28 February 2024

In the evening I flew back home, after having a cup of very good coffee in the bus station Terminal Fecosa. The flight was very tiring. I will miss the hot weather. I liked our trip very much, but I don't think I will be back. Costa Rica is too expensive, and there are so many other places to see.

27 February 2024

Poas National Park

Today I had an amazing day. I wanted to visit Poas National Park and especially the volcano. The half day tours cost $80 and I didn't really wanted to spend this money. So I woke up early and took a public bus to a town called Poas and then another bus to a village called Poasito. The bus drivers helped me so much with this trip. From Poasito there are 10 kilometres to the volcano. There is no bus going there, so I hitch-hiked :) A local lady took me to the volcano, and on the way back a French woman stopped and took me to my accommodation in Alajuela. She is also travelling on her own and we had a good chat during the trip, in Spanish. I was so lucky! I even had time to visit the local museum of history that I found boring, but hey, I soaked up some culture. 

Alajuela

I took a public bus from Jaco to Alajuela. It's a town near San José, the airport and Poas National Park and volcano that I wanted to visit. I had a pleasant stay in Alajuela, it's similar to San José but much smaller. The people are very nice and always try to help the best they can. They also like chatting, as they do in the whole country.

26 February 2024

Then Hannia took me by car to Tarcoles Crocodile Bridge near Tarcoles village. There are many crocodiles in the river, one of them was huge. Apparently it's the most polluted river in Central America, as it flows from San José and carries all kinds of objects, plastics, and other kinds of waste. The crocodiles must be fed by someone because they stay near near the bridge all the time. Probably for the tourist/money reason, as there are many organised tours to see the crocodiles.

Hannia, my host, invited me on a hike. Her long term tenant Clayton who is American, came too. We went to El Miro which is an area in the forest and leads to some ruins of a building, at the moment used by the homeless people and drug users. Despite that it's still amazing, the walls are covered in nice graffiti and the view is beautiful.

25 February 2024

Jaco

I arrived in Jaco and walked to my host's house. The house is beautiful and my host is lovely, but it's far from the beach, 20 minutes by foot. If I stayed here longer, I would rent a bicycle for sure. 
I went for an evening swim just before the sunset and it was wonderful, I felt happy. I was very sceptical about Jaco before I left London as it's a place for American surfers. Now I know I like it and I enjoy very much my early morning and late evening swims.

24 February 2024

Today we left Quepos. I have mixed feelings about Quepos. It has amazing sunsets and potential to be an interesting town. At the moment it's tatty and a little bit dirty. There are many bars and restaurants for tourists, but not too many. Where our apartment is, local people live and it can look a little bit rough, however I have seen much rougher places before. The people living in the street are welcoming and friendly.

Yesterday we visited Manuel Antonio National Park. It was nice but over-promoted. There are many nicer parks in Costa Rica, but this one is the most popular, strangely. The animals are high on the trees so you can't really see them properly, when in order places sloths were hanging right above our heads. We had a nice walk and visited two beaches in the park.

23 February 2024

Uvita

On the second day in Quepos we took a public bus and went to Uvita National Park (Parque Nacional de Ballenas). The bus took 2 hours and arrived just in time for a quick walk to the "whale's tail" and back, before the water raised and it was not possible to walk anymore. The park is absolutely beautiful. 

21 February 2024

Jaco

Yesterday we travelled for 7 hours by public buses from La Fortuna to Jaco. The journey was long but good. At the beginning it was raining a lot in, and near La Fortuna, then near San Ramon it was cloudy (cloud Forrest). As we were approaching Jaco, it became sunny and very hot. We had a walk in the town in the evening. 
This morning we went for a swim at 8 am. It was great, the sea was clean and warm. 
In the evening we did ziplining outside of Jaco, near Playa Hermosa. It was a great experience, there was only 6 people in the group so there was no long wait for our turn. After that we took a bus to Quepos. The bus driver was very talkative and we talked about many things during the journey (in Spanish). Overall it was a great day.

19 February 2024

Today we went to hot springs in Rio Chollin in Tabacón. It's a river with very warm water and it was my best experience in La Fortuna. We went early so there weren't many people. It was raining again as we were in the middle of a rainforest, but hey, it didn't matter as we were getting river jacuzzi, surrounded by the forest. It was wonderful.
In the afternoon I did Bogarin Trail, which is a sloth watching trail. There were 2 sloths high on the trees and I saw no other animals. In my opinion it's not worth going there, especially that the ticket costs 9 dollars.

18 February 2024

Today the weather is much better than yesterday, so we feel better about being in La Fortuna. We did two hikes in near the Volcano Arenal. I have seen many more impressive volcanos, but it's nice to be in the park and the vegetation is wonderful. The air is very humid, the plants are tropical and beautiful. It was a great day.

