Walt's Costa Rica Adventure

Photos: Last Photos

walt — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 14:27:00 GMT

These will be the last posting. It has been a long interesting trip and I am glad to be flying home tomorrow to see Karen. Hope you have enjoyed some of the trip too. Walt

Photos: Fishing on Lake Arenal

walt — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 12:12:00 GMT

There is a picture of me with a fish but being on the lake provided some excellent views of the volcano. Because of the moisture in the air today you can see steam coming from it.

Photos: La Fortuna Waterfall

walt — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 11:26:00 GMT

Cool waterfall that drops 230 feet in the jungle

Photos: Arenal

walt — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 01:27:00 GMT

A large lake by a perfectly shaped volcano

Arenal

walt — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 01:24:00 GMT

Arenal has a volcano, Volcan Arenal, and a large manmade Lake Arenal. The volcano was very active until 2010 when it stopped. There are a lot of natural hot springs in the area. La Fortuna is the nearby town that has all the hotels for the tourists. It is a central spot for all kinds of tourist activities like zip lining, whitewater rafting, hiking, jungle riverboat tours, fishing, etc. The other town in the area is Nuevo Arenal, right on the edge of the lake. It is the “New” Arenal because the old one is underwater since they built the dam for the lake.

Costa Rica gets all it’s electrical power from clean sources, geothermal, hydro-electric, and wind generators. Maybe that’s why the cost of electricity is so high. Many Tico homes don’t have hot water and even upscale houses are designed to take advantage of a breeze instead of using an air conditioner.

The locals like to “tailgate” on the lake side of the road that goes over the dam. Not a problem that there is no room to park off the road, they just pull over to the side and let traffic cross over to the other side of the road. Doesn’t matter which way the car is facing either. I noticed families picnicking, couples, and just groups of guys hanging out.

Something I have seen a lot of is living trees used for fence posts. I was told that the ground is so fertile and moist that when they use branches from a local tree they sprout and grow if there is any life in them at all. Usually the fence is trimmed at a certain height.

Photos: Monteverde Cloud Forest

walt — Sun, 16 Oct 2016 09:23:00 GMT

The Cloud Forest is on the continental divide and as the wind blows over from the Caribbean to the Pacific side the moisture forms the clouds which make for a nice jungle. 10,000 people a year come just hoping to spot a rare Quetzal and I got a picture of one.

Photos: Monteverde

walt — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 12:09:00 GMT

Today I drove up the mountain to Monteverde which is a well known ecotourist destination because of the cloud forest and it is much cooler than the beaches. The area was settled by Quakers and other pacifists who in the 1950's moved here to defy the draft for the Korean war. They set up a dairy farm and still operate a cheese store. It was a rough dirt road on steep mountainsides to get here.

Photos: Tamarindo

walt — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 10:39:00 GMT

I stayed 4 days in Tamarindo and did day trips to the other beaches nearby.

Update

walt — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 14:49:00 GMT

Last I wrote I was in Dominical. I have moved north up the Pacific coast now. I rented a car so that I could get to all the places I want to go and am really glad I did. From Dominical I went to Jaco and stayed there for two nights. Jaco is the closest beach to San Jose so it is somewhat touristy. It has a nice long white beach. I had three opportunities to buy pot or cocaine on the street while there. Herradura is a horseshoe shaped bay just North of Jaco with a high class marina and residential development.

From Jaco I drove north to Puntarenas and took the ferry to Paquera then drove to Montezuma which is a very small village near the southern point of the Nicoya Peninsula. The area is sparsely populated and known as a hippy and surfer hang out. I was real glad to have 4 wheel drive since the dirt roads were muddy, narrow, rough, and sometimes steep but otherwise good.

From Montezuma I drove around the tip of the peninsula and up through the areas of Santa Theresa/Malpais also very big surfing areas where the jungle meets the beach, still sparsely populated. Had to back track a long ways since at one point the river was flowing to high across the road to pass. Made it as far as Samara.

Samara is a small town on the northern Pacific coast with a beautiful beach. Just south of Samara is Carrillo Beach which is as pretty as a beach can be. It is a large curved cove protected from large surf by a reef and the white sand beach is lined with palm trees and with no one on it.

It was at Carrillo Beach my trip took a detour. After walking on the beach and swimming for a while I thought I was having cardiac problems so I made it back to a medical clinic in Samara. The doctor felt I needed to go to a private hospital in San Jose to be checked out so I took a two hour ride in an ambulance to Siberia where I got to ride in a medivac airplane to San Jose. After a day in the ER and extensive tests they said there was nothing wrong with my heart. The cardiologist didn’t speak any English but I think that is what he said. So, back to Samara to pick up my rental car and now I’m staying four days in a cool B&B just outside of Tamarindo, just taking it easy. I’ll post some pictures.

Photos: Samara

walt — Fri, 7 Oct 2016 15:26:00 GMT

Photos: Malpais/Santa Theresa

walt — Thu, 6 Oct 2016 15:11:00 GMT

Surfing area on Pacific side of tip of Nicoya Peninsula

Photos: Montezuma

walt — Wed, 5 Oct 2016 14:27:00 GMT

Montezuma on the Nicoya Peninsula

Photos: Herradura

walt — Tue, 4 Oct 2016 15:37:00 GMT

Herracura Beach just N. of Jaco...rainy day

Photos: Jaco

walt — Tue, 4 Oct 2016 15:04:00 GMT

Jaco is the closest beach to San Jose, hence touristy

Photos: Food

walt — Tue, 4 Oct 2016 14:31:00 GMT

Monkey Balls and Mamon Chinos

Photos: Dominical

walt — Mon, 3 Oct 2016 13:46:00 GMT

Small surfing town in Southern Pacific area of Costa Rica

Dominical

walt — Sun, 2 Oct 2016 14:15:00 GMT

Dominical is a small but growing community of hostels and hotels catering to surfers. All dirt streets which are pretty muddy now. They say they have the bricks to lay cobblestones down but not everyone is in agreement to do it. I ask at the hotel if they have WIFI and am told “sure all the hotels do” but when I ask to pay using credit card am told “none of the hotels in the area have the machines”. On the drive down there were ox-drawn wagons of palm seeds on the way to be pressed for palm oil. The palm trees are not native to Costa Rica but there are huge orchards of them here. Four tons of seeds to make one ton of oil.

Photos: Mangroves outside Quepos

walt — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 06:52:00 GMT

I took a VIP boat tour of the mangroves today. VIP because it is slow season and I was the only one on the boat other than the captain and the guide

Photos: Manuel Antonio Beach

walt — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 00:52:00 GMT

Yesterday was a down day at Manuel Antonio Beach

Photos: River Rafting near Manual Antonio

walt — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 14:13:00 GMT

Sequence of pictures where we lost our guide