 I had gone to the extremes of mounting mini-expeditions in other parts of Latin America merely to get within earshot of the incredible howler monkeys. In Montezuma, on Costa Rica’s northern Nicoya Penisula, they not only gave us a 5am wake-up call but they pelted us with mangos when we had the audacity to walk under their tree. To the uninitiated the profusion of wildlife could be quite intimidating; white-faced capuchins screamed abuse as we sidled past their mango harvest and prehistoric ctenosaurs (huge iguanas) gaped at us when we interrupted their poolside sunbathing. Beautifully crested magpie-jays raided our breakfast table for sugar-cubes and, at different times, we saw a North American racoon and a South American skunk raiding restaurant kitchens!
This section of the Latin American land-bridge is home to an unusually cosmopolitan community: southern Jaguars share territories with northern Puma; tapir browse with deer; coatimundis hunt alongside coyotes; southern sloths with northern opossums; monkeys and squirrels; ocelots and foxes; armadillos and porcupines…
Toucans – ‘flying bananas’ the English-speaking people of the Caribbean call them – and inseparable pairs of scarlet macaws splash rainbow colours through the canopy. In the southern rainforests of Osa Peninsula blue morpho butterflies, big as saucers, sparkle in the sunlight so that you understand why the indigenous tribes believed them to be fallen bits of heaven. There is the ‘blue-jean’ poison-dart frog, as big as your thumbnail, that appears to be wearing a tiny pair of Levis, but it takes an even more practised eye to spot the glass frog, so transparent that it scarcely throws a shadow.
It doesn’t pay to look too closely at the jungle. Until I joined an Earthwatch research project in the far-northern province of Guanacaste – known to locals as ‘Alaska’ – my experience of Costa Rican jungles had shown them to be benign places. They were considerate enough to confine their rainfall to the early-evening hours when I would anyway have been sipping Cuba Libres on the hotel balcony, or digesting gallo pinto (rice-and-beans) in a village hammock. Furry anteaters blunder carelessly across your trail like short-sighted teddy-bears and the emerald basilisk, with its pantomime make-up and the comic two-legged run can turn a simple walk-in-the-park into a wildlife Mardi Gras. They were paradisiacal, if sweaty, Gardens of Eden where the only threat might be a mango thrown by an insecure howler monkey.
Then Dr Eric Olson set about showing me what is really going on among the tinier denizens of this hive of murder, torture and rape. There were swarms of giant cockroaches, four-inches long – but that seemed to triple in size when they fly – and scorpions that were capable of a painful sting that has the side-effect of anaesthetising your tongue. Marauding army ants swept through the jungle in massive columns, devouring everything in their path and swarms of Africanised bees (known inaccurately – “at least in most cases,” according to Dr Olson – as ‘killer bees’) buzz through the canopy. There were throbbing beetles several times bigger than many of Costa Rica’s gem-like hummingbirds and (one of the good doctor’s personal favourites) diabolical ‘tracker wasps’ that hunt down a particularly cute looking caterpillar only to impregnate it with their hellish offspring. I was even introduced to a goofy-looking frog that hops obligingly onto your shoulder in the hope that you will blind yourself with its toxic excretions.
Costa Rica’s 28 national parks and conservation areas harbour an estimated 6% of all the world’s biodiversity. There are 830 species of birds, 560 butterflies, 400 species of reptile (including 6 of the world’s 8 marine turtles) and 10,000 plant species (1,200 varieties of orchid) and nobody can even imagine how many insects. In 1989 the National Biodiversity Institute started counting…and they’re still going.
‘No Artificial Ingredients’:
Picture brash Atlantic rollers breaking on a seemingly endless stretch of white sand. A few people nurse iced bottles of Cerveza Imperial and watch a scarlet ball of fire that seems to hiss as it plunges into the watery horizon. Conical hills rise out of a solid wall of swaying palms and the silence is broken only by a few bickering parrots.
This is Jacó Beach – Costa Rica’s answer to Margate.
