Costa Rica - Oil from dates, Carara National Park, Morpho butterflies

While heading south to Manuel Antonio we saw miles of palm trees, all lined up in rows, like a drill sergeant was in charge. Yes, our guide Elliot said, these are plantations. But they weren't harvesting coconuts, just dates. And these dates were then squeezed to produce oil - palm oil. Workers cut the dates using long poles, and then other workers collect the dates on the ground. While I'm talking Tico agriculture, I will also mention that our guide Clarence said the pineapples and bananas are not native to Costa Rica. The Internet confirms this. Bananas were first introduced in the 1800s, pineapple in the 1930s. If you want authentic, have a papaya.

Past the palm date oil plantations and past Crocodile Bridge (see previous post) is Carara National Park. Just $10 to enter, but you have to get your ticket online via the devilishly difficult SINAC site, and don't forget your passport number. We spent nearly as much time trying to buy our tickets as our short walk in the park. But we were rewarded with our best view yet of howler monkeys, an interested lizard, and one big male black iguana.

We also saw some fascinating trees: a tree with another tree wrapped around it; a tree with massive buttresses, and mangroves (see previous post). Plus some very interesting root structures. Carara contains two types of forests and attracts over 400 bird species, including macaws. But because we did not have time for a guide, we spotted one bird with our untrained eyes. Carara is worth a visit if you are in the area, but sit down with a cup of tea and good wifi the night before to buy your ticket.

Next I forced Steven to stop at arguably the largest souvenir shop in Costa Rica, in Orotina. It's called El Jardin, and not only does it contain a warehouse of souvenirs at very good prices, it also has a restaurant AND butterfly house. Steven stood around patiently while I selected some Costa Rican style tablecloths (alas, appear to have been made in India!) and some coasters (these marked made in Costa Rica) before we visited the butterfly house in the rear of the store. We were all alone to enjoy the Morpho butterflies. I was delighted to learn they have two outfits. When their wings are closed, they display an intricate brown pattern, like a moth. When they open their wings, the brilliant metallic blue appears that makes them so famous. Fascinating! Now we are headed to the airport in the capital city of San Jose, our lovely trip to Ticiquia nearly over.

Costa Rica: Mangroves boat tour and Jesus Christ Basilisk

Today we took a leisurely boat tour of the mangrove swamp at Damas Island, not far from Quepos. We were picked up at our hotel in one of the ubiquitious white Turismo vans you see all over Costa Rice, then drove through the town of Quepos, population ~26,000 on our way to the swamp.

On the way, our tour guide Elliot explained the typical makeup of a Costa Rican town - a Catholic church, a soccer field (soccer is like a religion in CR) and the school next to the soccer field. Education is mandatory and free in CR. If you don't enroll your child in school, the Ministry of Education will be knocking on your door! I suspect Quepos houses all the tourist trade workers that keep the hotels and tours in Manuel Antonio running! A typical house is a small single story affair probably of adobe, brightly painted, surrounded by an 8-10 foot gated entrance, sometimes topped with barbed wire. I initially thought these gates were meant to keep out monkeys and varmints, but every creature in Costa Rica climbs, so I think it's to keep out human burglars.

Once at the swamp we climbed into a flat bottomed boat and Elliot immediately began scanning for animals for us. First, the blue heron, which throws bits of fish into the river from it's last meal to attract the fish for its next meal, then a mangrove boa, and a green snake (almost impossible to spot), and a line of tiny resting long-nosed bats that looked like tarantulas from a distance.

And then a Jesus Christ Basilisk. Why that name? Because they can run across the river without sinking. Yes, they walk on water. How? They run fast (5 feet a second) and create air bubbles beneath their feet. They can cover 13 to 16 feet this way before sinking into the water. Our Jesus basilisk did not demonstrate this miraculous locomotion for us. Nor did we see caimans or crocodiles which also frequent this swamp. We did see leaf cutter ants. The worker ants in the colony cut and carry bits of leaves up to 20 times their own size, guided by the explorer ants that fly ahead of them, scouting out plants and emitting pheremones the worker ants follow. The ants are blind, hence the need for the scent trail. The colony also includes a Queen and soldier ants and male ants that fly off to form new colonies.

We also saw two different types of mangroves, a type of tree that has a massive crawling root system to hold it in place as the waters rise and fall. We are in the four month dry season, but in the eight month wet season the water can rise five feet more. more. Yes, they still give boat tours in the wet season, but only when the weather is not dangerous.

The tour finishes with lunch at a local restaurant, cafeteria style. We booked through Jade Tours. Highly recommend.

