"Pura Vida!" Costa Rica by RachelJansen

What an adventure! A whole new world lay before my feet.

After seeing Egypt this was everything upside down. Nothing but green around us combined with beatiful views over the sea. Costa Rica is the real life: Pura Vida!

We started our trip in San Jose and after this we travelled to Quepos to visit Manuel Antonio Park. It's beautiful small park with a lot of animals and nice white beaches.

When you drive through Costa Rica the sighting looks very much the same but changes everytime. Everywere you look you see green, green, green.

The roads are not always as flat as you wish they would be, but when you look around it's worth the bumpy ride.

One of the highlights is Monteverde; the rainforest.Although the tour in the park wasn't that great, discovering it on our own during the sky walk was great.

I can also recommend the canopy tour! Fantastic! What a free feeling you get from this! Gliding above the rainforest, all alone, I really believed that I flew.

You can also see an active volcano in Costa Rica; the Arenal. It is bursting out continually and that's why you can see the smoke of the lava during the day. At night, when it's not cloudy, you can also see the red lava coming of the Arenal. Fantastic to see!

When you should visit the village, La Fortuna, then don't hesitate; but go to Baldi Termal Baths. Here you can swimm in (very hot!!) water heated by the volcano. Great!

The most popular bird to see in Costa Rica is the Toekan. It only lives (I was told) in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A great animal to see.

At the last day we finally were able to see it. Right in front of our swimming pool, in Dominical, in a tree. (With a cocktail in our hand...)

• Pros:Nature, people, food
• Cons:Beaches, roads
• In a nutshell:Pura Vida!