Costa Rica, Nicoya Peninsula, Vulcan Arenal

Trip to Costa Rica

Patricia and I left Georgia in freezing weather and arrived in San Jose in what was for the locals a cold 60 F.

The Holiday Inn has a great downtown location near the National Museum,   We saw many of the stone balls that were carved out of lava, and also what look like 3 leg chairs ornately carved out of lave rock.  A few blocks West is the National Theater building and under the plaza, the Gold Musuem, through bank vault doors, a priceless collection of lost wax gold castings of animals and sheets of gold pounded out of nuggets, sometimes worn around the neck.

We saw many vegan restaurants via the Happycow app, enjoyed some great food.  After a couple days, we took an 'Interbus' van to the ferry at Puntarenas, embarked on a 10 mile voyage to the Nicoya Peninsula, where another Interbus van gave us an hour long ride to Montezumma, where my friend Tom has vacationed many times.  We are so lucky to be in a $50/day cabina with a kitchen, less thn 200 feet from the 85 degree F. Pacific Ocean, and a 5 minute walk to the village.

There are lots of birds, lizards and nearly tame monkeys hoping for scraps of our fruits, and a turtle sanctuary where the eggs hatch in the sand and the baby turtles are helped to the beach for their trip into the Ocean.


We are impressed with how friendly everybody has been here and in San Jose, the common saying is 'pura vida,' pure life.  Lots of fruits and veggies at the store in the village, and more during a Saturday market or up in the town of Cobano.  We visited the Mariposa butterfly garden, a screened off part of the jungle, no need for a butterfly building like at the Seattle Zoo or the one outside the Buchard Gardens near Victoria.

Lots of Honda Quads passing by daily on the dirt road in front of our casita,

 'Kapok' tree

 Pelicans going fishing at sunrise after spending the night at the Cabo Blanco reserve

One of many round rocks that were brought to the National Museum at San Jose

The carved stone animal on top of this vessel appears to be having a very mind expanding experience

Pre-Columbian gold sheets and lost wax castings at the Gold Museum

Rock carvings at the Natinal Museum

Volunteers releasing just hatched turtles at Montezuma, Nicoya Peninsula

An Augti going through our kitchen scraps

We loved these White Faced Monkeys

Colorful Dragon Fly on the clothesline.

So many Pelicans every day.

Charter boat unloading at the beach after a sightseeing and snorkeling  trip to Isle Tortuga

Bob and Patricia at the waterfall

Giant Higueron tree in Cabuya

After 3 wonderful weeks on the Nicoya Penninsula, we took a van packed with other tourists up foothills of verdant farmland mostly devoted to coffee, to La Fortuna, East of Vulcan Arenal, where we stayed at two hot springs resorts.  Both of the resorts get their hot water from wells nexy to the volcano.

A rare clear day to see Arenal from the East side.

Baldi Hot Springs, claimed to be the biggest in the World, at least had the most pools. We rented a car and drove around Laguna de Arenal which was formed by a dam, and is a site of world class kite-boarding because it is also a pass between mountains, like the Columbia Gorge  We arrived at the West side of the mountain in the dark, dodging many potholes, in Monte Verde, drove up to the cloud forest and walked the trails in the verdant flora.

We had met some folks on the ferry crossing who invited us to visit, so we drove back through San Jose to Cartago, and up Hwy 2, the Inter American Highway.   They hosted us at their house 2 days, and we went up in the mountains to about 14,000 feet, where we could have seen both the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico if the skies were clear.  More later.