First of all I want to wish all the best in the world to
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I don't know if in Costa Rica they have zoo gardens like we know them here in Europe. They don't need any, anyway, because they have all these natural parks where you go and see the animals, in free state. It is rather difficult to spot them by yourself, because they know how to camouflage well, and you, as an foreigner, don't know much about these ( Read more... )

Costa Rica is sided by two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic. Well, technically, by an ocean and a sea - the Caribbean Sea. Yeah, the one with the pirates. We went to both of them, first the Pacific and then the Caribbean/Atlantic. The two coasts are very different to each other, regarding the people that live there and many other things. But ( Read more... )

We tried like 3 times, in 3 different days, to get to see the volcano Irazu, but it was always misty up there. We finally went, and waited for the mist to go away and we finally saw it. Irazu is relatively calm now, but the last time it errupted was 1963 to 1965. John F. Kennedy was visiting the country back then, when it started. Right now it's a ( Read more... )

Casa Turire is a 5 stars hotel in a former mansion. There were huge sugar cane plantations, and the mansion belonged to the owner of these plantations. Now, it's a park around the house, with an artificial lake. And, of course, at the horizon - the mountains.

But first...


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To travel in Costa Rica, one needs a car. There are buses and planes, but it's better by car. They used to have trains, but they suspended them, there's only a bit of railway traffic in San Jose. So, to be able to travel here and there we rented a car. My sister rented it, actually, before we arrived. Renting a car there is rather expensive, ( Read more... )

There's not much architecture to seek for in Costa Rica. There are also no pyramids and such built by natives, like in other countries in the area. The conditions of the zone wouldn't have allowed to, most of the country being on mountains and active volcanoes, and after the Europeans showed up... You know the story. In Cartago itself, the only ( Read more... )

I posted a pic of it before, but it is worth posting again. The pizote. We encountered more than one, but this was our very first. It was walking on the side of the road as we were driving in Tapanti park. We stopped the cars and he came to us. Dunno how used this one with humans was, but he surely was friendly. We met later others that were very ( Read more... )

Tapanti is one of the many, many national parks in Costa Rica. They don't have much industry there, but they sure exploit their touristic resources. They have parks in the mountains, around volcanoes, on the beach, canopy parks with bridges above the tops of the trees in the tropical forest and all sort of other stuff. One can also pay a guide that ( Read more... )