Attractions – Living in Costa Rica

Attractions in San Jose, Costa Rica

March 31, 2009

March 24th

During breakfast we met a wonderful older couple who got married about a year ago and were on their honeymoon. We had a great conversation and told them about some attractions in San Jose we heard about.

After breakfast we requested a room change at our hotel since the noise from the street kept us awake most of the night. We were happy to be given an upgraded room at no additional charge.

This was our last full day in Costa Rica and we chose to visit various attractions. We started out in the morning by walking to a Butterfly Garden called “Spirogyra, Jardin de Maripososas.” Along the way we were delighted to run into the couple we met at breakfast who were also heading to the Butterfly Garden. We saw so many beautiful butterflies and some even landed on us. Randie took some great photos!

Here are some photos of the gardens and some turtles enjoying their surroundings.

Next, we headed back to Central Avenue. On the way we met a man, John, from the U.S. who is in the process of purchasing a place in Costa Rica with the intention of retiring here. He told us about a great lawyer who specializes in helping people relocate to Costa Rica. It’s amazing how we keep bumping into people who have such a wealth of information to share with us as we continue to explore where we wish to relocate.

Our next stop was the Central Bank Museums. There are 3 floors of exhibits. The first floor is the Numismatic Museum. This museum displays the most valuable coins, banknotes, dies and coffee and banana tokens from the Central Bank’s collection. It also includes information about the History of Money in Costa Rica.

Since we were not allowed to use a flash with our camera, our ability to take photos was limited. Randie did, however, get a few shots.

Printing Press

The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum was on the second and third floor. This museum has an extraordinary collection of 1000 pieces of gold objects that reflect the world-view, social structure and gold working techniques of the Pre-Columbian peoples of Costa Rica. These pieces date from 500 to 1500 AD.

Once again, we could only take photos with no flash.

After touring the museums, we looked for a place to eat lunch. We found a food court on Central Avenue on the second floor of what looked like a mini-mall attached to individual stores on either side. We decided to try out Lebanese food and it was one of the best meals we had during our time in both Costa Rica and Panama. We spoke to the owner who told us he just opened his restaurant 3 months ago. We know he will do very well and we highly recommend this place if you are in the area.

After lunch we walked over to the National Theatre. We happened to walk in just as a tour group entered so we stood back and enjoyed listening to the tour guide tell all kinds of interesting stories about the history of the theatre.

On our way back to our hotel, we picked up some gifts we had set aside for our niece and nephews. We bought them from a street vendor. They are the cutest piggy banks I’ve ever seen, made out of coconuts.

We had dinner at the Junior House of Ribs where we met with our friend Brian who moved to San Jose about a year ago. We also met his girlfriend Linda who has been living in Costa Rica for the past 16 years. We enjoyed reconnecting with Brian and hearing about his experiences living in San Jose. Linda also shared with us her experiences of adapting to the way of life in Costa Rica.

We spent our first night in Costa Rica with our friend Andrew and it was wonderful to spend our last evening with friends as well.

By Marisa | Posted in Accommodations, Attractions, Restaurants | Tagged Accommodations, Attractions, Restaurants | Comments off

Britt Coffee Tour, Costa Rica

March 21, 2009

March 12th

Since I love coffee and Randie has slowly been turning into a coffee drinker as well, we decided to go on a Britt Coffee Tour and learn more about the process of growing coffee beans and the production of coffee itself. The Britt coffee plantation was about 15 minutes away from our hotel. We were surprised to find out it cost $10 for a one-way taxi ride to the plantation. We were used to paying much lower taxi fares throughout all of Panama.

We learned a lot during the tour and it was fascinating. For example, did you know that coffee is a fruit? The beans go through several stages before they are packaged including taking off 2 layers of shells. In order to make one pound of coffee you need to fill the basket in the photo below with beans. Every bean is picked by hand for quality control. If a machine was used for this process, unripe beans would be mixed with those ready to be picked, having a negative effect on the taste of the coffee.

two of the guides

The picture below on the right shows a coffee plant nursery. New plants are kept here until they are ready to be transplanted to the fields.

On the way to the factory, we lagged behind the rest of the group since we stopped to take some photos of some very interesting plants.

