The Beauty, Forests and Deserts of Costa Rica
(The winds are overwhelming at Arenal and Bahía de Salinas)
Feb 9, 06 Thursday
Left home with symptoms of a minor cold, and despite a reasonable 3 - 4 hour sleep on our red-eye flight, the first day in Costa Rica was torture. We got a car, and drove about 40 - 50 miles north from San Jose to La Fortuna at the foot of the Arenal Volcano. Got a room on the side where you can see the steam coming out when not obscured by clouds, which it was when we arrived. Made it down town for dinner, then crashed.
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Feb 10, 06 Friday
Cold symptoms and lack of rest are gone and life looks much better. Today we went up the south side of the volcano to a very high waterfall (Las Cataratas), hiked to the bottom and had a swim under the falls (almost under) -- it was very turbulent and no one else was swimming there. Then drove around the north side of the volcano and north around the east side of Lake Arenal. From the right location steam was clearly visible from the volcano, but not much else. A couple days later a couple we met along the way reported that they heard loud claps of thunder-like sound and saw balls of molten lava rolling out of the mountain. Late afternoon we arrived in the area of windsurfing and got a room at Tilawa Hotel. This place is pretty nice with beautiful grounds, pool, and gardens - and most of all a superb view of the lake, jungle, and volcanoes. After we finished signing in the clerk, Roy, showed us a toucan across the drive in the forest.
Feb 11, 06 Saturday
After breakfast there were about 7 - 10 monkeys in the tree just in front of our room - they weren't even being fed by the hotel. Sailed the well-known Lake Arenal today. Perhaps fortunately the winds were considerably below the speed at which they can peak here. John McIntyre is sailing and of course traveling with me. I sailed a 100 liter "Real Wind" board with a 5.7 m2 sail first, and later a 6.2 m2. Sailed about 3 and half hours but by midafternoon the wind was going down, so luckily got a short day
Feb 12, 06 Sunday
Today the true Arenal. We started the day at 10 am, I with a 4.2 m2 sail. It was soon too large and requesting a 3.7 m2, found there was none available. After a couple hours when the other sailors were all beaten down, thankfully I got one. Winds were very strong and lots of short wavelength chop. My sense is it is frequently this way. They don't even bother to give you an up-haul here (except on the beginner boards), though yesterday as the wind was waning on the big sail I needed one. We have found only two windsurf locations on the lake, Tico and Tilawa. Both are quite small compared to many locations we have been. Wonder why this place has so much notoriety. I came off the water with a rather sore lower back that I can't associate with any particular event or fall. - just the stress or bouncing The view of the lake form the hotel, or any surrounding location is spectacular, due to its sparkling water, lush fauna on the shores and rising to the low surrounding rain (800 m) forest mountains and farther into the cloud forest (~1000 m). A lot of the lake's beauty is contributed by the absence of human degradation - the shoreline is not strewn with construction and the lake itself is absent the typical gridlock of noisy power boats. I suspect it will be much changed in 10 years.
Feb 13, 06 Monday
Waking the am we found Arenal enshrouded in misty fog and fierce winds. It was soon obvious that these winds (maybe 40 - 50 mph) were too strong for sailing today so we made plans to move on. Went by several locations in Tilaron attempting to establish a method of internet access, eventually finding a PC shop where Rinaldo was able to get us an internet access card, similar to a phone card and help us learn how to use it. Not too bad, $7.50 for a card that’s good for 10 hours on any phone.
After checking out a couple places and roaming around the northeast coast for a little while, we chose to stay at the Bolaños Beach Resort. This is about 17 km out an unpaved road from the village of La Cruz, on Bahía de Salinas, just across from Isla Bolaños. First time we passed this it seemed to be closed, but on closer investigation ...... Salad and filet mignon dinner at Bolaños Beach Resort was excellent. Checked out the only windsurfing place here (we think) next to the Ecoplaya Resort. Winds are still too high here and, expected to be the same tomorrow - and my hurting back persists, so the immediate windsurfing future is uncertain.
Feb 14, 06 Tuesday
Today we lazed around the Bahía de Salinas looking for windsurf locations and equipment as well as anything else nice. Wind still too strong for our motivation and mostly "directly on-shore." There is exactly one place to rent gear - at Mark's back of the Ecoplaya Resort. The gear is good and the price is rather high but so is Arenal. Jobo beach is opposite a hill out of the wind and remote and disserted - a heavenly place - we had a good swim and read for a couple hours. Water is a bit chilly - 65ºF I judge.