A law prohibiting building within fifty metres of the beach has prevented the hotchpotch of hostels, bars, surf-shops and restaurants of even this busiest of the country’s holiday towns (just 2 hours from San José) from becoming an eyesore.
The label of ‘national eyesore’ is reserved instead for the capital itself. If you’re not into the slightly grubby sex industry – and you’ve already paid a token ten-minute visit to the Teatro Nacional (the city’s single elegant building) – you will find little to keep you in San José. The capital’s position as the main transport hub ensures that you are already within easy reach of the tropical jungles/volcanoes/reefs of your dreams…but it also means that you might have to resign yourself to periodic stopovers if you are going to do much travelling here.
Though only 120km separate crashing Pacific breakers from turquoise Caribbean lagoons, the chain of sixty volcanoes that make travel time-consuming also prevent it from ever becoming boring. Despite being only about the size of Wales, this narrow strip of land is blessed with everything from riotous jungles and tropical swamps to alpine highlands, and from sunburnt savannas to fairytale volcanoes.
From the crater of Irazú (at 3432 metres), just over 20km from the capital, both seas are visible on a clear day. In 1968 Volcan Arenal really blew its top, destroying two villages, killing 80 people and barbecuing 45,000 head of cattle. It is still in constant activity but if the gods of these ancient highlands decide that your time is up you might as well be sitting in a thermal rock-pool sipping mango margaritas…
The catchphrase of the national tourism board is ‘Costa Rica: no artificial ingredients’ and so far they have largely resisted the temptation from monster hotel chains to give the okay to Cancún-style mega-resorts. There are still problems however: deforestation, as a result of a growing population, is threatening sensitive forest eco-climates; poaching continues in the reserves and endangered turtle-eggs are still on sale in back-street comedores; and the country searches for new ways to fund its remaining forests. President Abel Pacheco surprised other world leaders at an ecological convention recently by suggesting the delightfully logical (if unlikely) idea of an ‘oxygen tax’ – under which the industrial countries that use the most oxygen would be forced to supplement the cost of producing it.
 ‘Do the Rainforest’:
Costa Rica has become the envy of its neighbours by ‘exploiting’ the potential of its rainforests, not for logging but to create one of the world’s greatest adventure playgrounds. There are jungle treks, white-water-rafting, canopy-swings, bungy-jumps, canyoning, jungle treks, nocturnal safaris, bird-watching/medicine/cultural tours, turtle patrols and poison-dart frog nurseries. Offshore there are surfing, water-skiing, sailing, game-fishing, whale-spotting and dolphin safaris. You can travel by horse, mountain-bike, kayak, dugout, glider or helicopter!
In the quest for more imaginative jungle experiences suspended ‘Skywalks’ and ‘Aerial Trams’ are competing to outdo each other and, who knows, in ten years it may be possible to ‘do the rainforest’ by moving sidewalk.
As far as canopy-swings go, one of the leaders of the moment is at Almonds and Corals eco-lodge, in the southern Caribbean region. A chain of suspended bridges and high-wires allow a toucan’s eye view of the upper canopy…and give ‘tree-hugging’ a new meaning. At the end of the hour-long tour you gratefully touchdown at the edge of the treeline on a pristine Caribbean beach. And, before your legs have even stopped trembling, you have a frosty rum-and-coke in your hands.
Almonds and Corals was built without cutting down a single large tree – one jungle giant still rears up through the middle of the restaurant roof – and the canopy is so dense that the suns rays hardly reach the ground. The result is that even old time jungle-wallahs feel that, despite their comfortable ‘tented bungalows,’ they are back in the rainforest. Guided tours through the ‘poison-dart frog sanctuary’ (where even the tiniest inhabitants can produce toxins that are 50 times stronger than cyanide) regularly surprise even the most experienced naturalists.
White-water rafting is one of Costa Rica’s most popular adventure activities and for pure adrenalin you can’t ask better than three-day trip to the totally isolated – cellular phones are banned – jungle hideout of Pacuare Lodge. The Pacuare River drops in a chain of exciting grade III–IV rapids through a series of canyons that could have come straight from a Tarzan movie. Wildlife is hard to spot from the river – you have to have your wits about you most of eighteen-mile descent anyway – but the lodge grounds and the untouched hillside above it is stocked with everything from three-toed sloths to the jaguars that are still sacred to the local Cabecar tribe.
