Down-to-earth Costa Rica ideas/advice?
Jun 13th, 2012, 08:01 AM
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Down-to-earth Costa Rica ideas/advice?
The beau and I are thinking about saving up for another trip to the wonderful costa rica!
I went years ago on a WorldStrides school trip; we flew in to SJO, visted sarapiqi, arenal, and monteverde:a bit of hiking, hot springs, ziplining, and rafting, etc interspersed with ecology work. It was great fun, but it was a school trip, so I really didn't get to see much of the culture. We were in nice hotels, with guides, and honestly didn't get to really meet the people and get to know the area, because we were so rushed!
We would really like to go again, and really experience the culture and the land, on a college-student budget. Lots of hiking and bird-watching (We're both huge wildlife lovers!) and just getting to know the people, the area, and the culture! I'd really love the language practice as well; I'm hoping to minor in spanish.
So, what places or things would you recommend for us? Are there hostels in CR, and are they usually safe? My mother will freak if she thinks I might get into trouble. It will be my first unsupervised trip out of the country, so any advice is welcome!! But we really would like down-to-earth rather than out-of-touch-fancy-hotels, and would be trying to do this on a budget!
I went years ago on a WorldStrides school trip; we flew in to SJO, visted sarapiqi, arenal, and monteverde:a bit of hiking, hot springs, ziplining, and rafting, etc interspersed with ecology work. It was great fun, but it was a school trip, so I really didn't get to see much of the culture. We were in nice hotels, with guides, and honestly didn't get to really meet the people and get to know the area, because we were so rushed!
We would really like to go again, and really experience the culture and the land, on a college-student budget. Lots of hiking and bird-watching (We're both huge wildlife lovers!) and just getting to know the people, the area, and the culture! I'd really love the language practice as well; I'm hoping to minor in spanish.
So, what places or things would you recommend for us? Are there hostels in CR, and are they usually safe? My mother will freak if she thinks I might get into trouble. It will be my first unsupervised trip out of the country, so any advice is welcome!! But we really would like down-to-earth rather than out-of-touch-fancy-hotels, and would be trying to do this on a budget!
Jun 13th, 2012, 08:17 AM
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Sarapiqui might be worth a return visit--fantastic birding, and not overdeveloped in terms of tourism or expat communities. And generally pretty affordable.
There's some tension between culture and wildlife--culture means people, and the more people the less wildlife.
If you're really serious about hiking, maybe hiking through Corcovado national park--assuming you go during dry season.
Curu and Santa Rosa and Palo Verde might be other good places on the Pacific side.
Caribbean side I don't know as much about--supposedly some safety issues there but I'll let others opine.
There's some tension between culture and wildlife--culture means people, and the more people the less wildlife.
If you're really serious about hiking, maybe hiking through Corcovado national park--assuming you go during dry season.
Curu and Santa Rosa and Palo Verde might be other good places on the Pacific side.
Caribbean side I don't know as much about--supposedly some safety issues there but I'll let others opine.
Jun 13th, 2012, 08:19 AM
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If you like hiking, wildlife, and bird watching, I'd try to go to the Osa Peninsula. It has the best wildlife we've ever seen including all 4 kinds of monkeys, sloths, toucans, an anteater, and scarlet macaws. It's a neat area if you want to kind of go off the grid.
Jun 13th, 2012, 11:27 AM
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I think Hacienda Baru is a good fit, not as expensive as many places, and many of the guides grew up in the area. Try to get Pedro Porras.
www.haciendabaru.com
Also San Gerardo de Dota, some of the lodges are more low key and run by locals. Lots of endemics and hummingbirds Althoughmore expensive, Savegre Lodge has a fantastic birding program. And Swarovski binocs for rent!
www.haciendabaru.com
Also San Gerardo de Dota, some of the lodges are more low key and run by locals. Lots of endemics and hummingbirds Althoughmore expensive, Savegre Lodge has a fantastic birding program. And Swarovski binocs for rent!
Jun 13th, 2012, 03:50 PM
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Have you stayed in hostels before? I have in many countries and never had any issues. Just use hostels.com and make sure it has been reviewed by several people and received a good score (ie: 90%). I love them and meet people from all over the world. Also, I recommend couchsurfing.com. It sounds a little scary but you can check out the people you will stay with really thoroughly. Many people have an entire bedroom and bathroom where you can stay for free. The best part is you meet someone new who can tell you a great deal about the area, some even will be your personal tour guide or chef for the night!
Jun 14th, 2012, 09:09 AM
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You might want to check out Paraiso del Quetzal, a very small Tico run cloud forest lodge right off the Inter-american highway on the way to San Gerardo de Dota. It's the only place I've ever seen the fiery-throated hummers, lots of magnificents, too, plus hikes to see quetzals.
This is a very down-to-earth lodge, would be best to have your own car.
http://www.quetzalsparadise.com/ing/about.php
I've visited here twice for hiking and to photograph the hummers, but have stayed further away at Savegre which I love.
