What is there to see in Costa Rica? Close encounters with nature and wildlife!

I have produced a short video on the exotic wildlife of Costa Rica. To make this video, I mixed together a variety of short video clips and digital pictures from my most recent trip. Most of the footage is from Turrialba Valley, Ostional Beach and San Jose’s Culture Plaza. In Turrialba Valley, you’ll observe wasps pollinating a Heliconia at Guayabo Lodge, a sloth foraging in the tree and leafcutter ants on the march at Guayabo National Monument as well as a variety of flycatchers and an unusual hopping black bird by the roadside. In Ostional/Nosara Beach (Nicoya Peninsula), you’ll see a Black Iguana, a Marine Toad and a Great White Heron. The final segment of the video features scenes from San Jose’s popular Culture Plaza which are reminiscent of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock’s famous thriller. PURA VIDA!

Note: The young bird guide from Guayabo National Monument identified the black hopping bird along the roadside as a Variable Seedeater (see video between 1:40.20 - 2:07). I’m not too sure about this! In any case, the bird’s hopping behavior is either uncovering seeds or exposing small insects for him to eat. The Black Iguana (who I affectionately named Jesus) and the toad were residents of Luna Azul, my hotel in Ostional.

In Costa Rica, it is easy to get lost as signage is absolutely terrible. Navigating within San Jose and most major cities, street names are either nonexistent or very obscure - typically the street name is painted in small letters on top of the building wall at each intersection; however the paint usually fades over time making the lettering unreadable. In general people use landmarks to navigate in the city instead of physical address. Addresses are usually given in terms of how many meters – North, South, East or West – a place is from a specific landmark (for example: churches, stores, large trees). Each block is considered to be 100 meters although some are much longer or shorter.

As an example, I was looking for a San Juan Bed & Breakfast in the San José suburb of Tibas. The address was given as 175 meters east of the southeast corner of the Catholic Church. I found the church all right, but wouldn’t you know it, but I really wasn’t sure which way north or south was, so I had to ask. Then after going the right way, I must have drove by this B& B several times.

In frustration, I parked my car near the main park and walked 2 blocks southeast of the church. Sure enough about two blocks away, I discovered a small courtyard set back from the street with a sign advertising “San Juan”. When I inquired inside an office on the ground floor, the lady told me that San Juan B & B had shut down some time ago and the rooms were now used for business offices. Oh well …

In San Jose, my tour operator is Costa Rican Trails - their address is Curridabat (the name of the town), 200 meters south and 250 meters west of POPS (an ice cream store) and building #328. Taking a taxi to their office, the driver found the right street all right but the building numbers did not have any reasonable order to them. In addition to the numbers being out of sequence, odd & even numbers appeared on both sides of the street. The numbering system so confused the driver so much that he had ask a lady on the street where Costa Rican Trails was located. It was then that we discovered that #328 was preceded by #331 and #325 (or something like that). Both the taxi cab driver and I laughed!

To avoid getting lost, your best bet is to shell out some additional monies for GPS - it cost about 10USD extra per day with most car rental companies. If I had GPS on my current trip, it would have saved me a lot of unnecessary aggravation.

Using landmarks with N, S, E and W coordinates instead of physical addresses is not a uniquely Costa Rica custom but apparently is commonplace throughout Central America.

There were rumors circulating that the world’s largest tree frog was recently discovered in the Highlands of Costa Rica. Measuring over 18 inches long and tipping the scales at over 2 pounds, this individual was identified by a foremost biologist as an aberration of the red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) which inhabit the rainforests of Central America. The giant tree frog was sighted living in the bromeliad garden at Hotel Bougainvillea, located in the suburbs of San Jose, Costa Rica’s Capital City. Normally individuals of this species of tree frogs are no more than 2 inches long.

A nocturnal species, these tree frogs are characterized by large bulging eyes that enable them to see in the dark. As with all tree frogs, sticky pads on their toes help these small creatures hang onto slippery leaves and climb trees. During the day, they sleep on bright green leaves which afford them a certain degree of camouflage from potential predators. At night, the red-eyed tree frogs are prolific hunters of the rainforest where they feast on variety of small insects- grasshoppers, flies and moths are their favorite foods. I can imagine that this giant individual at the Bougainvillea gardens has a voracious appetite.

Intrigued by this new discovery, I stayed at Hotel Bougainvillea for 3 nights on my most recent visit to Costa Rica, hoping to catch a glimpse of this giant frog. It wasn’t until my last day there that I happened to stumble upon ‘The Giant’ while strolling through the hotel’s magnificent tropical gardens. The frog was lying quietly among the bromeliads getting ready for his daytime siesta. I affectionately named the frog, Federico as I took several pictures of him before leaving San Jose.

P.S. If you go inside the gift shop at Hotel Bougainvillea, you will find some of Federico’s cousins for sale. They make good pets and are very cuddly!

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
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• 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.

As a traveler, I admit to having a bias towards tropical destinations - there’s something about the lush vegetation, diverse wildlife, exotic butterflies and colorful landscapes of the tropics that captivates me. Some of my favorite tropical destinations include Costa Rica, Ghana, Thailand, Mexico and Ecuador to name a few. Here’s a chance to vote for your favorite tropical vacation destination.[poll id=7]