<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html><head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 97"> <title>David Gualtieri's Costa Rica Vacation</title><meta name="Template" content="C:\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\html.dot"><meta content="David Gualtieri" name="author"><meta content="Three weeks in Costa Rica" name="description"></head> <body bgcolor="#000000" link="#0000ff" text="#ffffff" vlink="#800080"> <p><!-- saved from url=(0036)http://www.davidgualtieri.com/costarica/ --></p><div style="text-align: center;"><big><big><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Costa Rica Vacation 2000</span></big></big></big><br></div> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>I lost my camera on this trip after only shooting 1 roll of film. So the photos are going to be pretty weak for this vacation page.</p> <b><p>SAN JOSE</p></b><b><p><span style="font-weight: normal;">I flew into San Jose and got a room at the Hotel Johnson which was located in the west part of downtown near the public market.</span></p> </b><p>The capital city is located on a high plateau and is ringed by mountains. Early on the first day I went to the small hill on the east part of downtown where the national museum is located. I shot a panoramic photo of the mountains ringing the city to the south.&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="SanJo.jpg" height="217" width="570"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>After a few days, I got a bus ticket to La Fortuna, which is a small city located right at the&nbsp; base of the Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately, a rain storm hit while I was there, so I only got a single glimse of the mountain. During the day, it was pouring down rain, and this small city didn't really have much to do &nbsp;indoors. It was quite boring. I hiked out to a waterfall west of the city. I went to travel agent and got a ticket to Monteverde, going from &nbsp;La Fortuna to the north, then crossing the lake by boat and finally getting a 4 X 4 vehicle to Monteverde. &nbsp;It is only about 50 km by air from the Volcano Arenal, but the primitive transportation system makes it either a 6 hour horseback ride, an 8 hour bus ride or (my choice) 3 hour ride by 4 X 4, boat crossing of the lake and then 4 X 4 to Monteverde..</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>ARENAL VOLCANO</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="Vocano.jpg" height="323" width="574"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>MONTEVERDE</p>I stayed in a hostel in the "downtown" area of St. Elena. Monteverde is actually further down the road on the way to the Monteverde Preserve. <p><br></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="downtownmonteverde.jpg" height="384" width="576"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Rain Forest and Cloud Forest Hiking at Monteverde</p> <p>I went to a private biological reserve featured small suspension bridges over river canyons to observe the top layer of the rain forest. It was raining that day. A very fun 3 hour hiking trip. What better conditions to see the rain forest but when it is raining!</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="canopy.jpg" height="384" width="576"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="canopy-2.jpg" height="600" width="400"></p> <p>I recommend you visit the website for Monteverde, titled</p> <p><a href="http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/">http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/</a></p> <p>and click on the photo gallery. This is the website for the hotel I stayed in.</p> <p>I had several other hiking days in the rain forest / cloud forest here. Here are a few photos</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="veggie-1.jpg" height="282" width="423"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="veggie-3.jpg" height="382" width="570"></p> <p>The rain made the plants almost glow under the indirect sunlight. The air was extremely fresh.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="wetLEAVES-2.jpg" height="281" width="418"></p> <p>Rain, Rain, Rain..........</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>I took a public bus to &nbsp;the Pacific coast at Puntarenas. This was an interesting city built on a split of land . I took a ferry boat to the Nicoya &nbsp;Peninsula and &nbsp;stayed in the small city of Motezuma.</p> <p>The beaches on the Nicoya Peninsula, at Montezuma were really nice.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="MontezumaBeach.jpg" height="291" width="452"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I took a short &nbsp;day tour to the Cabo Blanco, which was really scenic, but this is where I lost my camera.</p><p>A photo from Cabo Blanco, showing the great beach in this isolated National Park.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="caboBlanco.gif" height="141" width="427"></p> <p>This map shows the part of my trip where I took the ferry from Puntarenas to Paquera and then on to Montezuma. Cabo Blaco is the extreme tip of the peninsula. It also shows my next destination, Quepos and the Manuel Antonio National Park. </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="map-manualAntonio.gif" height="331" width="461"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I took the ferry back to the mainland and made my way south on the Pacific coast. &nbsp;The next stop was Quepos. &nbsp;My hotel in Quepos was right behind the hill on the right. The National Park was a short 7 Km drive away.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="quepos-aerialphoto.jpg" height="239" width="350"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>A view of the Manuel Antonio National Park from the ocean looking inland. I had a nice day hiking in the national park and saw all three types of native monkeys along the trails.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="ManualAntonio.jpg" height="204" width="263"></p> <p>From Quepos, my next destination was off the beaten path. The name was&nbsp; Zancudo Beach. I took a public bus to the city of Gulfino, and then bargained for a private boat owner to take me to the Zancudo Beach area.</p> <p>Click below for a map and description of the area</p> <p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.visitzancudo.com/getting-there.html">PLAYA ZANCUDO</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img src="map-zancudo.gif" height="363" width="300"></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="text-align: center;">The Pacific Ocean at Zancudo Beach.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;This was as far south as I got, and the weather was getting wetter - not great for beach sitting. I made my way back to San Jose on a crowded public bus. It took all day. By&nbsp;night we were traveling through the mountains on winding, rain-slicked roads. I was sitting in the back of the bus and I could see through the bus's front windsheild. I thought this was a definate disadvantage - it would have been better to not see the &nbsp;immediate driving conditions. The rain, the darkness, the curves, the mountain terrain, no guardrails. I lived through this drive to travel another day.</p> <p></p><div style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;<a href="http://www.davidgualtieri.com"><span style="font-weight: bold;">BACK TO MY HOME PAGE</span></a><br><br></div><p>&nbsp;</p><br></body></html>