We took a tiny plane with Skyway Airlines from Bocas del Toro, Panama to San José, Costa Rica.
The flight was remarkably smooth and Michelle was quite calm (and Ronnie’s arm unscratched).
Costa Rica has 27 National Parks, and is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world. You can also surf in two oceans – Caribbean and Pacific – in one day.
Costa Rica also has a number of progressive claims to fame:
- San José was one of the first cities in the world with electricity
- Ban on recreational hunting
- Army abolished in 1948 after a civil war – the money goes towards healthcare and education
- Over 300 days per year (2017) powered by renewable energy
- Aiming to be one of the first countries to ban single use plastic
The Costa Rican motto / greeting is “Pura Vida” translated as “Pure Life”. It’s more of a philosophy though.
After a night in a small hotel near San José airport, we got a mini-van transfer to La Pavona on the Caribbean coast where we caught the boat to Tortuguero National Park. On the way, we passed many farms. Being fairly near the equator, Costa Rica has a year-round warm climate with lots of rain, so it’s easy to grow crops. There were many banana plantations.
See the blue plastic bags covering the bunches of bananas to protect them from insects while on the trees. Although Costa Rica is still being progressive by aiming to be one of the first countries to ban single-use plastics, the banana covers aren’t helping!
We then caught a boat for the one hour journey to Tortuguero village.
Tortuguero is named after the Turtles who come to lay their eggs on the beaches. Bad timing as we missed them.
In the morning, we took a guided wildlife tour on canoes on the waterways. The canoes took 7 people plus the guide.
We took a guided wildlife night walk.
The Red-eyed frog is the symbol of Costa Rica, so I thought I’d better show you a better picture from Wikipedia.
In all, on the night walk we saw: Red-eyed frogs, Bull frogs, 2 and 3 toed sloths, Raccoon, Opposum, Owl butterfly, Brown lizard, Wolf spider, Snake. Pretty successful! Ronnie still wanted to meet a Jaguar though.