Feb 15, 06 Wednesday
Today we went south and inland from Liberia to The Rincon de la Vieja volcano area. Got a shabby room at the Hacienda Guachipelin. Went on a hike to see a nice waterfall, volcanitos, and some steaming pools and a few neat animals. Heard the howler monkeys, but didn't see any. Roads getting to this place are terrible. Dirt and easily passable, but sooo rough one is limited to very low speed and shaking the car violently. The Toyota Yaris emblem has shaken off the front of ours (later to cost us $37).
Feb 16, 06 Thursday
Hung around the Guachipelin and Rincon Park another day today. Hiked out to the forest areas and platforms where they do the canopy tours, zip lines, canyoning, wall climbing, etc. We could see it all, but did not participate. Something is eating the heck out of my ankles and lower legs mosquitoes, small black fleas, tarantulas, poison ivy, bed bugs ???? It's a big mystery and making me quite miserable, but doesn’t seem to be bothering John McIntyre.
Before coming to Costa Rica, if one looks at the maps, you see a plethora of National Parks to wet your interest. Unlike in the US, where National Parks tend to be special places in which you find some unique geology or features not found elsewhere, here they tend to be just "more land" that perhaps nobody else wants. Many have no, or the most primitive roads, or the only access is by backpacking. Looks to me like some, especially toward the northwest, are created to attract tourists looking at their maps at home, while there little for a tourist to do but drive by the highway on the edge.
Feb 17, 06 Friday
Move west to the Pacific coast again today. Looked around Hermosa Beach, Coco Beach and Ocotal Beach. We searched around a few hotels and ended up in one level on someone's house, on a hill high above the sea - a magnificent three-story place with kitchen, pool, Jacuzzi - owner lives on top.
Villa Vista Mar, Ed & Lorrie Scanlan, 506 670-0375 elscanlan@hotmail.com www.villavistamar.com
These folks came down 5 years ago from Rochester, NY. Along the ocean borders on the west coast there is a lot of home and condominium development and real estate marketing going on. Mostly Americans and Canadians buying and prices are getting very high, $140,000 for condominiums, though we didn't see any particular properties to judge the value. Real estate development and sales is very prevalent in all the nice places we visited - In 10 years Costa Rica will be very crowded and commercialized. Better get here quick!
Feb 18, 06 Saturday
Left our paradise (except for sand flea bites) in Ocotal cruising southward to Tamarindo, the beach capital of Costa Rica. We got some help and took the "monkey trail" back roads route. Tamarindo was a disappointing surfer's mob scene so we departed toward the Nicoya Peninsula. Miles of bad rough roads where progress is slow. We're glad we have a rental car that's getting shaken apart, but hope it holds up till we get it back. Reminds one of driving to San Carlos windsurf site in Baja. We even came to a place where a tree had just fallen across the road and folks were cutting through the fences so we could pass. That was only a short delay. As the day passed and we tired of the bad roads and mis-information on the maps, we decided to return to Arenal.
Feb 19, 06 Sunday
The winds are still quite high, but not as bad as when we left her a week ago. Someone had a manometer down by the launch point and was measuring 32 mph average and 43 mph gusts. I sailed a short time with an 80-liter board and a 3.2 m2.sail, a record small for me, but guess that's what you use when it's blowing 32. Apparently there's a well-known annual bike ride around Lake Arenal - from Tileran going south to La Fortuna the 1st day, then along the east side around the north end back to Tileran on the 2nd day. There were about 2000 riders passing by our area this am.
Feb 20, 06 Monday
We drove south around the lake, retracing route of our 1st two days in the country. Stopped north of La Fortuna to take a 2 mile jungle canopy walk. - didn't see much animal life though. We did see a group of monkeys in the trees by the road at another location. The zip lines and treetop walks popularly associated with Costa Rica are prevalent in the rain and cloud forests south of La Fortuna. Also in the Rincon de la Vieja Park. In San Ramon a policeman motioned us over and complained that the passenger, me, didn't have a seat belt on, and demanded a bribe of 10,000 colones ($20) – he didn’t realize I had to periodically jump out to take photos - we humored him. There's more behind this but for now ….. The agriculture in some of the mountainous areas between Fortuna and San Jose is very lush, picturesque, and unusual. Some we saw looked like harvesting "brush." If my Spanish was working right, this is hemp (no ...... not that kind) being harvested to make rope, burlap, etc. Got back to San Jose airport area too late and in rush hour traffic to do some exploring of the city we had intended - so just settled for a motel close to the airport for early morning departure.
Feb 21, 06 Tuesday
Heading home, now we know a lot more about Costa Rica, and the next trip will be easier. All in all, a super place that I look forward to visiting again and perhaps seeing more of the eastern tropical areas.