This is the second episode of my extended review of the Costa Rica Adventure organized by Premier World Discovery. The introductory article can be found here. I realized that I should perhaps say more about how this tour came about. The tour was put together by the Premier travel agency and offered to a group of 25 residents living in an over-55 community, so we were perhaps towards the upper end of the age spectrum! Some of the information we were given in the presentations and literature turned out to be inaccurate, which is a worrying sign. For instance, we didn’t get free bags on these international flights with American Airlines, and we discovered from our own research on the trip that we didn’t have to pay a $30 departure tax at the San Jose airport in cash as had been explained to us. Since 2014, US airlines are supposed to include this tax in the airline ticket price and it was, in fact, included. We would have spent a lot of time (and money) searching for a way to pay this tax when we arrived at the airport.
As I mentioned in the first article, perhaps we were very unlucky with the weather and a tour in early November is normally much drier, but I must admit that my ChatGPT questions about what to take for this itinerary were very clear that it was going to be wet. And it was!
Finally, if you wonder what this audio player is about – I created a narration of each article so that you can listen to the story if you prefer rather than reading.
But with all that said, back to the Adventure. Although we were just about to leave, I should note that the Evergreen Lodge was nicely designed, with two distinct spaces for restaurants as well as relaxing spaces and even a selection of boats and kayaks for rental (although that did seem to be closed when we were there. There were bars overlooking the river and places to just watch the world go by. Not much opportunity to use them with the weather we had, but I can imagine this is a great place to hang out in the dry season.
There were also some “cute” large rodents that I spotted wandering around. A red-rumped Agouti, which does look like a very big squirrel in this photo.
We were ready to depart at 8am to take the covered boats back to the landing point at La Pavona. The boat moved more steadily this time, with no real opportunities to spot more wildlife, although we did see one of the endangered turtles on the bank.
Back on our coach, we headed through the banana plantation again and onto larger roads to make our way towards the Sarapiqui area and the Arenal Volcano. Lunch was provided in a smart roadside restaurant (rice and beans, I think!) and then we visited a family-owned pineapple farm for the Organic Paradise Tour on a large trailer pulled behind a tractor. I believe that this is one of the largest in the world and we were taken out into the fields for a fascinating story about pineapples and how they are grown (and eaten). The talk, by Elien, was very entertaining, especially watching the peeling of the pineapple with a machete and the fresh sweet fruit was excellent to taste.
The organic pineapples from this farm are available in Costco, apparently.
Back at their farm, we were treated to some lovely Pina Coladas which made a great end to the tour. The coach then took us to our hotel, not in the lush town of Arenal, as promised, but instead to a Resort and Thermal Spa in San Carlos. This seemed an odd place to stay, as we were about an hour’s drive from La Fortuna, the closest town to the volcano. The hotel was fine – there was actually air conditioning that perhaps helped a little with our damp clothes and shoes, but we did start to notice an unpleasant odor on some of the now dry clothes. Dinner that night was around a large table in an almost empty restaurant, and I think that day had been mainly dry!
The next morning, we made this hour drive to La Fortuna. Joe, our guide, had made the great suggestion that we could put our damp clothes in a bag and he would drop them all off in a laundry in La Fortuna and pick them up later in the day. A great suggestion! The itinerary had called for a walking tour in the Arenal Volcano National Park, but with the heavy rain, we were advised that it was not a great idea. If there was a volcano near La Fortuna, it certainly was not visible to us with the heavy clouds shrouding the countryside. Joe did a quick reset and found some of his friends who own a farm/wildlife area to first tour their garden and then go out around La Fortuna for a sloth spotting safari. Their home is on the edge of the jungle, and a group of monkeys was sitting high in a tree. This is where I think Joe made his only mistake of the trip. We had been expecting a walk in the Volcano National Park and so I only took my regular lens (a 24-105mm) and left the telephoto lens in the hotel. A bit stupid of me, but we were only told about the changed plan when we were already on the coach heading for La Fortuna. So, I could see the monkeys but couldn’t get any photos of them that are worth looking at. And then we were off to look for sloths as well. Another opportunity missed as far as I was concerned.
They did have a scope that you could look through at the monkeys, and it did look great. The garden was interesting as we strolled round, with a red-eyed tree frog hiding between two leaves.
Back into the town, we headed for some Sloth spotting. Pretty quickly, the team spotted one high in the branches, and I did manage to get some shots of it in the distance, but I did much better using my phone on their telescope.
Not as good as I could have done with my own camera equipment, but it is what it is!
Next stop was a coffee shop in La Fortuna for a demonstration and tasting of different sorts of Costa Rica coffee and a chance to have some lunch if you wanted it, and then free time strolling the streets of this interesting town. There is a great chocolatier in town, and we headed there as it looked like rain. Sure enough, the heavens opened and the usual afternoon downpour began. So, a hot chocolate gave us a good opportunity to continue to sit in the cafe while we are waiting for our gathering time. Others sat under an awning outside the shop. Does this sound exciting so far?
Next up was a visit to the Vida Campesina, an organic farm garden dedicated to preserving the traditional Costa Rican lifestyle. It had stopped raining as we started our garden tour, learning about the plants that were traditionally used for food and medicine. Some interesting and colorful plants.
The farm was certainly interesting, and we gathered in a barn for a talk about the uses of various plants in the Costa Rica lifestyle and tasted some of the produce on display. Some were definitely beneficial; others were poisons or hallucinogens. The trumpet flower I photographed just outside the barn was an example of the latter. We also got to drink some sugar cane juice straight from the sort of machine people used to compress the canes themselves – more audience participation!
We were having dinner here, but this was no ordinary dinner. Instead, half the group was put to work creating tortillas (with mixed success) and the others were chopping herbs and vegetables for a dressing. The tortillas were baked on a very hot stove and we all sat down to a well-deserved meal including a delicious chicken stew that I hoped didn’t include the hens we had seen earlier! All in all, a good and educational time at the Vida Campesina.
Joe had collected our laundry (which was just $11 for a large bag of mixed clothing) and we headed for the hours’ drive back to our hotel in the pouring rain. A dip in the heated outdoor spa pool sounded good, but it was still pouring with rain.
The next morning, we awoke to, yes, you have guessed it, rain. Even getting to breakfast was a trial. But we were off on the next stage of our adventure – to Monteverde. The route took us, once again, through La Fortuna and, once again, there was no sign of the volcano in the heavy clouds. Maybe next time!
