"9 Days in Costa Rica" a Costa Rica Travel Page by frank_delargy

The trip started with a 6AM flight from Boston to Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica.

It was an OK flight and because we had left so early in the morning we were able to get to Costa Rica before noon. We proceeded to rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle from Avis as I had read everywhere that we would need it. As it turns out, you need the height (clearance) more than the traction. We headed up the Pan American highway toward our first base, Nuevo Arenal. After about an hour on the road, we decided to stop at a roadside 'soda' to get something to eat. They don't serve food on planes anymore! The sodas are usually just a family place where the family lives and they use the front for cooking and serving food. They always seem to have plastic lawn furniture. We saw a lot of plastic lawn furniture in Costa Rica.

More info at
http://www.delargy.com/2003_8_CostaRica/costarica.htm

Send Photo to a Friend

Mudslide

At Canas we turned off the Pan America highway, which I guess runs the length of Central and South America, and headed inland toward Tilaran & Lake Arenal. When we got our first view of the lake we also saw Arenal volcano at the other end of the lake. The car was still pretty shiny at this point. That will change soon!

I had told the owners of the house we were renting, Britt and Gloria, that we would probably get there about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. We were making great time and were about 25 miles from the house, just before the picture to the right was taken, when we hit the first of 3 major mud slide backups that would ultimately add over 3 hours to our trip.
The next 9 days would include Arenal, Fortuna, Monteverde, SelvaVerde, San Jose, Quepos and Manuel Antonio NP .

Send Photo to a Friend

Baby Sloth

Animals

For me Costa Rica was more about animals than anything else.
There was an abundance of creatures and birds to be seen everywhere. In the highlands around Arenal, we saw lots of Howler monkeys and Toucans, in Salve Verde, it was poison dart frogs and in Manuel Antonio, it was monkeys, iguanas, snakes and sloths. Leaf cutting ants were everywhere, lizards of every variety plentiful and the Macaws in flight were gorgeous. And then .. there were those crocodiles..