Costa Rica: Monkeys in Manuel Antonio Park, plus world's sweatiest hike

For our first day on the Pacific coast we wanted to see monkeys and other critters, but mostly monkeys. To do so, we joined Clarence, our guide, and approximately one bjillion other tourists at the busiest park in all of Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio Park. Guides in this park have different uniforms but are easily identified by their "scopes," high-powered binoculars placed on chest-high tripods. These scopes our carried on their shoulders as they guide up to ten tourists through the crowds. A clump of humans next to a scope indicates an animal sighting. The guides all know each other and jovially chat in Spanish to each other, passing on animal locations. If you want to see more animals, you need one of these guides! If you only want to see monkeys, red crabs and basilisk lizards, you are welcome to go on your own.

Scope on the shoulder, Clarence led us to a basilisk (a lizard with a crown), a parakeet that looked like leaf litter (look for the eyes), a boa constrictor, one lone howler monkey (the world's second loudest animal), Costa Rica's largest grasshopper, red crabs, a cool spider, and two types of bats.

He also showed us grasshoppers on a tree trunk that grow fake legs with some type of white excretion that looked entirely fake but good enought to fool potential predators. It looked like an alien species to me.

As we came to the first of two beaches, Clarence repositioned his scope three times to get us a good view of a sloth, but the sloth, being slothful, was curled up in a ball facing away from us and not moving. So here you have a shot of some sloth fur. (On our second trip to the park, we saw the face of a sloth, but could not get a good picture.) Sloths live very high in the treetrops, only coming down every 8 days to poop in a favorite tree, almost as if fertilizing it. Otherwise, they never come down to the ground.

So, not such great luck with the sloth, but the white-faced capushun monkeys showed up shortly thereafter to distract and charm us. These monkeys are omnivores, and until the park banned food completely, they would wait for the tourist to leave her backpack on the beach and then unzip it and throw everything out looking for food. I saw a monkey do this with my own eyes. Though there is no food, they still haven't caught on to the new rules quite yet. The monkeys we saw included a mom and new baby, clinging to her back, just a few weeks old according to Clarence.

We also observed monkeys eating berries (if a monkey eats something from the jungle, it's safe for you to do so too), jumping from tree to tree like it was no big deal, using their tale as a third hand, and chilling on rooftops in town.

Because of this no-food-in-the-backpack rule, they have devised a clever way to feed humans. You eat your food in a large metal cage. It was in this cage that we paused for fresh fruit and sweet tea. See photo!

After the tour we headed to one of two beaches in the park, Playa Espadilla. This is directly across from the other beach, Playa Manuel Antonio, separated by a narrow strip of jungle that fans out to a peninsula. This is called a tombolo for you geologists out there.

Playa Espadilla has deeper blue water and (I would argue) warmer water. But both beaches are everyone's idea of a tropical paradise. Walking into the ocean here is like taking a warm bath. The following day we returned to the park on our own to see more monkeys and try out some snorkeling at Playa Manuel Antonio where we saw surgeonfish and banded butterflyfish and some large fish, maybe a foot long, that were shaped a lot like trout. You will not see a lot of fish here, but it's a pleasant diversion if visibility is good. =======================

And now to the world's sweatiest hike, which I completed in a dress no less. Our hotel offers a complimentary tour of their seven hecactre grounds, where they are working on reintroducing macaws into the wild. I expected this to be our tour guide Clarence pointing to plants and maneuvering his scope for close ups of spiders and such. But there was no scope and Clarence wore rubber boots and handed us walking sticks. Turns out it was a muddy two mile hike uphill. Good thing I'd worn sturdy shoes. The trail started with a brick path, then quickly turned into sandbagged hills with rope railings. Mix in high humidity, and the result was profuse sweating. Here you see Clarence in profile at the top of the trail, the sun setting over the ocean. Finally, near the viewpoint, Clarence pointed out an elusive macaw in the distance. The hotel rehabilates captive and injured macaws. They have to be taught to socialize with other macaws before they can be let back in the wild. If they can't be released, then their offspring are released. For each bird, the process can take one and a half to two years.

Of course, the next day as we were at our hotel balcony, a macaw posed for us, no hike required.

Costa Rica - Tarcoles Rio - Crocodile Bridge

We left La Fortuna at the civilized hour of 10:50 a.m. for the five hour drive to Quepos and Manuel Antonio, on the Pacific Coast. Costa Rica does not have an interstate highway system similar to the states.

And while most roads are paved, they are narrow and windy and filled with single lane bridges. Generally there are no shoulders and cars and trucks pause to make deliveries or chat with neighbors. I think you get the picture. But you are surrounded by jungle, except in the big city of Ramon. (Very busy with a rodeo). You don't mind until there is an accident, and traffic backs up for an hour (which it did for us). If you get hungry while you wait, vendors are on hand, taking advantage of the captive crowd. Fresh fruit and waffles at the ready!

