Costa Rica - Central Pacific Coast
Our visit to Costa Rica had been long-awaited. My good friend Dave and I had actually gotten cheap flights to go back in early 2022, but we decided instead to take our pups out to Atlantic Canada (and as Giz’s last big adventure, I’m so glad we did). But I’d been itching to finally go, and as I usually try to take a trip around my birthday, Costa Rica was the obvious choice. I was also excited to finally visit somewhere in the wintertime where I’d actually be warm. I have this strange habit of traveling to wintery places in the winter (e.g. Montreal, Atlantic Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia). Escaping to sunshine and beaches? Blasphemy!
It was my first time to Costa Rica, and I knew that we weren’t going to be able to reasonably visit both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of the country in 10 days—not without being constantly on the go. So we opted to stay on the Pacific side, with about half the time spent on or near the beach, and the other half inland in cloud or rain forests.
Our first two days were based out of Jacó (pronounced “hako”). I’d heard that Jaco was rather divisive, a tourist town with a main strip lined with bars and noisy tourists. It was definitely not our favourite town, but served its purpose as a base for exploring Manuel Antonio National Park and a day trip to Isla Tortuga. We had a charming AirBnB with a pool, just up the street from the beach, which also had the largest wall-mounted TV I had ever seen. The food in town was nothing to write home about, relatively expensive and very, very slow to arrive. However, Jacó Beach provided a lovely introduction to Costa Rica’s famous coastal sunsets. I thoroughly enjoyed walking along soft sand, the warm ocean waters lapping at my feet, watching the skies turn colours.
Manuel Antonio National Park
The first day of our trip began in San José, where at 6am we picked up our rental car (who I would later dub the "Gutless" Geely) and made the 3-hour drive to Manuel Antonio National Park. It is the smallest national park in Costa Rica but also one of its most popular, encompassing coastal rainforest and white sandy beaches.
In order to visit, one has to reserve timed tickets online in advance. I’d perhaps optimistically reserved a slot between 10-10:40 am—with snack and gas runs, we ended up arriving closer to 11 am. As we drove up to the park area, we were directed by official-looking folks standing in the road into a beach-side parking area. After some confusion and a bit of an exchange in Spanish (on Dave’s part; my Spanish vocabulary is shamefully limited), we paid him $20 USD. Unsurprisingly, we later learned this was not in fact the official parking lot.
We walked down the broad sandy beach and over to the park gate, where our recently-purchased water bottles were confiscated, as they do not permit single-use plastic bottles in the park. The main trail was easy and wide (even wheel-chair accessible!). As we were there at nearly midday and without a guide, we weren't expecting to see any wildlife. We walked the Sendero Perezoso (‘Sloth Trail’) and did manage, by loitering near other guided tours, to spot some sloths snoozing high up in the trees—even glimpsed a baby sloth!
The trail meandered down to the beach, where we enjoyed our first dip in the warm Pacific Ocean. After flying in from Toronto experiencing subzero temperatures, there is nothing quite like sinking up to one’s ears in warm ocean water. We walked around the beaches, spotting tiny crab and even a highly poisonous Fer-de-Lance snake. We mounted what looked to be a recently built wooden viewing platform, which ultimately afforded no real view. After grabbing a caged bite to eat (to keep the food away from the animals), we explored a few remaining trails (unfortunately two of the lookout trails happened to be closed for maintenance). Despite being thousands of kilometres south, the beaches lined with verdant forests and rocky outcroppings definitely gave off Tofino, BC vibes.
After we’d had our fill of rainforest trails, we grabbed a drinkable coconut for the road and made the 1.5-hour journey to Jacó. A pleasant coastal drive that was made a bit traumatizing when we passed a grisly car accident scene involving two downed motorbikes and their deceased drivers in the road. Definitely a chastening moment, reinforcing the need to drive with care on Costa Rica’s often narrow, winding roads.
Isla Tortuga
As we had a desire to go snorkelling, I'd booked a day trip to Isla Tortuga (‘Turtle Island’) with Costa Cat Cruises. I'd read that Tortuga had decent snorkelling (the possibility of seeing manta rays, angel fish, turtles, and even octopus). Isla Tortuga is about 45 minutes by boat from a marina near Jacó. We caught the Costa Cat catamaran and were well-attended by a multitude of waitstaff, making sure we were plied with food and drinks. We disembarked on a small beach lined with beds and umbrellas from different tour operators.
We were eventually outfitted with life vests and snorkel gear and took a short boat ride out into the bay. Our snorkelling time was about 30-45 minutes, and while there were some small schools of tropical fish, it was definitely not teeming with sea life (they even chummed the waters a bit with bread when we first jumped in). So while pleasant, it was definitely a bit underwhelming.
Unfortunately that was the entirety of the trip’s snorkelling adventures, and the rest of the day was spent lounging on the beach (not a horrible thing I grant you, but we did hope to have more snorkel time). They offered margaritas and rum punches, which most of the attendees heartily partook in (though we actually abstained).
The highlight of the trip to Tortuga for me was befriending a lovely Mexican traveller (currently living in Toronto) and doing a hike around the island with her. The relatively short trail offered beautiful views out to sea and of the surrounding islands. We managed to spot some wildlife on the hike including an iguana, deer, javelinas (or peccary), and a few peacocks.
I commemorated our second day in paradise with a rather ridiculous sunburn, involving a fairly pronounced line down my triceps, which I assume came from being face-down snorkelling in the water. By mid-afternoon, we were packed back up and on the boat, whizzing back to the mainland.