This is a very down-to-earth lodge, would be best to have your own car.
http://www.quetzalsparadise.com/ing/about.php
I've visited here twice for hiking and to photograph the hummers, but have stayed further away at Savegre which I love.
Jun 14th, 2012, 01:39 PM
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We just returned from a most wonderful trip to Costa Rica. However, we did have a few scary moments during our trip. Someone here mentioned about not having experienced much on the Carribean side. Unfortunately we had a good share of our experience. So, let me start by saying that the end result was great and nobody got hurt.
We decided to visit the Sloth Sanctuary near Cahuita National Park as my son's friend had recommended that to him. We started driving from Escazu at 8AM (passed the port of Limon on the way) and reached the sanctuary at around noon just in time for the "on the hour" tour. The tour was $25 per person and truly lived upto it's expectations as the tour included a one-hour canoe tour of the canal adjacent to the sanctuary. We came across quite a bit of wild life such as howler monkeys, bats, baslisks, sloths and beautiful birds. We then decided to head to Cahuita National Park as it was recommended by the hotel staff as the best place to snorkel. The sad part about Costa Rica is that most of the National Parks close by 4PM and this was no exception. Snorkeling was ruled out as we reached the place around 2PM and our only alernative was to spend some time at one of the most beautiful beaches and there is a also a 1 and 1/2 hour trail that goes through the rain forest. We decided to spend the time at the beach instead which started the turn of events and was probably a wrong decision.
Since sonorkeling was ruled out, we met a localite whose name is Elbare (carribean) and offered to give my son some surf lessons @$50 for a 2-hr lesson. I decided an hour should be more than enough and settled on $30. He spent about half-hour with my 14-year old son and told me that he is good enough to do it on his own and that was my second mistake as he disappeared and he should have been present to keep an eye on my son. My son of course is a good swimmer and I wasn't really worried about him drowning. We were approaching the one hour time period an my son was quite tired by then and I was glad that I did not go for the 2 hours. Since we could find this guy, we decided to leave the surf board next to the National Park office and that was probably my third and last mistake . We then headed to the changing rooms, took a shower, got changed and then we saw him and settled the account by paying him the $30 that we had agreed on earlier. We then walked to a local supermarket to buy some water and something to eat and returned to our car and were about to leave when this guy came rushing to our car and accused my son of breaking his surf board. Mind you, it was more than an hour from the time we paid him and wer ready to leave. On the pretext of showing us where the damage was, he kicked at the board very hard and broke it into 2 pieces. He demanded that I pay him $200 for the damages and picked up a huge rock and threatened that he will break our car windows with my wife and son in the car. There was one good samaritan who was watching everything from a distance and exactly knew that this guy had clear intentions of cheating us. This good samaritan's name is Ricardo and he owns the hotel overlooking the beach and located right next to the National Park entrance. He immediately came to our rescue and started screaming at him in his local lingo and let him know that he has called the cops and they were on their way. This guy seemed fearless and made it clear that the officers won't do anything. Unfortunately, he was right about that as we had a time convincing the officer that my son would have surely told us if he had broken the board and the officers who could not speak a word of english seemed to take his side and wanted me to settle by paying him the $200 that he had demanded earlier. The only consolation was that one of the officers inspected the board and realized that the board was already repaired in the past. I finally demanded that I need to speak to a officer who can speak english and also told them that I would be calling the US consulate to get us out of this mess. That kind of scared them and they immediately paged another officer. While we were waiting for the other officer, this guy was getting impatient and had the audacity of threatening to shoot me right in front of the cops and the cops turned a blind eye, completly ignoring his threat. My wife was hell bent now about involving the US authorities even though I was leaning towards settling the whole thing. Fortunately, the officer arrived within a few minutes and spoke very fluent english. His name is Edgar and behaved very professionally. He immediately recognized what was happening and mentioned that all I needed to do was to denounce that guy saying he threatened me with my life and that will end up in being arrested immediately. The only problem was that I would have had to come back the next day and deliver a tetimony and heaven only knows how mnny days I would have had to stay back for a successful closure. I ask him him if there was any other alternative and he asked us if we had any witnesses and that's when Ricardo came to our rescue. I had his card in my pocket and called him and he did not even hesitate once and agreed to be our witness. He explained to the officer the sequence of events and after having heard his statement, the office came to us and all he said was we are free to leave and that he has recorded Ricardo's statement. He even volunteered to escort us to some distance as we expressed that we didn't feel safe anymore in this town. He even gave us his personal phone number and email address and requested us to inform him as soon as we had reached our hotel which was a good 4 hr-drive back.
That was the last time we approached any locals. We had learnt our lessons. On the hindsignt, we were warned that the Carribean side was not a safe place compared to the pacific but people like Ricardo and Edgar proved us wrong. Unfortunately, guys like Elbare ends up bringing a bad name to the community. Hopefully, whoever is reading this is more cautious. We were lucky to get out of it alive.
