On my way to Panama, I had a delay getting out of Salt Lake City, which resulted in me missing a connection and Atlanta. My ride to my unplanned hotel stay was with a pleasant van driver who asked where I was going. I told him I was headed to Costa Rica and Panama and he went on to explain that his friends had been going every year. He was saying it was the best hidden secret destination of the world. A great secret. I had to agree with him.
Why weren’t his friends going to Hawaii? Costa Rica was offering up warmer beaches, better waves, and the undiscovered and getting away from the crowds.
Costa Rica has so much to offer.
- private white and black sand beaches
- leather back turtles
- monkeys
- waterfalls
- tubing
- white water rafting
- bird watching
- lava fields
- swinging bridges
- ziplining
- sloths
- volcanoes
- hot springs
- red blue and green frogs with red eyes
- banana plantations
- native tribes
- rain forests
The Costa Rican’s are really smart and happy. Gross national happiness in Costa Rica is even higher than in Bhutan where that’s the most important thing.
I have been enchanted with the country. It’s quite amazing and impressive. A very peaceful place. No army or military to speak of, they decided instead of focusing on arming up and providing defense they’d be better off spending that money building infrastructure and services. The roads are quite good. Having driven across much of Central America, it has great roads really minus those that are affected by volcanology.
Let me start with the sloths. The slowest mammal in the world. They’ve got 3 toed sloths and two toed sloths. Very often they end up with problems. One of the great places to visit is the reserves. The jaguar reserve, a favorite of the Caribbean side of Costa Rica just outside of the surfing town of Puerto Viejo. You can handle baby spider monkeys, and little howlers.
The sloths you can look at, but you can’t touch them because of the special oils in their fur that grow and collect moss to hide them in the trees. You can also see the toucan and a number of other birds and get close as you’ll want to get with the local vipers.
The rain forest has trade offs. There’s sure a lot of rain, but the dense forest is a must see. Travel to the pacific side for a drier visit. You’ll see resort cities and stretches of beach where you could see no one. Throughout the country the national parks and volcanoes are amazing sights to see both the flora and fauna. I recommend Arenal it’s a great volcano with cities that surround it designed for all types of tourists. I highly recommend tracking down the hot springs. Ask the locals where you can go behind the warm river water fall and at night to candle light.
Big Iguanas, Toucans, and Waterfalls… It’s not hard to see why Costa really is a paradise. You can also see why people are trying to keep is a secret.
