Costa Rica Trip

While one can do many things with one's time, travel with family certainly takes the cake during the school holidays. This time around, we made a trip to Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of the seven Central American countries. Central America connects North America (the southernmost country of North America is Mexico) and South America (the northernmost country of South America is Colombia). The other Central American countries are Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to the North of Costa Rica and Panama to the south (remember Panama Canal or Panama Papers). 

You can find the detailed itinerary in this blog but I want to highlight some of the special moments and the people.

On the first day, while traveling from San Jose airport in Costa Rica to Tirimbina Lodge in the Sarapiqui rainforest, our brakes failed. The animal instinct kicked in and I veered the car into the bushes and used the hand brake to stop the car. However, the car was fully damaged. A very sweet family came out from their home and invited us over. We spent the next few hours with them, eating lunch and getting to know each other. The single mom Sandra was 43 years old and had 3 kids, Valeria (23), a boy (18), and Louis (14). They were very affectionate and we connected well with each other. Valeria is studying Civil Engineering at UCR in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Our family with the hosts

We engaged in a lot of fun activities over the trip. We did a Chocolate tour at Tirimbina Lodge that taught us all the steps involved in getting chocolate from cacao fruit. It was very immersive and we participated hands-on in a lot of the steps. The tour guides William and Jose were very entertaining. 

Nirvanh breaking a cacao fruit

The process of chocolate making in pictures

The same day we left Tirimbina, we embarked on a rafting adventure. The goal here was to spot wild animals and birds and we did, lots of them. Here is a list that I remember and the tidbits our tour guide Warner told us about them.

1. Anhinga Anhinga- a bird that can dive into water for 3 minutes and looks like a snake when it does.
2. Spectacle owl- a big owl that can eat a small fox.
3. Crocodile- no comments needed, it loves humans.
4. Little Blue Heron
5. Howler Monkeys- howl a lot. 
6. Black and white owl.
7. Long nose bat.
8. Others that I don't remember now. 

Safari Rafting on Penas Blancas River

The other fun thing we did was the Tabacon Hot Springs the next morning. Warm geothermal water was very soothing. 

Tabacon Hot Springs

From the La Fortuna area, we proceeded to the Monteverde area. Our Airbnb host Olgar was awesome and treated us to some freshly extracted sugarcane juice in the morning (we extracted it together the old-school way). We also hiked up the trails in Monteverde Cloudforest Preserve. 

The trails took us to the Continental Divide that divides Central America into two hydrographic regions- the Pacific and the Caribbean. Rain on one side of the divide flows to the Pacific Ocean and on the other side to the Caribbean Sea. 

Monteverde has a Quaker history. Quakers moved to the region in the 1950s and 60s I think. We met a 60-year-old man called Steven Smith who moved from the US when he was 7 years old and has lived in Monteverde since. His daughter lives in the LA area in California. 

Our next stop was the adventure sport of zipling. With 13 things to do, 9 regular zip lines, 2 Superman zip lines, 1 rappelling, and 1 Mega Tarzan Swing, we had signed up for more than we could have chewed. Freyjaa did all of them, including the 1.6-mile longest zipline in Latin America in Superman pose. Nirvanh did all of them as well, including the drop from 300 feet on the Mega Tarzan Swing that is almost like bungee jumping (however he was not allowed to do any of the 2 zip lines in Superman pose but was allowed to do them in regular pose). Shweta and I opted out of the Mega Tarzan Swing. 

Zip lining was a terrific experience (and terrifying too). 

From Monteverde, we proceeded to Bijagua for a stay at a very unique accommodation called the Bitzu Dome (hosted by a nice gentleman called Alex). We did a couple of activities there as well. We hiked up to the Mirador Point to look at the Tenorio Volcano. One of the highlights of that area was chilling out at a roadside dhaba-like place they call sodas. 

Bijagua was a unique experience

Our final leg of the trip was to Nicoya Peninsula, one of the few blue zones of the world, where the longevity is 10 years higher than the rest of Costa Rica on average. We visited Playa Del Coco which is Del Coco Beach. It is a happening place, very boisterous and party-like compared to the rest of Costa Rica. 

Gelatos, sunset, and snacks were the main attractions at the Blue Zone beach of Del Coco. 

We were staying close to the airport in Guardia at an Airbnb with a nice host called Jose. We met another family staying at the same Airbnb- Kevin, Cory, and their two children Fiona and Calvin. We had some fun chatting with them before we retired to our cottages. 

The next morning, we flew back to SF on our nonstop flights from Liberia. Needless to say, it was one of the most fantastic trips of our lives. It was so good that Shweta told me half-jokingly to sell my trip (which I planned and executed by myself) to others. Since I am not going to do that, I am putting down the self-planned itinerary for free below :). Have fun and plan a trip to a very sustainable and biodiverse country. 

Our broad itinerary with lots of details removed