Most people don’t particularly care for San Jose, the much maligned capital city of Costa Rica. Despite its magnificent location in the Central Valley at an altitude of about 3800 feet above sea level, San Jose itself is relatively drab and unsophisticated compared to other capital cities in Latin America. The city lacks the gleaming skyscrapers and sophisticated architecture of Mexico City and Panama City, and the beautiful ornate colonial architecture of cities like Quito, Bogota or Cusco. In a nutshell, San Jose feels like a working class-blue collar town, just very down to earth.

After so many visits to San Jose, personally I have come to appreciate the city’s unpretentious and humble personality. San Jose feels very comfortable like an old pair of shoes. I enjoy walking around the historic neighborhoods of Barrio Amon and Barrio Otoya located on the northern edge of the downtown area where there are many small boutiquish cafes as well as restored mansions of coffee barons from the late 19th century. Many of these mansions have been converted into small hotels. In addition, there are many small parks - little oases of greenery – scattered around the city. My Verdict on San Jose - PURA VIDA!

While driving along Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast to Playa Avellena in Guanacaste Province, I came across some very conspicuous signage along the road advertising El Mapache (in Spanish, the Raccoon), a café that specializes in falafel sandwiches, shawarmas and Mediterranean food. Driving past the very funky little roadside café with its colorful hammocks and eclectic tropical wall mural, I made a mental note to myself to stop there for a bite to eat on my return trip to Ostional, some 35Km to the South. I was really looking forward to a tasty falafel and pita bread sandwich.

Stopping at El Mapache upon my return in the late afternoon, I was indeed rewarded to a very delicious lunch. As I was eating, I happened to overhear the proprietor talking to some of her friends in a foreign tongue. It sounded a lot like Hebrew, so being the inquisitive person that I am, I asked the proprietor - her name is Karen - what language was she speaking. Well, I was correct - it was Hebrew. Complimenting her on the delicious food, I started a conversation with her in English and inquired how she happened to live in Costa Rica. I admit that I have always been fascinated with the stories of expatriates – especially people from highly advanced Western cultures who relocate to poorer, less advanced countries in the tropics.

It so happens that Karen and her husband, Isaac are from Israel. Over two years ago, Isaac and Karen, upon the advice of some friends, vacationed in Costa Rica. Falling in love with the country, they decided to relocate (along with their young son, Daniel) from their native Israel to Costa Rica and start a new life. When I inquired why they chose the relatively obscure community of Playa Negra/Playa Avellena as the place where they would settle down, Isaac said “We liked the relatively wild, rough-around-the edges parts of Costa Rica and really wanted to avoid living in tourists traps-beach towns like Tamarindo, located about 45 minutes to the north or Manuel Antonio to the south.”

After moving to Costa Rica, they had to learn Spanish from scratch, as prior to their vacation here, they didn’t know one word of Spanish. The small café, El Mapache, materialized shortly thereafter, and over time they have developed a thriving little business - both the Ticos and the Western tourists love El Mapache’s tasty Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. Karen handles the cooking chores, while Isaac takes care of the marketing and promotion. As evidenced by the very colorful wall mural and the very effective signage on the road, Isaac is quite an artist and a very savvy businessman.

The café is highly recommended, and Karen and Isaac are absolutely wonderful and humble people who have blended in seamlessly into the Costa Rica fabric. PURA VIDA!

There are over 300 Israelis living in Costa Rica, most of whom live in Central Highlands and in the greater San Jose metropolitan area. Israel and Costa Rica have a history of close diplomatic ties.

I have decided to share MY TRAVEL ITINERARY TO COSTA RICA, March 25 - April 10, to all the faithful readers of Calypso Island Chronicles who would like to follow my trip. Please note: Even though I will be spending most of my time in Costa Rica in places “off the beaten track”, away from the established eco-tourist traps and away from San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital city, I will be able to update Calypso Island Chronicles on a regular basis as all of the hotels (excluding La Luna Azul) have free WIFI. Such is progress!

If you’d like to comment or critique my itinerary, please feel free to do so!

Map of Costa Rica
***********************************************

• March 25-28 HEREDIA (SAN JOSE) Bougainvillea Hotel

Pick up Car, March 27

**Driving to the Caribbean Lowlands and around the Central Valley**

• March 28-29 SARAPIQUI (Caribbean Lowlands ) - Hotel Ara Ambigua
• March 29-April 2 TURRIALBA VALLEY– Guayabo Lodge
• April 2-4 OROSI VALLEY- Hotel Rio Perlas

Dropoff car in SJO-Fly to Nosara, April 4

• April 4-8 OSTIONAL (Nicoya Peninsula) – La Luna Azul

Pickup Car at Nosara Airport April 4
Dropoff car at Nosara April 8 and Fly to San Jose…

• April 8-10 SAN JOSE - Palm Tree House

For more information on locales

Sarapiqui
Turrialba Valley
Orosi Valley
Nosara

COSTA RICA TOURIST OFFICE

COSTA RICA here I come. One week from now, I will be returning to Costa Rica, a destination that I have already visited 7 times. Traveling far and wide, I have been very fortunate to explore most of this small mountainous country of only 19,700 square miles. Blessed with an abundance of natural beauty - from the lush tropical rainforests, wild jungles and towering volcanoes of the interior to beaches of every hue and color along both Costa Rica’s famed Pacific Coast and her less traveled (but more exotic) Caribbean Coast - Costa Rica is one of the premier travel destinations for natural history enthusiasts.