We decided to visit the Sloth Sanctuary near Cahuita National Park as my son's friend had recommended that to him. We started driving from Escazu at 8AM (passed the port of Limon on the way) and reached the sanctuary at around noon just in time for the "on the hour" tour. The tour was $25 per person and truly lived upto it's expectations as the tour included a one-hour canoe tour of the canal adjacent to the sanctuary. We came across quite a bit of wild life such as howler monkeys, bats, baslisks, sloths and beautiful birds. We then decided to head to Cahuita National Park as it was recommended by the hotel staff as the best place to snorkel. The sad part about Costa Rica is that most of the National Parks close by 4PM and this was no exception. Snorkeling was ruled out as we reached the place around 2PM and our only alernative was to spend some time at one of the most beautiful beaches and there is a also a 1 and 1/2 hour trail that goes through the rain forest. We decided to spend the time at the beach instead which started the turn of events and was probably a wrong decision.
Since sonorkeling was ruled out, we met a localite whose name is Elbare (carribean) and offered to give my son some surf lessons @$50 for a 2-hr lesson. I decided an hour should be more than enough and settled on $30. He spent about half-hour with my 14-year old son and told me that he is good enough to do it on his own and that was my second mistake as he disappeared and he should have been present to keep an eye on my son. My son of course is a good swimmer and I wasn't really worried about him drowning. We were approaching the one hour time period an my son was quite tired by then and I was glad that I did not go for the 2 hours. Since we could find this guy, we decided to leave the surf board next to the National Park office and that was probably my third and last mistake . We then headed to the changing rooms, took a shower, got changed and then we saw him and settled the account by paying him the $30 that we had agreed on earlier. We then walked to a local supermarket to buy some water and something to eat and returned to our car and were about to leave when this guy came rushing to our car and accused my son of breaking his surf board. Mind you, it was more than an hour from the time we paid him and wer ready to leave. On the pretext of showing us where the damage was, he kicked at the board very hard and broke it into 2 pieces. He demanded that I pay him $200 for the damages and picked up a huge rock and threatened that he will break our car windows with my wife and son in the car. There was one good samaritan who was watching everything from a distance and exactly knew that this guy had clear intentions of cheating us. This good samaritan's name is Ricardo and he owns the hotel overlooking the beach and located right next to the National Park entrance. He immediately came to our rescue and started screaming at him in his local lingo and let him know that he has called the cops and they were on their way. This guy seemed fearless and made it clear that the officers won't do anything. Unfortunately, he was right about that as we had a time convincing the officer that my son would have surely told us if he had broken the board and the officers who could not speak a word of english seemed to take his side and wanted me to settle by paying him the $200 that he had demanded earlier. The only consolation was that one of the officers inspected the board and realized that the board was already repaired in the past. I finally demanded that I need to speak to a officer who can speak english and also told them that I would be calling the US consulate to get us out of this mess. That kind of scared them and they immediately paged another officer. While we were waiting for the other officer, this guy was getting impatient and had the audacity of threatening to shoot me right in front of the cops and the cops turned a blind eye, completly ignoring his threat. My wife was hell bent now about involving the US authorities even though I was leaning towards settling the whole thing. Fortunately, the officer arrived within a few minutes and spoke very fluent english. His name is Edgar and behaved very professionally. He immediately recognized what was happening and mentioned that all I needed to do was to denounce that guy saying he threatened me with my life and that will end up in being arrested immediately. The only problem was that I would have had to come back the next day and deliver a tetimony and heaven only knows how mnny days I would have had to stay back for a successful closure. I ask him him if there was any other alternative and he asked us if we had any witnesses and that's when Ricardo came to our rescue. I had his card in my pocket and called him and he did not even hesitate once and agreed to be our witness. He explained to the officer the sequence of events and after having heard his statement, the office came to us and all he said was we are free to leave and that he has recorded Ricardo's statement. He even volunteered to escort us to some distance as we expressed that we didn't feel safe anymore in this town. He even gave us his personal phone number and email address and requested us to inform him as soon as we had reached our hotel which was a good 4 hr-drive back.
That was the last time we approached any locals. We had learnt our lessons. On the hindsignt, we were warned that the Carribean side was not a safe place compared to the pacific but people like Ricardo and Edgar proved us wrong. Unfortunately, guys like Elbare ends up bringing a bad name to the community. Hopefully, whoever is reading this is more cautious. We were lucky to get out of it alive.
Jun 14th, 2012, 04:32 PM
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What an awful experience, redsun! I think that you and Ricardo did the world a favor by insisting on reporting this guy. I can understand you not wanting to spend the rest of your trip dealing with him though...
kaira, have you considered a home-stay, or a Spanish school?
kaira, have you considered a home-stay, or a Spanish school?
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