we agreed Reed´s insanity reached a new level. We tried to get in contact with him and eventually Geoff emailed him, but no reply as of yet. So, our encounter with the police was actually quite pleasant when compared to the insanity of Reed.

Kayak trip in Puerto Jimenez

Before heading to Corcovado, we tried to take a kayak trip in Puerto Jimenez, but a storm rolled in after we were already in the kayaks and paddling out into the ocean. We had to turn around and postpone the trip. We decided to give it a try again after getting back from Corcovado and it was a perfect evening for it. This plant here was one of the many in the beautiful garden that was on the way to go out kayaking. The plant grows like crazy down here and has a really beautiful pink color. I wanted to include it for any plant lovers.


In the kayak tour, we were lucky because it was high tide. Because of that, we were able to start out going along the mangroves. They are really amazing plants that protect the land from storms and clean the salt out of water with no problems at all. It was really pretty to kayak along through these. We saw caimans and lots of birds while back there.


We then came up to a spot, where we pulled the kayaks onto land and carried them over a levy to the side where the beach was. It was a great beach and we went simming and had the best pinapples ever. They are white pinapples that grow down here and were so moist and sweet.


We paddled back to shore right at sunset and it made the perfect picture with the Panama tree set in the background. It was a really fun trip.

More in Corcovado and La Leona

While hiking in Corcovado, we also came to this great spot that looked like rain forest snow. It was just the petals of a tree that had fallen, but it made a beautiful backdrop.



We stayed at an eco-lodge called La Leona. Everythign in the area was way too expensive for what was offered, but the place was a nice one to stay at. We had a 'tent' which was basically a room covered by a tent, but with two beds inside. The beach was right outside and so we heard the great sounds of the ocean all night as we slept. There were also hikes up around the lodge with some nice views. The really great thing about the lodge was that it was out in the middle of nowhere. They didn't have phone service and you had to hike on the beach to even get there. The only way that they could get things to their lodge would be to take a horse and buggy on the beach back to the stop where the collectivo comes to deliver goods. It's a different life out there, but so nice and relaxing.



We also had great sunset views both nights that we were there. The first night had the most amazing sunset I've ever seen, but we didn't have our cameras out that night. These pictures from the second night show that it wasn't too bad either.

Corcovado National Park

Hiking in Corcovado was a great experience. This state park is the second most biodiverse place on the planet, only behind the Amazon basin. I decided to hike wearing my shoes the way the Germans do - sandals with socks. I did this so I would not get eaten by ants or mosquitos - not for fashion. :D We saw so much wildlife and loved being out in the middle of nowhere hiking in a beautiful rainforest next to a beautiful beach. Here is a list of all of the wildlife that I can remember seeing:
-White-faced capuchin monkeys
-Spider monkeys
We saw SO many of these here - they were in the trees all over the park. Almost every time we looked up, we would see these guys.
-Howler monkeys
We did not see these, but we heard them a lot. We have actually heard them all over Costa Rica, but I finally caught a video of the sounds. I hope they come through okay. The video is at the bottom of this blog.
-Tamandua - or honey bear anteater
We had not seen these before. They were a whitish yellow color with a black stripe down the back. We saw one on the ground and another in the tree. The one in the tree was being bothered, or molested as they saw here, by a spider monkey. The monkey pulled the tail of the anteater to try and get him to play. He was not amused.

-White-nosed coatis
We had seen these before, but not as many as we saw in this park. There was a large group of them that came right up on the trail that we were standing still on. I do not think they realized we were there. Another large group of them freaked out and started making barking noises as soon as they heard us coming. They all climbed up into the trees and just stared at us. They were really cute, especially the baby ones.

-Scarlet Macaws
These are the beautiful red colorful parrots that you see pictures of all the time. We saw a bunch of them in a tree - I was only able to get this really bad picture. We also heard them later on lying on the hammocks. Their loud calls are part of what makes them who they are. Apparently, if they do not have loud calls, they are pushed from the trees when they are babies. They always fly in pairs, since they are monogamous for life - beautiful birds.
-Lizards
There were so many of these and they kept scaring us when they would run away quickly on the trails under our feet. We kept thinking there were snakes.
-Iguanas
-All sorts of crabs

-Basilisks








-Lots of spiders, but mainly golden orbweavers
These guys make the strongest webs you can imagine. They are really big, but amazing to watch. We saw one catch a bug in his web and crawl down the web to go and capture it.
-We did not see any snakes, but the other guy, Geoff saw 4, including what looked a lot like the fer de lance, the most vicious and poisonous one in Costa Rica.