Here are some photos taken inside the factory.

After touring the factory we were taken into a theatre for a coffee demonstration. When they asked for a couple of volunteers, I immediately raised my hand and was chosen. Another gentleman was also chosen and we had the opportunity to demonstrate how the coffee beans are tested by staff members to ensure they are top quality. We were again surprised to learn how many stages are required and how labour intensive it is. I received a small bag of coffee as a gift for my participation.

Here I am showing the audience beans that passed the test.

After the coffee demonstration, we were entertained by the 3 guides who, along with some video footage, acted out the history of coffee. They were very comical in their performance making this tour a very memorable experience that we highly recommend.

Here are a few photos taken during the performance,

Britt is a small coffee plantation and everyone who is involved with this company is very conscious of the environment and maintaining sustainability with the production of their coffee. They are also committed to producing the best quality coffee with no use of chemicals and pesticides.

You can order Britt coffee online and have it delivered to your home. To order go to: www.cafebritt.com.

By Marisa | Posted in Attractions | Tagged Attractions | Comments off

Back to Palmar to see the Spheres

February 28, 2009

February 24

Once again we had to set our alarm in order to catch the “taxi” to board the boat at 7:15 a.m. to get back to Sierpe and then back to Palmar. The owners of Eco Camp arranged for a taxi (a real taxi) to pick us up in Sierpe and take us to see the spheres in both the park and the farm where we were told several spheres were still in their original positions.

So what’s all the fuss about the spheres. As I mentioned in an earlier post, many people believe the spheres have some kind of connection to aliens. Some people in the past believed that gold was hidden inside the spheres so they cracked them in half only to find that there was nothing inside. Some wealthy people found a way to move the spheres and placed them as monuments on their lawns. All you have to do is a Google search on “alien balls Costa Rica” and you will find all kinds of articles and information about them.

Here are some photos of the actual spheres located at the edge of a farm between Sierpe and Palmar. (The taxi driver told us that the spheres that are in their original position are in a section of the farm that has become like a museum and it was closed on this particular day.)

Here are more spheres located in the park in Palmar.

As you can see there are several sizes of spheres. We felt a lot of energy flowing through our hands as we placed our hands directly on the spheres.

After seeing all the spheres, Randie and I decided to head to the bus stop to take a bus to the Panama border called Paso Canoas. Andrew was determined to see the spheres that are in their original position so he decided to spend another night in Palmar and go see the spheres in the morning.

The bus we took dropped us off about 18 Km from the border so we had to take a taxi the rest of the way. At the Costa Rica boarder we luckily met an English speaking custom’s officer who took care of the paper work for us to leave the country and he walked us across the border to Panama.

To find out more about our experience entering Panama and our travels throughout Panama, visit: www.LivingInPanamaBlog.com.

By Marisa | Posted in Attractions | Tagged Attractions | Comments off

Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica

February 28, 2009

February 23rd

(Last night when we spoke to the owner of Eco Camp we found out that there is only one sphere left on Cano Island and it was not worth going there. He said there were several in Palmar at a park and more at a farm. The spheres on the farm are the only ones that are still in their original positions. We went through Palmar yesterday to get to Drake Bay and saw the spheres in the park while driving by in the taxi to get to Sierpe…Stay tuned for more about the spheres.)

We got up at 5:30 a.m. because we arranged to take a boat to the Sirena Station in Corcovado National Park. Our guide, Fernando is the owner of Eco Camp where we were staying. This time we were told to wear sandals to get off the boat and bring running shoes or hiking boots for the hike in the jungle. It was very rocky where we got off the boat when we arrived and since I did not bring any sandals with a strap around my heel, I needed someone to hold my hand as I walked to shore because the force of the water was making it difficult to balance as I tried to keep my flip flops from being taken away with the current.

this is part of what we had to walk through to get to shore

After walking about 10 minutes we came across the following air strip. We were told that pilots hate to land here. You can see why.

air strip

Following are a few of the photos we took during our jungle tour. Unfortunately, we did not see many animals and the ones we did see were difficult to photograph because of the distance and the poor lighting in the jungle.

very tasty and tiny banana (compliments of a resident of Drake Bay)

interesting insect, not sure what it is

Here is a picture of a waterfall we saw on our way back to Drake Bay.

