TORTUGUERO TAMARINDO ARENAL MONTEZUMA JACO ZANCUDO
STATS
Sandra and I visited Costa Rica in 2011 from January 28 - March 25 and this is what we did and what we thought of it. We had reservations for all accommodations for the first month, but did not reserve anything for the second month. We left March wide open so we could revisit places we went to in February if we wanted, or to explore new places we might have heard about during our February travels. This isn't everyone's style of travel, but it worked out great for us. This was my fourth time to CR, and my second time to CR with Sandra, so we were both experienced CR travellers. Sandra has virtually no Spanish and I have very limited Espanol malo but this was never a barrier and we always got what we needed using my terrible Spanish and a Tico's limited English. Driving directions were not needed this time round because we had a Garmin Nuvi GPS with CR map from navsatcr.com which performed flawlessly.
While navigating between the various trip report pages, do not click the buttons on the left because there is no button to get back to this section. Use the links at the top of the page or the back button. The only link into this section is via Trip Advisor.
|
We landed at SJO Juan Santa Maria and caught a taxi to Alegria B&B in Alajuela. We chose this place because it was highly rated on TA and the price was right. Our style of travelling doesn't require fancy accommodations and we would rather spend the money on doing things instead of paying for a nice hotel room that we spend less than half the day in, but Alegria was a very pleasant surprise. George greeted us at the door and welcomed us into his spotless b&b. You would be hard pressed to find a better host than George. Before heading out we went to a nearby grocery store to stock up on things you can't bring on a plane (we only travel with carry-on luggage) that we thought might not be available in Tortuguero. We found out later that just about everything you need can be found in Tortuguero. For our first night in CR we wandered into Alajuela and picked a random bar to relax in. I don't remember the name of the one we were in, but it was full of friendly Ticos, the cerveza was cold, food was good, service was good as well. Eleven drinks and two meals $36. If you have sensitive ears you might want to avoid a bar with more than four Ticos in it. They can get LOUD! We got back to Alegria around midnight and got packed up for our early departure. Right on time appeared Luis from Tucan Limousine Services in his shiny Toyota Prado and his ever-present sonrisa. In '10, Luis drove us from SJO to Arenal and within the first five minutes of the drive, we knew we had made the right choice. We chose Tucan Limo simply because they were the first to answer our email. The prices of his competitors were very close. I can't imagine anyone being better at his job than Luis or have a better fleet of vehicles - our first ride was in a late model Mercedes Benz, second in a new Prado and third in a Land Rover Discovery. Luis is very proud of his country and there isn't much about it that he isn't well versed in. Ask Luis. He knows. Once we were loaded into the car we were officially on vacation. Luis is very entertaining and engaging and made the nearly three hour drive fly by. Thanks again Luis! Once in Pavona (this is the area where you catch a boat ride to Isla Tortuguero) we had about a one hour wait for the next boat. There is a restaurant serving good food in very friendly manner and covered parking if you have your own car. We had no idea what the boat ride would be like, and we were not prepared to be amazed. The boat itself is an experience. It was very busy and this is by far the cheapest way to get to Tortuguero so all the locals are completely loaded with groceries and all sorts of other supplies and equipment. I think i might have heard some livestock on the other boats! The boat ride takes you down one small river after another through very thick jungle which, for the most part, is uninhabited. This means plenty of animals. Caymans, crocs, iguanas, cows, and countless birds. The trip to Tortuguero from Pavona is an awesome experience in itself! You pay far more for "tours" in areas less attractive than this. Seven bucks very well spent! I think I took well over 100 pictures on this -+1 hour ride and twenty minutes of video. It's that good. The boat let us off at our hotel, Casa Marbella. Again, we chose to stay here through research on TA and especially because it came with a recommendation from HattieCostaRica, destination expert for Papagayo, Puntarenas. I gotta tell you, Daryl Loth runs a top notch operation. Tortuguero can only be described as rustic, and Casa Marbella fits right in with its construction of local timber and bright colours. This place is spotlessly clean! Everyday the entire hotel was mopped and scrubbed literally from top to bottom. Our favourite feature of CM was its dock. There is a wooden dock with a couple picnic tables on it and the entire dock is shaded by a gigantic tree. Get a few bottles of wine and