It was quite a day of hiking! There were banana trees all over the park, but we stayed well fed with our packed lunches, so we did not need to take from the trees.
There were also some beautiful beach views, of course. We wanted to hike further, but the tide had come up too high for us to hike around the rocks on the beach. You have to really time your hike to get to certain parts of the park. In this area, the tide causes of change in water depth of up to 10 feet!

Down to the South Pacific Coast of Costa Rica

We next hopped on a flight in a very small plane to Puerto Jimenez, a very cute small town close to Corcovado National Park. The plane ride down was nice enough, but it was a little shocking when we landed and found out we were on a gravel runway. It felt like there was something wrong with the wheels, but in fact - everythign was fine! There was only one small area where the business was conducted, which is shown here. The flight back was not as nice since we flew in the afternoon. The storm clouds always roll in during the afternoons, so with my fear of flying, I was a bit of a wreck during that flight. We were completely safe, though and I was the only one scared.


This was not the only interesting transportation that we took. Once we decided to head off to Corcovado, we decided to get on the collectivo (the bus to Corcovado). This was only a small truck with two benches in the back. The pictures are on our way back, but on our way there, it was a different story. There was only one truck for all of the cargo and passengers. We started out with 8 people, who we thought barely fit in the truck. Well, only 8 people fit very well we found out later. The truck stops anytime someone is waiting to get on and at one point we have 14 people in the back of the truck, including all of the cargo and 3 people in the front. A couple guys were hanging off the back of the truck. This would be quite a challenge because the truck goes through streams, some of which could get pretty deep. It was quite an experience! This is a very blury picture (due to the roads) of a couple of people we met on our way there and hung out with at Corcovado. There will be a very interesting story following about why Geoff is holding up a camera here.

Rafting the Pacuare

We took an overnight tour to go rafting on the Pacuare river, which is the 5th best river to raft in the world and had a great time. The total rafting was 20 miles and the first day we rafted 8 before stopping at the Rio Tropicales nature lodge. It was an amazing place right on the lake basically in the middle of nowhere. They did have power, although I'm not sure how it reached out that far.

We went on some awesome hikes while we were there to some beautiful waterfalls with streams that we could swim in at the bottom. We even went to one waterfall that acted as a natural waterslide - so much fun! We haven´t seen hardly any snakes since we´ve been here, but we did see this one vine snake in a tree. As Scott got close to take a picture, the snake hissed at us - not very happy to have his picture taken!

It was so dark at night that the stars were just beautiful. We sat out on the rocking chairs, watching the stars and listening to the sounds of the river rapids. Even as we slept, we heard the river flowing all night long. It was incredibly peaceful.

The next day, we rafted the next 12 miles down the river, including a lot of class IV rapids - pretty tough, but tons of fun. On one of the rapids, our boat was completely vertical (we saw from some pictures later on), but luckily Scott and I were holding onto ropes for dear life and we stayed in the boat. On another of the rapids, our guide fell back with his feet up in the air and we didn't even notice until another boat started pointing and laughing at us. He was sitting on a cooler with no foot holds, so I'm surprised he only fell over that once!

Ronald, this guide made our trip so enjoyable, including the rafting, all of our meals, hiking, and even just general conversation. I asked him about his thoughts on tourism and development in the country and he was very positive about it all. He said there is always good and bad in everything, but that he chose to see the good in it. He also said that eventually, the country would need to develop more than they are now, so why not go for it. One thing he was unhappy about (rightfully so) was that a dam is being built on the Pacuare River that will likely stop all rafting activities on it in the future. Since it is such a beautiful location and Costa Rica's best rafting opportunity, this will be a great loss. He was such a nice guy and very positive - we loved him!

The only negative thing that we can say about the trip is that it is way too expensive. For what you get, it should really be much less and we think they would even make more if the overnight tour costed less. Most people only do a one day trip, which costs much less than half the price of an overnight stay. The charge for a CD of pictures taken during the rapids was also much too expensive. If they charged only half of what they had charged, I think many more than twice the people would have bought pictures. For more of Tiffany's business column, please visit..... ;-)

Thoughts...