At the end of our tour, most of us got back on the boat to go back to Drake Bay. A couple people stayed with our guide and planned to spend the night in the park. When we were dropped off at the shore, there was no one there to pick us up to take us back to Eco Camp. There was a couple who lived on Drake Bay who went on the tour with us and said they would call the camp and ask them to send someone to pick us up.

We waited a short time and then along came Jimmy, the same guy we met when we first arrived yesterday. Jimmy had a motorcycle and said this was the “taxi” that would take us back to Eco Camp. He said he could take two of us at one time and then come back for the third person. I have been on a motorcycle once in my life and was terrified. I told Jimmy there was no way I was going to go on the motorbike and to please call someone else to pick us up. Jimmy calmly told me that there were no other “taxis” available and there wouldn’t be any for at least 2 hours. He said we could walk but it would take about 45 minutes and it is all uphill and very hot.

After more internal processing, I agreed to get on the bike if Randie sat behind me. Jimmy took Randie and I back first and then went back to shore to pick up Andrew.

I survived the trip!

By Marisa | Posted in Attractions | Tagged Attractions | Comments off

Traveling from Dominical to Drake Bay, Costa Rica

February 27, 2009

February 22nd

Here are a few pictures we took in Dominical.

Vendors along the Beach

After breakfast on the 22nd, we took a bus from Dominical to Palmar ($3.00 per person). We were once again faced with either waiting a couple hours for a bus or taking a taxi to our next stop…Sierpe. We met 2 women who were at the same bus stop and who were also going to Sierpe. One of the ladies spoke Spanish and she negotiated 2 taxis to take all of us to Sierpe for $5.00 each. We couldn’t fit in one taxi because we all had luggage.

Once we got to Sierpe, we had to wait about an hour and a half for our boat ride to Drake Bay so we had some lunch at the restaurant that was connected to the dock. Once we were on the boat, it took about an hour and a half to get to Drake Bay.

Here are some photos taken during our boat ride.

leaving the dock

When we were approaching the shore of Drake Bay, the person driving the boat told everyone to take their shoes and socks off. Randie thought they were joking and when I saw that there were no docks at the shore, I knew there were serious. My first thought was, “How are we going to get our heavy suitcases to the shore without dropping them in the ocean?” My second thought was, “This looks like the start of an interesting adventure.”

Once we were all off the boat and all the luggage was carried in by the locals, everyone (except us) had vehicles waiting to take them to their accommodations. Since we are “living in the moment” we did not reserve a place to stay before arriving. Here we are standing on the beach with luggage surrounding us and no place to go.

Let me tell you this place is very remote…no hotels or other accommodations in sight and no extra taxis waiting around. None of us (including Andrew) spoke Spanish. Then along came a local who spoke English. Telling you we were grateful is an understatement. Jimmy, the local, told us that there was only one place in Drake Bay that had rooms available and everything else was booked. (This is a very popular place for people who love nature and want to have an experience of being in a remote area of Costa Rica.) He then went on to tell us this place was called “Eco Camp” had tents for accommodations.

When Randie and I heard the word “tents” we went through quite an internal process. My thought was that this was going to be more of an adventure than I bargained for. I imagined sleeping on the ground with no sleeping bag and an outhouse and no showers. Randie imagined sleeping in a tent in the middle of the jungle.

I asked Jimmy if he was sure this was the only place left in town. I was skeptical and thought that Jimmy might have a connection with this “eco camp” and was taking advantage of the fact that we were stranded at the shore. We decided we really did not have much choice given our circumstances.

Jimmy told us he would call a taxi for us. When the taxi arrived, it was a very old pickup truck. Andrew decided to ride in the back.

Andrew and Randie standing next to our "taxi."

It took about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the Eco Camp. When we arrived, we were happy to see that things didn’t look as bad as we expected. It actually looked quite beautiful and we had real beds inside the tent and our own private washroom (just behind our tent) with a real toilet and a shower. We only had cold water and were grateful for having the shower.