Shilli-Fully Travels

MANP was founded in 1972 to protect the local beaches from development by foreign investors.. It is one of the smallest national parks in Costa Rica but the most visited.

The town of Manual Antonio sits on the Pacific Ocean; because of the beach it has become one of the country’s main tourist destinations. Many North American visitors only come to the Pacific Coast and are described by the locals as “fly and flop” visitors. When not flopping, the MNAP is a popular day/half day excursion, particularly to see sloths and monkeys. Although daily visitor numbers are capped, the income subsidises other quieter national parks.

MNAP has been forced to ban visitors from bringing food into the park as the white faced monkeys have become master thieves which came at a cost to them by way of tooth decay and type 2 diabetes. During our stay a monkey broke into our room (our terrace door was shut but not locked – rookie error), opened the fridge, stole a snack and ran away clutching his prize !

We arrived in Manual Antonio from the Monteverde Cloud Forest, a journey of about four hours. We started the day in several layers and 15 degrees; by lunch we were on the beach in shorts with sun and 30 degrees. The majority of the temperature change was in the first 20 minutes.

The quetzal is on the list of “near threatened” species as much of its habitat has been destroyed, however its population is now stable in the Monteverde Cloud Forest due to conservation steps. It is the national bird of Guatemala (the Costa Rican national bird is a much plainer thrush). A headpiece believed to have been worn by Moctezuma II, the Aztec emperor who met with Cortes in 1519, is made of quetzal feathers and in a museum in Vienna.

The bird is approximately 40cm in size, with the male having long tail feathers. In Monteverde they mainly feed on wild avocados. Although difficult to find due to their small numbers, at this time of year they build their nests (in tree trunks) so don’t fly away as quickly as many birds once spotted. For birders they are considered one of the area’s Holy Grails; once found they are hard to forget.

We booked two guided hikes on our first day in Monteverde. The first a specialist bird hike, with a 6am start. While we saw many species, the quetzal was elusive. We then saw a pair 15 minutes into the afternoon hike, with the same guide, not far from the trail.

Cloud forests are tropical forests created by a specific climate combination of altitude and moist sea air. It results in almost persistent fog at the vegetation level creating an environment with almost no sunlight and constant moisture from the air and drips from the vegetation.

They are extremely bio-diverse with most of the vegetation growth at the canopy level; large trees act as hotels for moss, lichen, orchids and epiphytes.

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve was founded in 1972 and covers over 26,000 acres with 90% primary forest. It has the most orchid species in a single space together and over 400 bird species.

Our lodge is within sight of the Pacific Ocean (when there is a brief gap in the cloud) where it is currently 30 degrees, however the Cloud Forest is about 15 degrees but feels much colder due to the cloud and winds.

On 29 July 1968 The Arenal volcano, which had been dormant for hundreds of years, erupted destroying three villages and killing 87 people as a result of rapid pyroclastic flows. The area had been fertile farming land with a small number of farmers unaware of the possibility of eruption. Arenal continued to be active until 2010, being one of the most active volcanoes in the world by duration since 1750. The surrounding area became a National Park in 1991 and is now a major tourist area due to the volcano, thermal waters and rain forests.

The volcano, being in a rain forest, is often entirely or partially covered in cloud. This was the case the day we hiked to the “viewing point”. We did, however, enjoy the hike in beautiful surroundings with plenty of wildlife. Our best view of the volcano was from lunch in our hotel after the hike !

TNP is situated in north-east Costa Rica next to the Caribbean Sea. It is made up of secondary tropical rainforest together with rivers and canals. Prior to becoming a national park in 1975, the area was used for logging valuable hard woods and harvesting green turtle eggs found along 20 miles of beach.

The area is now a haven for flora, fauna and wildlife. We did not see them, but jaguars are relatively common around the small town of Tortuguero.

The area can only be reached by small aeroplane or boat. The first is 30 minutes from San Jose and the latter about 90 minutes from the nearest road. We arrived by the former and departed, after a three night stay, by the latter. During our visit we did a night walk, the best time to see frogs, a hike and a couple of boat trips. One of the boat trips had an option to do part of the trip by kayak. Our guides were well informed and extremely good at spotting well camouflaged animals. There was also plenty of wildlife around our lodge.

San Jose was founded in the 18th Century and became the capital of Costa Rica in 1823. It was not considered valuable to the Spanish and hence has limited colonial architecture. The population of the city is approximately 350,000 and most of the older buildings are from the end of the 19th Century.

When the Costa Rican entrepreneurs became wealthy, principally from coffee related businesses, they sent their children to be educated in Europe. On their return they advocated for some of the customs and culture they had experienced in Europe. This included wanting a European style theatre where they could stage concerts and operas to display their wealth. The country raised taxes and designed a National Theatre which was built in pieces in Italy, including marble statues. The theatre opened with Faust performed by a French company in 1897. It remains the most significant building in the country. Following the Presidential election this February the new president (the current one is not permitted to stand for a second consecutive term) will host an inauguration party at the theatre in May.

We spent three nights in San Jose which is unusual as most visitors stay there for the minimum amount of time, heading straight to the coast and National Parks. Our guidebook describes San Jose as “gritty” which we could understand. While there are certainly areas to be avoided we enjoyed our two days there, helped by the lack of other visitors as well as a walking tour on the first day with an excellent guide. In addition to explaining the sites she gave us a good insight into Costa Rica’s success, challenges and politics as well as an excellent recommendation for a restaurant.

Costa Rica has over 300 of these stone spheres, of varying sizes, called Diquis Spheres after the now extinct culture to whom they are attributed. They have been dated to 500-1,500 CE. A number of theories exist as to their original purpose including representing solar systems.

Costa Rica, “Rich Coast”, was visited by Christopher Columbus on his final voyage in 1502. It was colonised by the Spanish as part of Guatemala but was poor with little value due to its lack of gold and silver. It became independent from Spain, without a war, in 1821 as part of The Federal Republic of Central America. In 1838 Costa Rica proclaimed itself sovereign. Its economy at the time was based on coffee which was first planted in 1808.

Costa Rica has enjoyed greater peace than the rest of Latin America with the exception of the 44 day Civil War in 1948. The rebels won after believing that the election had been stolen from them by the incumbent government.

Following the Civil War, the military was abolished making Costa Rica one of a small number of countries with land borders not to have military forces.

The current population, of around 5 million, is well educated with the largest source of revenue being ecotourism from nearly 3 million visitors a year. The infrastructure is supported by over 90% sustainable energy and safe drinking water in most of the country.