Unfortunately the gig at Kaya´s place didn´t work out too well for us and we are now back in San Jose. We were doing it partly because we thought we might want to buy a similar place down here one day and run it, and we wanted to see what it might be like. We have decided that this would not be for us. It was a good experience and taught us a lot. First of all, Scott and I are way too organized and uptight in business to be able to handle the way things run down here. People down here are super relaxed: for living, it´s nice, but in business it definitely bothered us. Secondly, the locals (Ticos) do not look upon Americans (Gringos) opening businesses in a positive light. I can see where they are coming from because before Costa Rica was a tourist center, it was much cheaper and much more in the old style of living. Now that the Gringos have come in and bought land and opened businesses, there have definitely been many changes. The cost of living has increased for the Ticos and it seems that in many places, they cannot afford to live like they once did. On the flip side, Gringos opening businesses offers new jobs, but it is still a completely different lifestyle. Most likely because of this resentment, many of the Ticos take advantage of the Gringos either just visiting or in opening businesses. Many try to take money whereever they can get it (out of people´s pockets or out of a cashbox at a business). It is a really sad situation and though it´s not right for them to behave this way, I can at least see where their resentment comes from. Keep in mind, that these statements are very wide generalizations and not representative of everyone here. However, it is the case enough that I would not want to be involved in it. Puerto Viejo, also has really been overtaken by drugs (marijuana, coke, crack) and this definitely affects the quality of life there. Constantly, there were crackheads coming up to people in the street or at a business and bothering everyone around them. This would even make me annoyed and fearful if I was a local who was not into drugs.

Having said all of this, I also want to take the opportunity to say positive things about the people and the culture. This situation brought my opinions down, but only a few weeks ago I looked at the people here as so friendly and happy. One of the main differences I can see between the Ticos and Americans is the commitment to family. It is amazing that everywhere you go, if you ask a local where they are from and where they grew up 99% of them will tell you that they grew up right there or very close to where they presently reside. We talked to one tour guide about this and he said he would like to get away in once sense, but his commitment to family is too strong for him to really want to leave. They don´t put their careers and other opportunities as high as they do their families. I don´t know if it´s better or worse than in the US, but I highly respect this commitment. Ticos do not have nearly what we have in the US, but many of them seem to be so much happier than Americans who are always striving for more. Although, I do not want to do business down here, I want to have this sort of attitude more when I get back to the States. I want to feel always thankful for what I do have and spend more energy and time on relationships in my life (both blood family and the family I have made in friends). Scott and I are realizing more than anything down here how important the people in our lives are to us. Part of this could be that were are together with only each other for so long, but I think this is a great realization and one that will live with us forever.

Anyway, so far I have really only been giving updates on what we have done and some views of the culture, but I wanted to add some additional thoughts that I´ve had. I will soon also add a review of all of the books I´ve read since I´ve been down here. Scott is going to add more commentary as well, so stay tuned!

Happy Birthday to ME!

This might be a bit of an egotistical post since it is all about me, but since my birthday was yesterday, I think I deserve it. :D I had a really wonderful birthday yesterday thanks to my really wonderful boyfriend. We took a bus up to Cahuita and had a great typical Costa Rican lunch while watching part of the Brazil/Croatia futbol game. We then took a hike through Cahuita National Park. It is right on the ocean, so the views were amazing and the waves quite large yesterday. Since we were in the forst, we saw a lot of our favorite friends as well. We saw a lone howler monkey sleeping in a tree, a group of spider monkeys hanging around and searching for food in the trees high above our heads, and then a big group of white faced monkeys all around us. The white faced ones are my favorites because they'll stay so close to you and just stare at you when you make noises. One was so close it was unbelievable and a guy in front of us pulled the branch that he was sitting on. The monkey really freaked out and started hissing at him. It was so funny! There were also a couple of babies that must have just come off of their mother's backs recently, because you could tell they were hanging and jumping around much more clumsily than the adults.
On the way out of the park, we stopped at a great bar/swimming pool and I had what they called 'Costa Rica's best Pina Colada'. It was quite yummy! Thanks Carolyn and Jaime for telling us about this place owned by the very nice Italian guy. I also found myself a little friend who snuggled up with me the whole time I was there.
Scott then took me to dinner at a great steak place owned by an Argentinian couple. They were definitely the best steaks we've had since we've been in Costa Rica. For an appetizer, we had what's called 'Sweet Bread', but is not bread at all. It's actually the glands in the neck of a cow. Apparently, they are not sold in the US and are even hard to get from the butchers in Costa Rica. We decided we should give them a try and though they were very different, they were good and tender.
Scott had arranged a few days before for our new friend at the ice cream shop to make me the world's best apple pie. We showed up and it was warm with a cute smiley face in the middle and served a la mode with homeade ice cream. It was a wonderful birthday cake (or birthday pie to be more correct)!
We then went out to hear some reggae music at a bar in town that reminded us a little too much of an American bar. We had fun nonetheless. It was a fantastic birthday!