Don Augusto is a shaman (of the impish Don Juan variety) who can point out the sacred, cultural or medicinal importance of every tree in the rainforest of Osa Peninsula. Lapa Rios Lodge was built to demonstrate that ‘a forest left standing is more valuable than a forest cut down’ and today it protects 1,000 acres of Central America’s last remaining lowland tropical rainforest…while simultaneously offering employment to many of Osa’s ‘forgotten’ indigenous peoples. Resident naturalist Danilo dedicates his working hours to explaining the wildlife of the peninsula and his fondness for the area’s amphibians is narrowly contested by his partiality to Miss Julia Roberts, a frequent visitor to Lapa Rios. The sign of a successful eco-lodge is not how many film-stars it attracts but how the local fauna relates to it and this ridge is a major wildlife highway, visited daily by squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, howler monkeys, toucans, macaws (the famous lapas) and entire families of grinning coatimundis.
Surf’s Up!:
Many years ago the dope-selling surfer son of a Costa Rican diplomat tipped me off to the delights of his home beaches. He made me promise not to tell anyone – but neither of us knew then that he was talking to a journalist…
Costa Rica boasts 200 miles of Caribbean coastline but because of the great, jungly swellings of the Nicoya and Osa Peninsulas – hanging like ripe papayas from the trunk of the country – there are over 1,000 miles of Pacific surf.
The country is home to about a dozen world-class surf breaks and many, many more secret-spots that are known only to a few hardcore locals or a couple of gnarly old-time hippy-dropouts who arrived a decade ago looking for the perfect wave…and found it. Jacó Beach attracts the largest crowds but, even here, miles of good beach-break mean that you can always avoid find a quiet peak. This is a good place to hire a board and is forgiving enough to make for a good learner wave.
It has been said that surfspots are sacred places and, while the Caribbean’s Salsa Brava (‘Savage Sauce’) on a big day might be Machu Picchu, for simple good-livin’ pura vida attitude the Nirvana of Costa Rican breaks might be a little-known right-hander on the Golfo Dulce (‘Sweet Gulf’). Monkeys and macaws screech from the trees as you walk down to the beach and apart from a turtle or dolphin you might have the point to yourself…though I’ve seen a pod of about twenty hump-back whales cruising past just a short way off-shore!
 In 1974 Surfing magazine showed photographic evidence of a secret-spot somewhere way south-of-the-border – beyond even the reach of Nicaraguan bandits and mosquitoes – and a steady stream of surfers set out to discover Costa Rica’s unbelievably long rides. A decade later they ran a double-page spread of a place that they called Witches Rock…and Costa Rica was recognised as one of the world’s top surf destinations.
On the day I was at Witches Rock it was unbelievably busy: there was not a single surfer in the water but the waves were crowded with literally thousands of Olive Ridley turtles. Even today you won’t find Witches Rock on any tourist maps and (unlike the stalwart journalists at Surfing) I’m not willing to risk a visit from ‘da boyz’ in the black boardshorts by giving directions…except to say that it’s worth every kilometre of the 26km hill-trek that it takes to get there!
Don’t go!:
Backpackers on the trans-American route frequently hurry through Costa Rica because it is more expensive than its neighbours. Tourists are deterred by international flights that are costlier than others in the region. The first time I travelled in Central America I too carefully avoided Costa Rica. Though budget was, as always, pretty limited my reasons were based more on insecurity and lack of willpower; I had an endless list of places I wanted to travel and I had heard so much about this wonderful country that I was convinced that having once seen it I might never want to go anywhere else. It would be more than a decade before I gave in to temptation.
My fears proved to be well founded. In many ways – at least all the ways that really matter – Costa Rica is a little piece of paradise on earth.
So, I feel it is my duty to offer one last word of warning: Don’t go to Costa Rica…having had a taste of La Pura Vida you might never be content anywhere else!
