Great place...
Be sure to go to Nosara on the Pacific side, great surfing (for those who do it) --I only body surf, a long time ago sharks curtailed my surfer career short (they ate a Canadian guy the day I was to take my second lesson on the exact same beach I was to have the lessons... the night before I went to the local night clubs, hence arrived late to the session. Shark ate Canadian, I cancelled lesson and surfing career -ggg-
btw... that was NOT in Costa Rica.
Ticos (as locals are called by the rest of Latin Americans) are extremely friendly people. If you want to make friends quickly, tell them that you saw the Tico soccer team beat the Mexican team several times... You will make friends for life, the more you criticize the Mexican team and say that the Ticos did a great job beating them, the closer the friendship will become.
Of course, make sure that there are no Mexicans around when you do so, unless you want to start a MAJOR argument. -gg-
All of the Pacific coast has great beaches, roads are not the best as many of them are dirt roads in the middle of the rain forest (major holes to deal with). I believe their rainy season is from May/June through October.
There are flights between San José (the capital city) and Nosara (the great beach place) In Nosara there are a lot of smaller hotels run by exiled-Europeans (Swiss and German primarily -- there are several web sites of these hotels. Just do a Google on Costa Rica hotels
example:
google.com
Here youi will find some info on what you were asking for... tours, rafting, volcano tours etc....
bestofcostarica.com
They say (I did not go there) that the Caribbean Coast is full of Mosquitos... don't know for sure.
If you travel through the rain forest be careful, reportedly, the most poisonous snake in the world resides in CR.
Speaking Spanish would obviously help you tons... it simply opens a million other doors as opposed to simply go as a tourist who does not speak the local language.
Right now I am traveling myself, (not in CR) so I won't be able to follow up with this, as I do not know when I will be back on line.
Good luck and have fun...
Ah yes.... Deep sea fishing in CR is also major fun, the pacific side...
If you play golf, you can negotiate to play in their private clubs by carrying your membership card of any private club in the US (or any other country)
In one of the private clubs in San José, I had the most incedible experience when I was shown the driving range and was told to start hitting balls, and I said:
"But what about those guys over there with the buckets ?"
The man said... don't worry about them, they are there to pick up the balls... I thought the guy was kidding... nope, he was dead serious, and as I was hitting them (the golf alls, that is), these guys were chasing them and sometimes they would even catch them after the first bounce and collected the balls in the baskets they carried...
Since the man survived the firing, he was rewarded by being my caddie for the day... -ggg-
I am actually surprised there are no great baseball outfielders from Costa Rica in the US major leagues.. I guess they are too concentrated in soccer.
Have a great trip |
