Costa Rica Pura Vida !
Hello ! High off my amazing trip to Mexico City I decided to head to Costa Rica! I’ve been wanting to go to Costa Rica forever and traveling there from Mexico is so much easier than Italy so off we went! After landing in San Jose we got our rental car and headed to Quepos where we were going to stay for the first half of our ten day trip… I wanted to be near Manuel Antonio national park as I heard this was the best park to see Sloths…. Quepos is very nice and has everything you need. It’s close to other cool towns like Dominical, Puntarenas, Tamarindo, and Nauyaca Falls. Then we were headed to the most southern point of Costa Rica The Oso Peninsula! Since we were driving south first stop was Rio Tarcoles. This is the crocodile bridge. We got out to see the crocs and take pics! To be honest I was scared to lean too far over and get a better pic! We heard a man wandered down there one night (drunk I presume) to get a closer look (WHYYYYY) and well no ones heard from him since… Quepos is really nice, if you do go to CR I recommend you begin your trip here. What amazes me is as you drive it’s just so green. The jungle here is really incredible but it’s not too developed.. I heard that it’s taken 25 years for them to build a highway and yes its quite new… driving in Costa Rica isn’t easy (more on that later) My first time seeing Sloths was in Puntarenas at the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. http://alturaswildlifesanctuary.org There were only two both of them three fingered and female. You can’t get near them or touch them and they are in a small enclosed area. The tour in itself is meh (my 2 cents) I mean come on I am part sloth so I already knew all the rhetoric but it’s a beautiful place with a view and they have GREAT Tamarindo margaritas! If you don’t want to do the tour enjoy lunch in their cafe . It has the most beautiful view . FINALLY my second day here and I am on a private guided tour of Manuel Antonio Park and I have a GREAT guide who shows me all the sloths. EIGHT of them, helps me take pics and vids, shows me birds, snakes, monkeys and is really knowledgeable about the flora and fauna in the park. The beach at Manuel Antonio is so beautiful too. We spent about four days here then headed south to the Oso peninsula.. Oh boy……. So driving in Costa Rica is quite the experience . I’m told that we should rent a 4×4 and this is the only way to drive in CR… I also heard the roads were paved AND I saw plenty of cars so we should be ok driving into the Oso peninsula right? Well this works IF you stay in Quepos OR around San Jose the capital…. Heading south the map says two hours. Well this turned into six hours! I booked the weekend at a place called Luna Lodge http://lunalodge.comlocated on the peninsula overlooking Corcovado National Park. The closest town and last stop is Puerto Jimenez”. The road from Puerto Jimenez is 45 km and should take they say an hour and a half… It took us almost three. It’s not a road but gravel, with huge Potholes and you have to cross 7 rivers then go up two mountains.. Trip advisor doesn’t tell you this! Even a 4×4 wouldn’t make it! We somehow managed to get about 4km away from the lodge in our car with people (when we would come across them) looking at us like what the heck ! f you can picture the roughest terrain in the jungle at night this is what we were driving through! I literally had no idea! There is a ranch about 4km from the lodge owned by a sweet Canadian couple who are used to seeing people and tourists stuck so her husband and his horse go up the mountain to the lodge to tell them “hey you have two people who want to check in!” and then he rides down and then someone from the lodge eventually gets the truck and comes to get you . We finally arrived to the lodge and it’s a really nice treehouse with a good working bathroom! Sleeping in the rainforest..is like a constant hum of thunder, rain, insects, monkeys, and I can’t even describe what else! There’s no wifi, and I now go about my second “mission” which is to go deep into the Corcovado national Park and find a Tapir ! I found two sets of tracks on both of the days I was there but no Tapir. I managed to hike 12 km in and out of the forest and avoided being pooped on by the monkeys which were very aggressive ! I realized after spending the weekend at Luna Lodge that as much as I love nature and I was grateful for the experience I do love the city and all it’s comforts!! Plus now we had the drive back… We had four days left so we went back to Quepos and went to Nauyaca Waterfallshttp://nauyacawterfallscostarica.com and just hung around Quepos. Laying by the beach, swimming seeing sloths when I could and a lot of relaxing.. It was nice and just a really beautiful trip. If I go back I would like to see Limon on the Caribbean side. There is a Sloth Sanctuary I would like to see and the beaches and scenery from this side of the country. I can check off something from my bucket list and what an amazing tip! XO Tera Check out some Video Shorts & photos below:
