Last day at Rincon de la Viella

Woke up to a rainbow. My theory is that rain falling on the eastern side of the mountain is being swept over to the western side where we are. This causes a fine drizzle at low level without any cloud above.

We retraced our steps to the Rincon de La Viella national park and completed the walk we had curtailed the day before yesterday. It was 5 kilometers to the waterfall, and 5 kilometers back again. But on the way back I saw a two foot long snake, and we both stopped to watch a troop of white faced monkeys swinging through the trees.

Driving back, the wind finally dropped and we were able to see the summit for the first time.

Christine's birthday

Today is Christine's birthday. We celebrated by doing remarkably little. The hotel is in about three acres with several hundred metres vertical distance between the lower and upper boundaries.

We walked to the top where the wind was so strong that we couldn't walk against it and had to turn back. This is the tail end of the weather system that dropped all the snow on the northeastern seaboard of the USA.

The middle slopes are covered in manicured lawns with smooth paviored roads snaking across them.

At the bottom is a spa complex fed from hot sulphurous springs. Mud bubbling in natural upwellings is scooped into wooden pails, from which we plastered it all over ourselves. After letting it dry we soaked it off in the thermal pools accompanied by many Canadian tourists.

Along a boardwalk is a rock face on a river cliff covered in ancient petroglyphs.

The lower area is completed by a brilliant swimming pool complex. Another boardwalk from this area leads to a rather dilapidated wooden building which turns out to be a natural sauna. The building is sitting above a natural steam vent which can be heard bubbling below the slatted floor.

Rincon de la Viella

Today we drove to the National Park. The last five kilometers of dirt road are private and you have to pay a toll of 700 colones each. Then you pay the special foreigners' entrance fee of 15 dollars. This country should be renamed Costa Plenty!

We hiked the Pailas trail which wound its way via a waterfall and various boiling mud pools through verdant forest. We saw white faced monkeys in the trees along the way.

Afterwards we attempted another trail to a waterfall, but had to turn back in order not to be travelling after nightfall.

We identified two types of tree new to botany. The 'trip you up' tree extends it's roots in a loop above ground, whilst the 'break a leg' tree's roots are larger and on the ground surface but cunningly conceal a deep trench downslope.


Possibly Costa Rica is epitomised by two sights we saw today: Street lamps and speed humps in a dirt road.

Up the mountain

Maybe our criteria for selecting restaurants wasn't so good as I went down with traveller's tummy overnight. We drove back to near Liberia to stock up on supermarket supplies and refill with petrol. Then on to Borinquen Mountain Resort, some 28 kilometers up a winding but well signposted dirt road on the flanks of Rincon de la Viella volcano.

Here there are bungalows scattered up an incredibly steep wooded hillside above a restaurant and hot springs. However despite the distance of 3.5km to the National Park entrance printed in the guide book, it seems you have to instead backtrack and drive yet another 28km of dirt roads to actually get there.

The weather up here ( 630m above sea level ) is very strange. Almost continuous gusts of wind, sometimes dry but sometimes bearing very fine drizzle are sweeping down the mountainside with an intermittent roaring sound.

Last day on the coast

Today started better when I discovered that the whistle we had lost yesterday had escaped inside the car, Christine discovered that she had in fact packed a second pair of reading glasses, and we still possessed the rather imprecise complimentary road map from the car hire company. So although our resources were depleted, we were still functional.

We started back at Conchal beach to see whether the snorkeling was any good. However at the end of the beach where the shell sand was coarsest and the water very clear, the waves made it dangerous to snorkel due to the presence of rocks. We settled for sitting in a rock pool and just viewing the scene underwater. There were large numbers of fish, mostly small, but very pretty. The best were the iridescent indigo fish, and the bi-coloured ones with a blue top and orange underneath.

Later we walked back along Brasilito beach which was still abandoned, and ate at the most salubrious eateries.

Sunday - a day of losing things

We started trying to explore the beaches north of us.  Couldn't find our wonderful waterproof map. Funny, it was in the car yesterday. First a delightful little beach called Dante beach. Then we started up a hill on an un-made road and ran into trouble.

This wasn't an un-made up road. An un-made up road is maintained by running a grader over it every couple of months. This was an un-maintained road with pot-holes up to two feet deep. Even with low ratio gears engaged, the wheels just spun and failed to find traction. We gave up and went round the long way, adding 20 km to the journey.

When we finally got to Playa Panama in the Bahia de Culebra, it was stunningly beautiful. We put on snorkelling gear in the calm clear waters but although the fish were abundant, they were almost all of a small translucent variety. Whilst navigating to the bay, Christine realised she couldn't find her glasses. Another thing had gone missing.

We drove on to Playa Coco for lunch along with hundreds of Ticos who had congregated there for the weekend. Much more like a Mexican township with troubadours singing in white sombreros and loudspeaker vans advertising at full volume, both adding to the din.

Finally when we got home we realised a hole had developed in the day bag and one of our emergency whistles had escaped.

We  can only conclude that somehow the map has been stolen, the glasses must have dropped out of the car when the passenger door was opened, and the whistle dropped out of the bag.

Saturday on Brasilito and Conchal beaches

Today we drove a few kilometers south and parked the car at the small village of Brasilito.

As you can see, Brasilito beach was crowded. We walked to the end where there was a small island just offshore.

The bare branched trees made it look like the top of a giant head.

The whole beach was idyllic. We stopped at a beachside cafe and Christine drank tamarind juice whilst I ate a plate of fish, shrimp and squid ceviché.