drink them here in the evening. Tortuguero is nearly all about turtles, tortuga is Spanish for turtle. We were not there during nesting or hatching season so it was relatively quiet, which suited us just fine. The only motorized traffic on the island are a couple of ATVs used for towing trailers around the island to collect garbage which is separated at an on island facility and recycled onshore. We were up for a six a.m. jungle tour on Casa Marbella's own boat. Unlike all the other boats, CB's boat has an electric motor for absolute silent cruising through the jungle canals. We got to see so much because we didn't have a noisy engine scaring the wildlife away. It was kind of annoying when one of the other tour boats came by with their noisy engines. Our guide for this tour was Roberto. He conducted the tour in the one language we all had in common, but his French is good enough to conduct the tour in that language as well. Roberto seemed to have a sixth sense for spotting wildlife. He pointed out a mother Caiman surrounded by her babies, several turtles, a few otters and several birds. He pointed out birds and identified them. His bird calls are pretty good as well as he got many birds to respond to him. Don't bother getting on any one else's tour, just go with Casa Marbella's jungle tour. We got back at 9am for breakfast and asked Roberto to be our guide through the national park, and he agreed. You have to wear boots to get into the park and these are available for rent nearly everywhere. I have size 13 feet and the only place that had my size was a little old lady just outside the entrance to the park. Inside the park we spotted a sloth, deer, three different types of monkey, shrimp in a stream, tarantulas, toucans and three eyelash pit vipers. Amazing. I have never seen so many different types of animals in such a short period of time. We are not big into the "dining experience" but I'll tell you we did not have a bad dinner in Tortuguero, it was all very good. Nightlife was interesting. There is one bar/nightclub on the island that appears to be made of driftwood and whatever scraps they could find. The DJ played good music and would switch to karaoke every few songs. It was good hanging out with the locals and we met a few of the boys and had more than a few drinks together. It seems everyone here is a turtle guide, and because it wasn't turtle season, the guides had a lot of time on their hands. Good people. Also in the hall in the middle of the village, was roller skating! EVERYONE was here skating, and doing it well. Turns out that a small company travels around CR with rental skates and a DJ and this provided lots of hours of entertainment for everyone on the island. I reality we only needed two nights in Tortuguero. If it was turtle season we probably would need four nights. We will be coming back here, via the same river route. Up at 5:45am for the boat ride back to Pavona, had breakfast there and right on time along comes mi amigo Luis Chinchilla to deliver us back to reality. Luis drove us to Mapache rent a car, near SJO. He stayed with us through the entire rental process and even went over the car with me, inspecting for existing damage and tire condition. We rented a Daihatsu Terios 4x4. Two months cost ed $2700 which was competitive with everyone else, so we chose Mapache on Hattie's recommendation. The car had 97000 kilometers on it but drove just fine. It was clean inside and out and had the normal dings and scratches that you would expect. I recommend taking pictures of every panel of the car and stay close to the salesman as he checks off existing damage as our guy missed a few obvious things. Because we would have the car for over 30 days, we would have to bring it back for servicing. They were nearly insistant that we bring it back to Alajuela but at my insistance they let me get it serviced at their La Fortuna location. Why this was an issue in the first place I do not know. Only one thing kind of irritated me. The car we had had been broken into. It seems a previous renter had ignored the well known rule of leaving nothing in the car and a thief destroyed the door locks to get into the car. Undoubtedly Mapache charged this guy for new locks, but instead of putting original locks back in, they used a set of generic locks from the hardware store. This means there are two separate keys to the car. No big deal, except that the door key is tiny and had a particularly deep cut in it, making a potential weak spot. I was told that I should get a copy made in case I broke the key! He said they do have a spare but it would cost me $300 to have them deliver it to me. If they charged the previous renter for a new set of locks, they should have replaced all of them with genuine parts so you get one key that isn't in danger of breaking. That pissed me off a little. All in all, the car ran just fine and was perfect for two people. They say it can take four adults, but only if two of the adults are ten years old and don't mind sitting in the back the whole time. Good for two adults and two small children, not much more.
|
|