Sitting in the Bar, you can share a drink with the monkeys that descend from the trees. While it's not the most eco-sensitive practice (feeding the monkeys makes them dependent), it's great fun.
Manuel Antonio Park
There are always a number of guides hanging around the entrance with their telescopes. The guides were selling their services for $35US. We opted against getting one and although we probably missed a lot of stuff we did see bats, monkeys – squirrel and capuchin, sloths, lizards. If you stand near someone with a guide who is focusing his tripod on something then you can probably find it yourself. If you just pay attention and keep an eye open, you can see some interesting stuff, like the small bright red land crabs that you can see just off the main trail. On our way out we noticed some people that had started at the same time as we had (with guides) and they really didn't seem too excited about the whole thing.
We'd both recommend coming to see the park, especially early morning when you'll have enough space to yourself. You can walk the trails with sandals (not flip flops) but would recommend proper walking shoes, and beware the heat and riptides. Because of the humidity, bring water and dress lightly. There was a toilet at one of the beaches, but nothing else of note.
Dec 6, 7
MONTEVERDE
Montverde’s eerie, mossy forests are breathtakingly beautiful & home to the resplendent Quetzal. Only 150 visitors are allowed into the Park at any one time so arrive early to avoid waiting at the entrance. Tues-Sun 7am-4pm, entrance for the 2 of us came to $54 US with a guide. Suggest you take a guide who has a telescope which enables you to get a better view of the wildlife, flora and fauna and you can also take pictures through the telescope with a digital camera (if the guide has a good telescope).
The road from Manuel Antonio to the Monteverde Reserve isn't nearly as bad as you'd think - until the last 30km. The coastal highway up to Jaco and Puntarenas is in pretty good shape and the main North-South Panamerican highway is also pretty good. When you turn off the Panamerican highway the road gets worse the further in you get. Don’t go into Puntarenas unless you want to. We followed Frommer’s instructions to turn just before the Rio Lagarto Bridge for the principle road up to Santa Elena and Monteverde. It took us over an hour and a half to traverse the 30km to Santa Elena (the town next-door to the Reserve).
Nonetheless, we persevered and got to Santa Elena in the mid-afternoon. Our accommodation of choice was the mountain view room at the Monte Verde Lodge.
The lodge is a good family-friendly choice. With spacious rooms, a MAP rate, a lovely garden and trails (one that leads directly to the Ecological Farm), and a gigantic hot tub for soaking sore muscles, you can't go wrong. $90+ night. MAP $40 per person.
Don’t expect any response to e-mail or phone reservations. They are not very customer service oriented!
Meals were overpriced and awful. Caesar salad made with iceberg lettuce and drowned in Thousand Islands dressing, yech! The only choices on the menu the night we ate dinner were chicken, octopus or eggplant.
On Saturday we rose early and drove to the MonteVerde Cloud Forest.
SELVATURA WALKWAYS AND BRIDGE SKY WALK
Sunset
Dec 8, 9
ARENAL - by far our favourite!
Monteverde is only 109 km from Arenal as the crow flies BUT the drive takes 3 1/2 hours - we drove from Monteverde using the road to TilarĂĄn.
Our tour around the lake was amazing: beautiful scenery (tropical rain forest meets little Switzerland) and lots of wildlife to be observed from the road. Be careful, you can turn a corner and run into a pack of coati on the road.
The Toad Hall: coffee/art shop with great views on Lake Arenal. Fantastic coffee and macadamia brownies.
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Arenal volcano - (drive time from San Jose: 3 1/2 hrs) is Costa Rica's most active volcano. During the day you'll see steam coming from the crater & hear the rumble of lava rocks tumbling down the slopes.
Tabacon Hot Springs (a series of swimming pools sculpted from the hot volcanic river, in landscaped gardens) at the base of the volcano are definitely worth a visit or even better, stay over and enjoy the resort.
Our room - there is a hot tub on the patio and another in the bathroom. Don’t leave your door open, you could have a coati come visiting!
Breakfast buffet is fantastic and included in price of room. We booked a suite for 2 nights and it was great.
The grounds
We spent a day lazing in the hot springs. You will hear the volcano often, which is a little eerie at first.
Then made appointments for pedicures and manicures at the spa. Talk about being spoiled!!! Pina coladas were a great thirst quencher!
Dinner in La Toucanes the first night – I had the sea bass which was smothered in a spinach sauce – looked like a dead octopus on my plate! John had the shrimps in orange jalapeño sauce, which was excellent. The following night I had the shrimp and John had the steak- which was excellent also.
Waiting for us after breakfast.
Dec 10
Drove back to San Jose after a leisurely breakfast. The town of La Fortuna does not have much to do or see. It is mostly cheaper hotels which offer day trips to Tabacon Resort for about $20 U.S. per person. There are some restaurants also but probably not worth the drive from the resort.
We managed to take out a vulture on the highway as he swooped down for lunch; he and the car collided, he lost. Luckily he didn’t do any damage.
Stopped in the town of San Ramon, which is very nice but doesn’t appear in any of the tour books. To use the sanitorios will cost you 70 colones. Nice town.
San Ramon is a city located 27 miles away from the northeast of Alajuela. It is also known as “the poets and presidents’ city” since five different presidents in the history of Costa Rica were born in this picturesque city in the province of Alajuela.
Sculpture outside the church.
We tried to find the town of Sarchi on our way back, but got lost and ended up driving through small suburbs to try and get back to the condo. Traffic was horrendous and direction signs non-existent. But we finally made it back and decided to eat in and veg watching T.V. as the movie selection was excellent.
Dec 11
Determined as always, we set out again to find Sarchi. We took the Panamerican highway to Zarcero and then worked backwards to Sarchi.
Zacero
The entrance to the Iglesia de San Rafael is directly behind Parque Francisco Alvarado, a notorious topiary garden designed by Don Evangelista Blanco in 1964. The gardener and curator of the park, Don Evangelista Blanco turned ordinary shrubs and hedges into figures of animals, people and interesting abstract shapes. After planting cypress tree seeds in the park, Don Evangelista Blanco waited four years until they had grown large enough to be shaped into the creatures he wanted to create.
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