I admit that I am sort of traveler who avoids the tourist traps and the most commercialized resort areas. Every time I visit a destination (Costa Rica included), I make an effort to explore some new places-off the beaten track - which haven’t been overrun by the tourist crowd. On three of my trips, I have even rented a car so I could drive around the countryside at my own pace. That in itself is quite a feat considering the terrible condition of the roads of Costa Rica’s rural interior – many of the roads need resurfacing and often deteriorate into a rough-hewn dirt track. Of course, the roads in Costa Rica are world famous for her potholes of various sizes and shapes.

On my upcoming trip to Costa Rica, I will be traveling to three relatively untouristed locales – Turrialba Valley/Guayabo, Orosi Valley and Ostional Beach along Costa Rica’s North Pacific Coast. While these places receive their share of daytrippers and of travelers just passing through, they are still relatively off the beaten track - just the way I like it!

Turrialba and Orosi Valley are located about 90 minutes-2 hours southeast of San Jose. Turrialba is primarily known as the starting point for many of Costa Rica’s popular river rafting expeditions and Guayabo, which is located in Turrialba Valley, is Costa Rica’s largest archaeological site. Guayabo pales in comparison to the world class ruins of the Maya who flourished in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Towering over the verdant green landscape is Turrialba Volcano.

The quiet village of Ostional is located about 5 miles north of Nosara, a popular beach resort in Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. The neighboring Ostional Wildlife Refuge is one of the most important nesting sites of the Olive Ridley Turtles

P.S. I will be blogging daily from Costa Rica, March 25-April 10. If you would like to follow my adventure, I suggest that you subscribe to my RSS feed.

COSTA RICA is one of my favorite travel destinations. After an absence of 4 years, I will be returning to COSTA RICA on March 25 for 2-½ weeks - it will be my eighth visit to COSTA RICA, which I have affectionately nicknamed PuraVida Land

I have rarely received any negative reports from any of my customers who I have sent to COSTA RICA. Not too long ago, a customer of mine from Switzerland submitted a critique of his travel arrangements on his November ‘08 trip to Costa Rica. I also asked him to list the highlights of his trip as well.

The customer was a volcano enthusiast and was interested in an itinerary which featured excursions to a variety of volcanoes - with a few minor adjustments, Calypso Island Tour’s Volcano Explorer package was exactly what the doctor ordered as it included excursions to two of the most important volcanoes in Costa Rica - Arenal Volcano and Rincon de La Vieja as well as a four day interval at Ocotal Beach, one of Costa Rica’s better Pacific Coast beaches. Not surprisingly, the customer had a wonderful experience and his satisfaction rating was very high! Here are some excerpts from his critique:

The Costa Rica trip was good to excellent, but actually a bit too easy for us!! (We are used to do a lot of organizing when we are traveling on our own).

Regarding the hotels - You wish that we make some comments about all the individual hotels. That’s not easy because they were all so wonderful. We therefore have only some really minor things hardly worth mentioning.

In San Jose …The Grano de Oro is special indeed, as all guidebooks say. Just the breakfast there is rather for people who are on a diet. The Bougainvillea (in Heredia) is a must because of its splendid garden, despite the fact that the location is not really convenient. They seem to have abandoned their shuttle service into downtown San Jose.

The Arenal Observatory Lodge is definitely a good location, provided the
weather is good, and it’s primarily for people who like to do some hikes on
their own. We walked up to Cerro Chato, a good hike, but only for people
used to do some “work”.

The Hacienda Guachipilin (near Rincon de La Vieja National Park) is a good place as well, just a bit too far away from the park for those without their own vehicle.

The Ocotal Beach Resort is superb. Less so their restaurant, they have too many items on the menu that we would call fancy things, and which were not very filling. Other guests must have felt the same, because the restaurant was virtually empty in the evenings. But the breakfast is excellent there, the terrace is wonderful and so is the wildlife around the hotel!

Highlights? Certainly the Rio Celeste Park, but also the sunsets at Ocotal Resort, the garden of the Bougainvillea hotel and the flight in the little airplane from Liberia to San Jose. And there are two further things which should not be forgotten, despite that they are not part of the original trip: The Jade museum in San Jose and the La Paz Waterfall and Gardens near Poas Volcano

PURA VIDA