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Adventure in Costa Rica
	Top: View from Tortugeuro River. Left: A Rufous Motmot seen during the hike across a series of hanging bridges in a rainforest above Arenal. Bungalow at Captain Suizo in Tamarindo
By Nadja Maril
Photos taken by Nadja Maril, family & friends…)

Have you ever been on an amusement ride that attempts to re-create the sensation of traveling through the jungle and sighting unusual and exotic creatures? You know that while you try to entertain yourself with the fantasy of what it might be like to walk through a tropical rainforest or scramble over hills of volcanic rock, the experience falls short of being authentic. It is, after all, just a fantasy and whatever you encounter has been set there intentionally for you to find.

Not so when you vacation in Costa Rica. For several years I’d been hearing friends talk about their wonderful trips to Costa Rica. They’d return with photographs of beautiful birds and butterflies. They’d talk about all the different varieties of bananas, the monkeys and the sloths, the delicious coffee, and the beautiful beaches. But it never entirely sank in, until I visited there myself, that other than in the big cities, the adventure is everywhere.

Editor Nadja Maril flanked by husband Peter Crilly and daughter Alex by the pool at Tortuga Lodge in Tortiquero.

Costa Rica is slightly smaller than West Virginia, yet it features greater biodiversity than Europe or North America due to its tropical climate, wide range of habitats, and location between North America and South America. The Caribbean Sea borders one side of this democratic republic made up of seven provinces, while the Pacific Ocean is to the west. Nicaragua shares its northern border and Panama shares the border on the south.

Having heard tales of white-water rafting, four volcanoes (two of them active), sea turtles, and wonderful waves for surfing, I wanted to see everything—and the country is small enough so that if you plan things well you can do just that in as little as 10 days. We did have help from a savvy travel agent and from professional tour guides in Costa Rica. If you are not fluent in Spanish a bilingual guide will help you to navigate your way through bumpy roads and sleepy villages to your destination. Rugged mountain terrain and the tropical rains mean that roads are narrow and have deep gullies. There are two primary ways to get around Costa Rica—airplane and automobile. We used both.

An Aerial view of Arenal, the youngest and most active volcano in Costa Rica.

My husband, Peter, and daughter, Alex (age14), and I arrived in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, on a Friday afternoon, with time to explore the downtown market and museums, because we left from BWI Thurgood Marshall airport early in the morning. Throughout our visit we stayed at small hotels that were both intimate and gracious. The Grano de Oro, a nineteenth-century mansion with thirty-five guest rooms, near Sabana Park in the downtown area, was no exception. A rooftop patio with two hot tubs and a fine restaurant that served meals on a garden terrace quickly put us into the vacation state of mind.

Early the next morning we were picked up in a tour van by Costa Rica Expeditions, one of the country’s major tour guide businesses, for a day of rafting on the Pacuare River, named one of the top 10 river trips in the world by National Geographic. No one under the age of 13 is allowed on this river, due to the tremendous force of the currents. It’s not unusual, even with attentive training and fierce paddling, for someone to be thrown out of the boat as you travel down the river; but there are also safe locations where you can intentionally get out and take a swim as a relief from the hot sun. We joined up with a group of four, more hardy, vacationers and began the day with a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of fruit, rice, sausage, beans, eggs, and tortillas. It took approximately 3 hours to travel to the start of our 5-hour journey down the river. Two-thirds of the way down the river we stopped for a picnic lunch on the shore. During our drive we viewed banana plantations, a three toed-sloth sleeping in a tree, and iguanas. Traveling down the river we saw natural waterfalls, luscious plants, and handsome rock formations.

Top, right: To celebrate Peter’s birthday August 14th, we hired Ed Brown, the retired manager of Tortuga Lodge, to take us out on the Tortuguero River to the mouth of the Carribean in his boat. Much to his surprise, our daughter Alex caught a fish, a large Snook, within 30 minutes of putting our lines in the water. Alex and Ed showing off their catch. The chef at the lodge used part of the fish to create sushi for all the guests that evening and the remainder to prepare a birthday feast.

