8 days in Costa Rica was always never going to be enough, however we hadn’t intended on visiting Central America during our travels and the past month has completely surpassed our expectations.
After our first internal flight from Guatemala we landed in San Jose having been amazed at the greenery below. Quick to get out of San Jose, we navigated the buses in the direction of La Fortuna, with changes in the small towns of Alajuela and San Carlos.
With only a limited time in Costa Rica we had a list of things we wanted to tick off, meaning an action packed few days in our first stop of La Fortuna. We kicked off our first day walking the trails around the volcano Arenal. The forests were so beautiful and green and the views of the volcano were incredible - we were lucky enough to see the top of the volcano without cloud which apparently only 10% of people visiting get to see.
Next on the list was the opportunity to see sloths with the Bogarin trail promising sloths, sloths and more sloths. We quickly signed on to the guided tour and it was one of our best decisions with sloth sightings within minutes. Our guide also allowed us to take photos down the telescope leading to some incredible shots! We also saw a toucan, mot mot (an apparently rare bird), a boa constrictor, frogs and some terrifyingly large bullet ants!
Our second day started early and took us first to the Mistico hanging bridges, a walking trail through the forest and above the canopy, across 6 hanging bridges. Here we saw some amazing flora and fauna and were lucky to cross a bridge where a howling monkey was chilling. Following the bridges and a short taxi ride back into town, we enjoyed the free hot springs just off the side of the road. Whilst the volcano sits dormant, the waters that run away are perfectly warmed. We finished our day off with a brisk dip under a waterfall. A holiday of firsts, neither of us had swam below a waterfall before and the water was freezing and the pull of the water surprisingly powerful.
Our next stop on the trip was the cloud forests in Monteverde so we headed off on the popular jeep, boat, jeep route across the lake - although were slightly disappointed when the jeep turned out to just be a minivan. The journey didn’t take long and we were soon twisting and turning through the clouds to the small town. Cloud forests only make up 1% of the worlds forests so it was very special to see an area of such biodiversity. I don’t think either of us have been anywhere so green! So far we’ve been very lucky with the weather on this trip and this continued in the forest with the sun shining and minimal clouds to be seen - it was still spectacular though and we spent the whole day wandering the trails.
The final stop on our Costa Rican adventure took us to Manuel Antonio. Here we spent a full day discovering the stunning National Park, where we were fortunate to see a plethora of wildlife. Opting not to hire a guide (budget over hearts), our decision was immediately reassured when with our bare eyes we were greeted with a sloth climbing a tree and stretching out to grab the leaves. This was followed by sightings of further sloths, spider and capuchin monkeys, deers, frogs, spiders, a variety of birds, jungle crabs and excessively sized insects. After spending over four hours walking the hikes we enjoyed a dip in the Pacific Ocean on some of the most incredible and secluded beaches the park had to offer.
Sad to be ending our time in Costa Rica it was time to head back to San Jose for our final Casado and rice with chicken (our staple diet for the past week) before our flight to Quito and the start of our South American adventure. Central America has been amazing and we’ll definitely be back in the future!