17 February 2024

La Fortuna

We are staying 3 full days in La Fortuna. We are very unlucky with the weather, it's raining and therefore feels depressing. I don't like it here. The town is full of cars and you breathe the fumes all the time when in the centre. It's disappointing that because of the weather we can't see the Arenal vulcano. Today we visited the Arenal lake. It's a nice lake and if the weather was different, we would hire a small boat and do some activities. La Fortuna is a tourists trap and all the tours and services and expensive. 

15 February 2024

From Tortuguero we took a boat to Pavona, and then a minibus to our next destination, La Fortuna. The journey was $60 so quite expensive, but the boat ride was very good and our accommodation hosts came with us to make sure that the transfer in Pavona went well. We were able to practice Spanish a lot, which was priceless, and our hosts gave us a lot of information about the local area. 

On the second day we went by boat to Cerro Tortuguero. It was a 15-minutes boat ride from Tortuguero village. Cerro Tortuguero used to be a volcano many years ago, now is a beautiful hill with a beautiful view from it. Not far from the hill is a village called San Francisco that we also visited. Then we came back to Tortuguero by a boat (which is the only way to travel there) and went for another amazing walk inside the national park. The trail was called Jaguar trail because there are 18 jaguars living in the park. We didn't see any, we saw peacocks, monkeys and a grey squirrel. 

Tortuguero National Park

We spent two wonderful days in Parque Nacional Tortuguero, in the north part of Costa Rica. It's a national park and the only way to get there is by boat. We took a boat from Puerto Limón, it took 3 hours and cost $35. Everyone loved the trip on the canal, we saw small crocodiles and a caiman, many birds and a snake that was swimming across the canal. 

13 February 2024

On the last day in Puerto Viejo, we hired bicycles again and cycled to Manzanillo and Playa Uva. It was very humid and hot, so I struggled a little bit, but generally it was another great day.

12 February 2024

Cahuita National Park

We spent two days in Cahuita National Park, hiking and swimming. It's a very beautiful park and the jungle is amazing. We saw a sloth, monkeys, racoons and beautiful butterflies. Playa Blanca was a good beach to swim, not very rough. Playa Puerto Vargas was too rough to swim, but it was nice to have a dip in the cold water, as today is especially hot.
In general, the park is a wonderful place, and easy to get to from different towns.






10 February 2024

Manzanillo and Punta Uva

Today is Fausto's birthday. We rented bikes and drove to Manzanillo and Punta Uva. The bikes were great, good quality and fast. It cost £5 to rent one for the whole day, finally something reasonably priced when everything is expensive. 
On the way there we saw a sloth on a tree, there was a group of people looking at it, as it's not that easy to spot one. In Manzanillo we went to a park that was wonderful, a real Carribbean representation.
Then we went to Punta Uva, which is a village with the best beach. The sea was much calmer than in the morning and we had a swim.
We rode back and went to a restaurant in the evening, exhausted.

09 February 2024

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

We got on a bus to Puerto Viejo at 6 am. It took 5 hours. Puerto Viejo is a Carribbean coast village and I like it a lot. 

08 February 2024

San José, Costa Rica

We arrived in San José on Tuesday, and took a public bus from the airport to our rented apartment. The next day we went to the centre of the city, at 6 am because of the jetlag. It was cold and windy. The weather changed later, at midday, it was hot and sunny.

We visited the National Museum and the Museum of Costa Rican art. The city itself is not so pretty, although it has nice parks. We also went to the Central Market that we liked.

We had lunch in a local Soda, a place with typical Costa Rican food, which seemed to be very bland. It may be the effect of the jetlag..

07 January 2024

On 28th December we went to see "Backstairs Billy" play at Duke of York's Theatre. I don't really go to theatres anymore, as they are too expensive and often I get bored. This play was very good though, and very funny, and the theatre is beautiful. It was also great to see friends at the end of the year.



12 October 2023

On my last day I went to the beach in front of the hotel, and then I travelled by bus to Pisa, with my two heavy rucksacks. But I was happy that I did it, as I liked Pisa a lot, not only the Tower of Pisa but also the whole city, or at least what I saw when I was walking from the city centre to the airport.



10 October 2023

I also visited Lucca, a beautiful town half an hour by train from the sea. It's small and so lovely, and it's a birthplace of Puccini. I met with Paolo from Couchsurfing, who showed me around and also took me to a nice craft beer bar, where I tried some nice and strong (8%) beers. I had a great evening.



09 October 2023

This morning Danielle gave me a lift to Sarzana, where I took a train to Lido di Camaiore. I booked a hotel for 2 nights, right by the beach. The beach is nice, large and clean, but to swim I have to walk a lot, as the water is shallow for a while.