National parks, wildlife refuges, and reserves cover 25 percent of the nation’s land in recognition of the significance of Costa Rica’s biodiversity and the importance of the tourist trade. Costa Rica is home to 9000 species of plants, 850 species of birds, 200 species of mammals, and 35,000 species of insects. Most of the tourists are interested, as we were, in viewing examples of plant and animal life firsthand. Our next visit was to Tortuguero, through 51,970 acres of national park. To get to this secluded village bordering on the Caribbean, which is one of the nesting places of the green sea turtle, you must travel by boat or by airplane. We first traveled by van, to the Atlantic lowlands near Limon, where we boarded a boat for the 3-hour trip to Tortuguero. On our way we observed caimans, monkeys, toucans, parrots, and colorful butterflies.

We stayed at the Tortuga Lodge, set on the banks of the Tortuguero River. We shared a large suite furnished in rich dark woods. It had plenty of fans, and mosquito nets around the beds, but no air conditioning. We cooled off in the non-chlorine–purified swimming pool and looked out over the river beyond to the luscious greenery, hoping to glimpse a family of monkeys in the trees. A boat could take us to the opposite side of the river and a quick walk through the jungle led us to the Caribbean and a beach of gray sand strewn with trash from cruise ships on the sea. The water is rough and we were warned, with tales of sharks, not to swim there. Whether or not there actually are sharks, there are no lifeguards and there is an undertow, so it is definitely swim at your own risk.

The weather turned quickly from hot to wet in the 2 days we were there. Unfortunately it was raining heavily the night we went to watch one of the Atlantic green sea turtles lay her eggs on the beach. Led by a park guide we huddled around and quietly observed the massive creature laying her eggs in the sand and using her broad heavy flippers to cover them with sand. It was an experience to remember and treasure.

Nadja and daughter Alex in front of a public garden in San Jose

The fourth morning we were on our way, in a small airplane, back to San Jose and then, in a Costa Rica Expeditions van, to the area around Arenal, the youngest and most active volcano in Costa Rica. There we walked the trails around the volcano; spent an evening at a natural hot spring, Ecotermales La Fortuna; and spent a half day on a guided hike over hanging bridges positioned in the mountains above Arenal lake where we observed more monkeys, sloths, butterflies, and birds close up. One of the birds was a Rufous Motmot that I was able to capture in a picture with the help of the tour guide.

Our last destination was Tamarindo. The 5-hour drive there was long and bumpy—so bumpy that both Alex and I resorted to pills for motion sickness. But the distance traveled was worth the arrival into another tropical paradise—this time the white beaches of the Pacific. Tamarindo was definitely the most expensive of the locations we visited, with restaurant dinners in the same range as a fine dinner in Annapolis. Our hotel, Capitan Suizo, is touted by many travel authorities as being one of the finest beach resorts in Costa Rica. It was a lovely setting with a combination of bungalows and twenty-two rooms. We stayed in a bungalow and animals were all around us, some strolling the grounds while dozens of iguanas who sunned themselves on the clay-tiled roofs. Peter called them all Eduardo. He made the mistake of offering one food while we were eating our lunch in the restaurant, open on all four sides to allow guests to enjoy the view of the beach and pool. The 4-foot-long lizard started coming back again and again, looking for more to eat. I only like iguanas from a distance. The kitchen staff puts out bananas to feed the raccoons and the monkeys so that wildlife is always close by. Surfboards are available for rent by the hour or the day. We rented a surfboard for Alex and another teenager coached her on how to catch a wave. I was content to swim and lie on the beach and watch. In the evening we’d walk into town by the beach, partially because there are no sidewalks and the roads are muddy and lined with ditches due to the frequent rain. This prosperity means more likelihood of thieves, so this is a town where you should watch your purse and possessions. The bungalow next to ours was broken into the night before we left. So on our last night there we were all on edge that the thief would return. In the middle of the night something wet and slimy fell on me and I called out in terror. My husband declared I must be dreaming. But when he turned on the light, there it was: a bright green frog! It quickly hopped away to take refuge in the bathroom. I chased after it, always the journalist, trying to take a picture. Truly Costa Rica is an adventure. It’s a wonderful vacation spot whether you’re traveling alone, as a couple, or as a family. There’s a lot for everyone to discover and enjoy.

Editor Nadja Maril visited Costa Rica last August.