Costa Rica
With the world still recovering from the remnants of Covid, travel continues to be somewhat restricted, and many people are still scared of getting sick.
It was a huge surprise to me, then, that when I asked several of my closest friends if they’d be up for celebrating my bachelor party in Costa Rica, six of them didn’t just say ‘yes,’ they actually said something to the extent of ‘f*ck yea!’
As humbled and excited as I was that they decided to come, I knew it would present planning and logistical challenges. I heard that Costa Rica was notorious for having a lax, late, and go-with-the-flow Pura Vida mindset. The Paraguayan in me was not at all surprised by this, but the American in me already had a predisposition to being annoyed. The hiker and photographer in me had a list of must-do’s in Costa Rica, and now I had to plan to do many of them in a group of seven.
The view as seen from the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. A roughly 30-minute hike will lead you to an observation deck that overlooks the continental divide - the point at which waters flowing east end up in the Caribbean, and waters flowing west empty into the Pacific Ocean.
I found a large house in a town on the pacific coast called Jaco, which was conveniently located next to many of the activities I wanted to do. Each of us had our own bedroom, and the house had a gate, two kitchens, and a pool - all for a pretty reasonable price. The town was about a five-minute walk from the house, and the beach not much further. I chose Jaco because it was, at most, a four-hour drive to the Hanging Bridges and Arenal Volcano of La Fortuna, which we had plans to do on one day, and closer still to other activities. I hadn’t the slightest clue that Jaco was the red-light district of the entire country. Throughout town, ladies of the night would, let’s say, politely advertise their services. At the epicenter of it all, was the Cocal – a questionable mix of seedy hotel, casino, bar, and brothel. NOTE: the most my friends and I got out of it was a free backrub! I swear!
The road from San Jose to Jaco (and many of Costa Rica’s pacific coast destinations), ruta 34, takes you to the aptly-called “Crocodile Bridge.” A number of parked tourist busses act as a portent. From the top of the bridge, you can almost always spot several large crocs from a safe height.
Prostitution gripes aside, Costa Rica quickly became one of my favorite countries. For about one week, my friends and I ATV’ed and ziplined through the jungle, hiked Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna’s hanging bridges, relaxed on a catamaran, and visited Corcovado and Manuel Antonio National Parks.
Corcovado National Park is highly remote. It’s accessible only by airplane or boat. The boat from the town of Sierpe to the park takes you through mangroves and the town’s namesake river.
I enjoyed the country so much, that after my friends left, my fiancé decided to join me for two more weeks.
Costa Rica is one of the most geographically and biologically diverse countries on the planet. Jungle-clad 8,000-foot peaks empty out into tropical waters, and the wildlife there cannot be beat, at least considering the country’s size. I wouldn’t call Costa Rica a hikers or landscape photographer’s paradise, but it has so much to offer in terms of pure adventure. Next time I go, I may have to visit the Caribbean coast. As a side note: neither the food nor Pura Vida attitude were nearly as bad as I thought they’d be.