Santa
Elena
OK, so I didn’t
finish the blog about the Costa Rica trip. Sorry. Here’s a quick wrap-up before
I proceed on to the next gallivant.
After we left Mt
Arenal, we worked our way around the north side and went past Lake Arenal-a
large fresh water lake that has crocs in it!
I find it remarkable that coffee is grown on the steepest hillsides and everywhere else in Costa Rica.
After driving some
distance on a dirt road, we arrived in Santa Elena and found our hotel-The
Rustic Lodge shown below. (GPS is a wonderful thing.)
Zip Lining
The next day we
went zip-lining. The place we selected (Selvatura) consisted of 13 separate lines
with the last line being 1 KM long. Zipping across the top of (and sometimes
through) the forest canopy is an exhilarating experience and great fun. A
couple of pictures are below including a shot taken while we were on our hanging
bridge tour the next day.
Ready to go!
Arriving at a platform.
I took this photo from one of the hanging bridges.
Hanging Bridges
We signed up for a
hanging bridge canopy tour thinking it was a guided tour. As it turned out, it
was not a guided tour and we had no idea what we were looking at. Beyond that,
I learned that, in my geezer years, I didn’t really enjoy the swaying of the
bridges. I found it a bit unnerving. Some photos below.
Some really big leaves.
Some really big leaves.
These forests are considered “Cloud Forests" and they don’t get much rain like a true rain forest would. Instead, they get most of
their water from the ever present clouds.
Off To Quepos
The last stop on
our Costa Rican adventure was the Pacific side town of Quepos. We had read that
the Southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica was just starting to develop and I
kind of wanted to see some undeveloped areas.
As it turns out
Quepos is a well-developed old fishing town as you can see from the pictures
below, but the beach was lousy. We wandered around town a bit and then had
dinner in a restaurant owned and operated by an American ex-pat. Other than
that, not much to recommend in Quepos.
The Town
The Beach
Dining in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is not noted for its cuisine. The local diet consists mostly of rice and beans with very little in the way of seasoning. However, the three nights that we stayed in Santa Elena presented us with three very good restaurants and three very good dinners. All three restaurants offered variations of what is called “Neuvo Latino Cuisine.” It is execellant and I highly recommend it. Otherwise, the food in Costa Rica ranged from mostly bland to downright bad.
Some Other Final
Thoughts
Costa Rica is no
longer a third world country. My personal opinion is that it has climbed up to
a second and a half world country. The infrastructure is adequate and paved
roads are slowly seeping deeper and deeper into the mountainous terrain. At
least where we traveled, the hygiene was good and we had no fears about consuming
the food. We felt safe and the people were warm and friendly wherever we went.
Of course, San Jose was an exception. I think most big cities have those kinds
of problems even here in the US.
Hotels were pretty good but internet access was a little spotty.
The country has
gotten a little pricier than what it was a few years ago but is still much
lower cost than Europe or Asia. All in all, its still a pretty good travel destination.