We found the Ticos on Conchal beach. They had packed their children, parents, pets, tables,chairs, food and drink into anything they owned with four wheels  and were having a very good time. The sand here is comminuted shell and we found indurated beach deposits and conglomerates beneath what looked like a volcanic ash layer. Older laminated red rock was showing chevron folding.

Friday at Santa Rosa

This morning we drove 120km northwards to Santa Rosa National Park. After being fleeced for 15 dollars each ( that would be 2 dollars for a native, 15 for a foreigner), we drove to various trailheads  along deliberately un-graded roads. The Costa Rican government does not want you to drive anywhere. 

This park was the very first, opened in 1971 to preserve the remnants of dry coastal forest, most of which had disappeared into ranchland.

The first trail featured three desultorily labelled trees. Completely unsigned were petroglyphs at an old waterfall and a cave beneath teeming with bats.

Later we ate lunch by a small lake, but sadly we were the only mammals there. 

Parking at another trailhead, we hiked through the dappled shade to a viewpoint over to the Pacific.

Along the way we came across a refugee from 'Death in Paradise's

As we left, we heard  the sound of large animals crashing through the undergrowth. My guess is tapirs, but we will never know.

Flamingo Beach

This is Flamingo Beach. Slightly more built up than Potrero Beach, but still unspoilt.

It is however less protected so the waves are higher, but the sand is lighter coloured.

In the rocks at the end we found huge barnacles and also this strange segmented creature attached fast to the rock.

This is one of a dozen different bird species we saw on the beach.

At sunset we repaired to our favourite beachside bar ( i.e. the closest one) to celebrate the end of another day.

Potrero (Paddock) Beach

A bit of a misnomer. Should have been called Pelican Beach as these birds were busy displaying synchronized splashing as they dived together in an ungainly manner into the sea to catch fish.

A five minute stroll from the apartments is a mile long palm fringed sandy beach where the sea has eroded through harder rocks ( probably dolerite) and formed a sheltered bay.

In the sand we found sand dollar like disc shaped burrowing echinoids with myriad cillia around their circumferences. Also spaghetti like tracks formed by tiny grazing gastropods.

When we returned and changed apartment, we were visited by a two foot long iguana who spent most of the afternoon with us on our terrace overlooking the swimming pool.

Tuesday - on the road

Packed and ready to go, we sat expectantly in reception and at the agreed time of 9:30 the man from Dollar rent a car promptly showed up.

He drove us to the offices to complete the paperwork and we found we had been upgraded from a Suzuki Jimney to a Gran Vitara, much more comfortable.

Then off we drove down the Trans American Highway ( in effect a dual carriageway) westwards through a youngish volcanic landscape with steep slopes and deep valleys.


Driving was slow as the speed limit is usually 80km/hr but with frequent reductions for schools and crossroads. Most roads were single carriageway but adequately tarmaced. The sat-nav worked superbly. Had I known the precise coordinates of where we were going it would have been even better.

After 276km we found our destination at the third attempt. The owner,Miguel, had a problem though as the previous tenants departure had been delayed, so we spent the first night in a large double bedroomed apartment instead of the single bedroomed one we had booked.

The Massai Apartments are very convenient with a well stocked mini-market next door and Flamingo Beach just 5 minutes walk down the road.

Monday in San José

Started out at the Jade Museum but found that contrary to its website it opened at 10am. Aha! Plan B. Buy mobile phone from Radio Shack. No, strangely they don't sell them here. Also failed to find a road map in a couple of bookshops.

After wandering around the market it was time for the Jade museum to open. It has a distinguished new modernist position  on Democracy square and has decided to charge foreigners 15 dollars each to visit it.

However a visit here should be part of every museum curator's course as a dreadful example of how to get it wrong. None of the exhibits are labelled. Total reliance is on interactive screens designed by morons. If it wasn't such a pitiful waste of resources it would be laughable. As it is, despite the best efforts of the very helpful staff, the result is a stultifyingly dull and repetitious experience languishing over no less than five floors. This is enhanced by having to view the exhibits in crepuscular gloom despite jade being totally unaffected by light. An audio guide is worse than useless as it provides only puerile descriptions of the obvious. If only they had spent a fraction of the money on a more compact conventional display and allowed the magnificent exhibits to become the centre of attention, the result would have been infinitely better.

The same criticism does not apply to the museum of art and design, which deployed its exhibits in a far less distinguished space but to much better effect.

Later in the afternoon we found a cheap mobile phone which the salesman kindly activated for us, and a waterproof map. So tomorrow we are all set to venture into the interior.

First day in San José

Spent most of the morning in the Museum of Pre-Columbian Gold which was fascinating. Wonderful workmanship using lost wax process developed entirely in parallel with European techniques. Very tasty lunch at the Café Rojo, then the afternoon at the National Museum. Another plethora of interesting exhibits including many lithic spheres.

And we are off....

Freezing cold as we left for the station at 4am, but the RailAir coach to Terminal 5 was warm and fast. Time for a full English breakfast before the flight to Madrid. However this was delayed for 20 minutes because the battery in the aircraft steps had gone flat in the cold. That meant a brisk walk to catch the Costa Rica flight at Madrid, but no drama. Both flights were smooth and easy. At San José airport we were met by a representative of the coach company and ended up with our own private minibus straight to the hotel in the city centre. Arrived at 6pm local time and called it a day!

Preparations...

 

 

 

We leave England on Saturday for Costa Rica and we have already started getting stuff together.

 

As you can see, Terra was staying with us until yesterday and decided to help.

 

She is a very giving cat, and Emily explained that she merely wanted us to be reminded of her when on our travels we discovered yet another piece of irritating cat hair in our luggage.