Factfile
Internal travel: Buses connect all the major towns and ferries run regularly to the peninsula towns that can sometimes be cut off during the rains. The poor roads that act as a natural brake on tourism also offer breathtaking insights into the country’s natural variety…and you can’t ask for better travelling companions than the Ticos.
Health: Malaria is also endemic to some regions of Costa Rica and there have been outbreaks of dengue. Get up-to-date advice about prophylaxis, use repellent and sunblock…and if you live la pura vida and you stand every chance of coming back home healthier than you left.
Accommodation & Activities:
San José - It’s a good idea to establish a regular base-camp to which you can return during necessary stopovers and Casa León (tel: +506 222 9725) is well-located, friendly and secure (£20 a double).
Nicoya Peninsula - Hotel Los Mangos (www.montezumayoga.com / tel: +506 642 0076), at Playa Montezuma, is a fantastic place to meet the locals: several species of monkeys and many birds visit the gardens. (£20 for double-room, or £35 for a bungalow).
Activities: boat trips, surfing, horse-riding, quad-hire, mountainbiking and jungle-trekking. The hotel has swimming pool, Jacuzzi, massage and yoga practise in the specially designed pavilion.
Osa Peninsula – Lapa Rios (www.laparios.com / tel: +506-735-5130), set in a private reserve of 1,000 acres of pristine virgin rainforest, stands among the top eco-lodges in the world. The view from the veranda of your thatched bungalow is worth the price-tag of £110 pp/day (full-board) and it’s worth a splash to enjoy some of the best lodge meals on the continent.
Activities: Don Augusto’s jungle medicine trail, Danilo’s nature-trails (especially nocturnal), horse-riding, bird-watching, flights to Corcovado NP, game-fishing…
Osa Peninsula – Nikki and Brad have established a perfect beach and rainforest retreat where the Golfo Dulce breakers lap the white sand of Osa Peninsula. Tierra de Milagros (www.tierrademilagros.com / tel: +506-735-5062) offers private bungalows with all meals for £55pp/day.
Activities: an outdoor yoga platform (with an audience of local howlers), jungle-walking, horse-riding, beach-bumming, chilling in a hammock. (There’s also a quiver of surfboards – “boards are meant to be ridden” is a Milagro motto – and it’s ideally situated for one of the most perfect, peaceful right-hand reef-breaks in Central America…but don’t tell anyone I said so).
Caribbean – Stilted walkways run through the jungle connecting 20 individual ‘tents’ (in their own mosquito-proof cocoons). Almonds and Corals(www.almondsandcorals.com / tel: +506 272 2024) offers an opportunity to stay in untouched - almost impenetrable – rainforest. (£60per person).
Activities: Divide your time between the rainforest and one of the most perfect Caribbean beaches you’ll ever see. There’s also a fascinating poison-arrow frog sanctuary, where you can test your eyesight and one of the country’s longest canopy-swings, where you can test your nerves.
Caribbean – Samasati (www.samasati.com / tel: +1-800-563-9643) is a nature refuge and one of the country’s best yoga retreats. (£60pp for wonderful bungalows or £40 in the guesthouse).
Activities: In addition to several tours (including fantastic beach horse-riding and ‘dolphin connections’) Samasati offers such therapy treatments as cranio- sacral, deep tissue, energy balancing, rebalancing, reflexology, Reiki…
Highlands – Among other ‘adventures,’ Aventuras Naturales (www.toenjoynature.com / tel: +506 225-3939) run highly professional and exciting trips down the Class IV Pacuare River to their private Pacuare Lodge – accessible only by raft and, for a select few, by the occasional helicopter.
3-day Pacuare Tour costs £170 or a 1-day, 9-mile trip on the Sarapiquí River (Class III) costs £50.00.
Conservation ‘anywhere’ – Charity organisation Earthwatch Institute (www.earthwatch.org/europe; tel: 01865 318831) is looking for volunteers at three different research projects in the Costa Rican wilderness, studying such things as the mechanics of dry tropical forest, sea turtles and dolphins.
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