It was just after the hour long delay that we were able to stop at Tarcoles river "Crocodile Bridge." Thanks to the crocodiles that like to sun themsleves on the river bank below the bridge, this spot has become a tourist destination. We spied four big 'uns safely from the bridge. They like to cake themselves in mud and just lay around motionless, sunning themselves. Typical size? 10-13 feet.

Costa Rica - La Fortuna - Tiquicia

For our last night in La Fortuna we had a scrumptious dinner at Tiquicia, which has the mission (and vision) of being the flagship restaurant for authentic Costa Rican food. The name is a colloquial way of referring to Costa Ricans. But I'll let the News of Costa Rica explain: "The popular Tico comes from the widespread custom among Costa Ricans to use the suffix “-ico” or “-ica” as a diminutive when speaking. For this reason, it is common in the country to hear words like “momentico”, “fotico” or “patico” as more colloquial and generally affectionate forms. The suffix “-ico” is also used in areas of other Central American and Caribbean countries and even in Spanish communities such as Navarra and Aragon, but in Costa Rica it is undoubtedly a hallmark of its own. And although it is not clear when the name “ticos” began to become popular, one of the most widespread theories states that it was in the Central American Homeland War (1856-1857) against the filibusters of William Walker. During this conflict, the armies of other countries became aware of the frequency with which Costa Rican soldiers used the formula “-ico” when speaking (as when they said “hermaniticos” to refer to their compatriots) and ended up calling them “ticos”. From this same name comes Tiquicia (typical of / related to the Ticos), the colloquial way in which its inhabitants refer to Costa Rica."

We started with dragon fruit margaritas. They were enormous, though our waiter joked they were the small size.

This was followed by fried green plaintains with a supersize parsley garnish and two dips. Yum. My main entree was Costa Rican beef fajitas. Excellente.

And we finished with coconut flan and Costa Rican coffee. As with all restaurants in tropical Costa Rica, it's all open air. The roof keeps you from getting wet. But you are never too hot in La Fortuna and never too cold.

Costa Rica - Arenal Observatory and Lodge

Christmas Day 2025 in Costa Rica, and business as usual? About 70% of Costa Ricans identify as Catholic, but we are also visiting during tourist high season. That means you can still zipline, get wet and muddy on ATVs, do some horseback riding, or see how coffee and chocolate are made. All these tours were doing great business today, but the most popular destination by far were the hot springs in and around La Fortuna. In fact, they were so busy we had to sit through several traffic jams to and from our own destination today: Arenal Observatory and Lodge.

The lodge was originally founded in 1978 as a macadamiam farm but the soil proved too wet for that crop. But the lodge sits at the base of Arenal Volcano, active from 1968 to 2010. Over those 42 years, volcanologists needed a space to camp, and thus the 870-acre farm slowly became a nature lovers retreat.

Now it is a little off the beaten path (we recommend a four wheel drive), but has plenty of trails, not to mention a spa, coffee and smoothie bar and a restaurant with views of both the volcano and Lake Arenal. The latter was partially formed after the volcano came to life in 1968, killing 78 and obliterating two villages. Now the lake provides hydroelectricity for the area.

The lodge has rain shelters throughout the grounds. And even though it's the dryer season, that doesn't mean you won't get caught in a downpour, as we were. We weren't near any of those rain shelters so we elected to step into that coffee bar I mentioned earlier (which also doubles as a museum) to pick up a rain poncho. But as tends to happen when you purchase rain gear, the rain stopped and we took ourselves down to the frog pond and hormiga (ant) trail via the lodge's own hanging bridge (no jumping! no running!) and took in the beautifully planted gardens. The trees here are covered in moss and epiphytes and bromeliads (air plants), and surrounded by orchids and heliconia. And everything is drip, drip, dripping with moisture.

We then circled back to that restaurant with the great views where I had a typical casada lunch. I kept stepping outside to the balcony to get the best picture of the volcano, but nature did not cooperate. Just know that the volcano is almost perfectly conical, except for the crater lake at the top.

But while dining, I noticed a pandemonium of parrots and other colorful birds in the treetops. Why? A bird feeding station was just around the corner, with papayas and watermelon. After our coconut flan dessert, we had a seat on the deck and took out the binoculars. My photos do not do these birds justice. You don't have to stay are Arenal Observatory and Lodge to enjoy the grounds. Get a day pass for $20, plus $20 for lunch, and enjoy.