Around town in Manual Antonio

Manual Antonio wasn't as easy to get around as some other towns we've been to because it's more spread out. You have to walk much further or take cabs when you want to go places. The town of Quepos is walkable, but we moved to a hotel closer to the park (which I am happy about because we saw those monkeys!) Quepos is a larger town, but we liked the fact that it was almost all locals and not a very touristy town. There were many cool restaurants all along the road from Quepos to Manual Antonio. One of our favorites was this restaurant/bar called El Avion. It was a US cargo plane that has some interesting history behind it, but has since been purchased by a guy in order to make this restaurant. There were beautiful views and sunsets from the deck. Scott really liked sitting in the plane as well. We also went to an equally touristy Bat Cave Bar. The bar was in a very posh hotel and the prices were way above our budget, but it was an interesting place to see. It was put in an actual cave and had a very cool feel.







Last but not least, I have to mention this group of people that we saw while we were on the beach in Manual Antonio park. They were the most obnoxious people and right on a beautiful beach that would normally be so quiet and serene. Usually, when you see this display, you would automatically assume it is composed of Americans - but not this time! I'm not sure what nationality they were, but they were not welcomed by most at the beach who moved down further or walked on.

¡Muchos Monos!

We did see and hear many monkeys while in the Manual Antonio area. In the park, we got closer to the white-faced monkeys than we probably have anywhere else, so I had a good opportunity to take this video for you to see!





We also saw the 4th type of monkey in Costa Rica that we had not seen yet. They were the squirrel monkeys. I can see why they are called squirrel monkeys because they did look very much like them! They were so cute and came every day in the trees at our hotel (Cabinas Piscis). They would even just jump on the palm leaves right off of our balcony and stare at me, of course until I lifted up the camera. They never let me get a shot of their faces. These monkeys are known to throw poop at people as a defense, so I didn't stand there for too long. :D

Manual Antonio

We visited the town of Quepos and Manual Antonio National Park and absolutely loved all of the beautiful sites we saw. This was definitely the most beautiful park we've been to. There were the most beautiful beaches and views of the ocean from hikes in the rainforest. There was so much wildlife just right next to you at every moment. It was a little funny for us, because we had seen most of these things before and everyone around us was freaking out. They would freak out when they saw even just a lizard or a crab! Also, the white faced monkeys are great and we love them every time we see them, but it was interesting to see the kind of excitement from others that we had on our first viewing of them. They are the virgin Costa Rican explorers while we are now pros. It was really funny when we were on the beach because both the regular raccoons that we see in the states and the Costa Rican racoons that are all over down here kept coming up to people. They would walk right up and even take food out of tourists bags while they were laying at the beach. We all got a kick out of it. There were also a few deer becoming very confused as they were feeding in the brush and people from the beach moved very close to them. They turned around to run, but we were on the trail in that direction. They ended up just sprinting back down the trail and another tourist told us later that he saw the deer running at him. We saw a sloth sleeping up on a power line, so I had to of course take a picture of that.

Tortuga Isle

We went on a day trip to Tortuga Isle and did snorkeling at a couple of spots and beaching and lunching. The snorking was pretty cool and we saw tons of large schools of fish. It was crazy swimming through some of these schools - as if it didn't even phase the fish that we were there. The beach where we stopped for a cookout at lunch was beautiful. On that island, there was also a resident pig that we had been told liked beer. I put some in my hands to feed him and he did, indeed love it! It was crazy seeing a pig lap up beer like that. There were also many deer walking around the forest next to the grill. They just stood there eating and staring at us occasionally. It was a very nice day with some great views and great company.