Travel Guides: All Countries / Central America / Costa Rica
 |  | Travel Reviews : Costa Rica |
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| | | | Best preserved rainforest in Central America
Wedged between Nicaragua and Panama and lapped by the Caribbean on one side and the Pacific on the other, Costa Rica seems an impossibly exotic destination.
Yet it is the most stable republic in Central America, and boasts both golden beaches and spectacular rainforests.
And with return air fares from London as low as £500 even at the height of the season, Costa Rica is an intriguing new experience waiting to be explored.
Most flights land at San Jose Airport, but you are unlikely to want to hang around the capital for any longer than is strictly necessary.
San Jose's centre is rundown and fairly shoddy, and its bargain stores have all the ambience of downtown Peckham.
Yet before you leave it's worth paying a quick visit to the Teatro National, a gorgeously ornate concert hall that is San Jose's most impressive landmark.
Once you have coughed up for the flight the rest of your stay in Central America will be absurdly cheap.
Costa Rica is not quite as poor as its immediate neighbours but its currency, the colone, is so devalued that most hotels and stores prefer payment in American dollars.
Even the Hotel Grano De Oro, a gorgeous converted colonial house on San Jose's outskirts, will give you a double room for £50. More from hotelgranodeoro.com.
Beach bums will head straight for Playa Tamarindo - you can fly from San Jose to Liberia for a mere £30, then hire a car. The area has a decided tourist trap element, but the Pacific waves are perfect for a surfing lesson, and the beaches are glorious.
Keeping it clean
The bird man of Costa Rica
Marcellino is a bird man. A real Bird Man. You only have to walk a few yards into the Costa Rican forest fringe with him to understand it.
A flicker of dark tail dashes into a bush and Marcellino announces: 'There. Did you see? A slaty flower piercer.' He cocks his head on one side. 'Hear that? It's a long-tailed silky flycatcher.'
And, sure enough, two fly out of a tree ahead of us. Then suddenly, like Richard Wilson on speed, our dapper little bird guide clutches his head and declares emotionally: 'Oh my God, I don't believe it. Look, look an ochraceous wren.'
The man's knowledge is all-encompassing, his enthusiasm utterly captivating.
He makes a little 'tsk, tsk' noise between his teeth and birds call back to him and pop out from the bushes to be admired - a yellow-thighed finch, a collared redstart, a spectacle-cheeked tanager.
Later Marcellino, eyes gleaming, focused his telescope and beckoned us.
There, perched on a favourite mini-avocado tree, was the creature everybody comes to Costa Rica to see, the resplendent quetzal, a bird so self-confidently handsome, so spectacular in its iridescent green, blue and red colouring, so luxuriantly fitted out with its long, plumed tail that it quite takes your breath away.
Magical, and for an amateur birder like me in a small Central American country with 850 resident species there were endless magical moments.
From a near-silent boat slipping along the canal and river networks of Tortugero National Park on the Caribbean coast it was a case of never mind the rain.
The huge, lush trees and creepers in every shade of green made it feel like gliding through Jurassic Park.
I watched enthralled as a tiger heron in mating ritual first extended his neck skyward, ramrod straight, giving a passable imitation of a yard-of-ale glass, and then coiled it back into his chest and puffed it out to impress his lady.
Next morning I stepped out of my room to see perched on the palm branch above me a huge spectacled owl, about the size of a labrador, gazing implacably at us like a hanging judge.
Soon after dawn one morning at the peak of the cloud forest above San Gerardo de Dota I was about to swat away what I had first taken to be a bee behind my ear when I realised that the sound was in fact the fast-beating, electric-fan wings of a tiny volcano hummingbird, about the size of my thumb.
Keeping it clean
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| | | | White-water rafting for all
Costa Rica's main selling point is its verdant tropical rainforest. It is the best preserved in Central America, and sloths and toucans are easily spotted.
Rios Tropicales run two-day, white-water rafting trips down the Pacuare river, including an overnight stay in a log cabin in the heart of the jungle.
There are few more exhilarating thrills than running the rapids - and it's safe for all ages. See riostropicales.com.
Costa Rica is a nature-lovers' nirvana, with copious national parks and active volcanos adding to the appeal of the uniquely well-preserved rainforests.
Zoo-Ave near Alajuela, 20km west of San Jose, houses a collection of indigenous tropical birds, including more than 60 that are unique to the country.
The nearby village of Atenas is so high - 3,500 feet - that visitors can stay in hotels fully enveloped in clouds.
Food is absurdly cheap. A family of four can eat a hearty local meal for less than £10 - but be careful of unpeeled fruit and salads.
Cheap luncheon counters known as sodas line every street and thoroughfare, and vary from spotless to unspeakable. Most dishes are beef or chicken-based.
However, the delicious local speciality of black beans and rice, called gallo, is a great alternative for vegetarians.
Despite its relative poverty by Western standards, Costa Rica's population, who refer to themselves as ticos, are very friendly and invariably welcoming.
Whether you are seeking the thrills of white-water rafting, exploring tropical rainforests or looking to chill on the beach, it's a holiday you won't forget.
Costa Rica's dry season is December to April. Martinair run daily flights from London all year round.
- Have you been to Costa Rica? Or got another thrilling holiday tale? Tell us about it by e-mailing: traveldesk@teletext.co.uk. Include your full name and address. You could win a £20 book voucher.
American fork-tailed kites
Making a breakfast stop at the mountainside café; Mirador Los Chorros, en route from San Isidro to Dominical, I watched a summer tanager, powder-puff pink all over, dart in and out of the bushes with a bright yellow little bananaquit.
Then, suddenly, just 30ft below us a majestic pair of American fork-tailed kites sailed effortlessly past on patrol.
Normally with birds of prey I squint at a blob of black against the sky and ask 'What the hell was that?' as I thumb the bird book. When these two wheeled below us I could have counted every feather.
Down on the Pacific coast I stood below a sea almond tree with my guide Luc, a Costa Rica-domiciled Belgian, and marvelled as half a dozen red, blue and yellow scarlet macaws squawked and chattered and used their massive beaks to penetrate to the almond kernels.
Of course there is plenty to do besides the bird-watching in Costa Rica, a country built on a coffee and banana economy where the friendly and educated Ticos, as they call themselves, manage - unlike the rest of Central and South America -without an army.
You can luxuriate at resort hotels, enjoy excellent white-water rafting or gaze at a profusion of waterfalls and spectacular volcanoes, even taking an open air massage on the slopes.
The food is good, if a little lacking in variety. You will be offered beans, rice and plantains for breakfast, rice and beans for lunch and beans and rice with your steak, fish or omelette for dinner.
But, like a growing number of visitors, I was in Costa Rica not for haute cuisine but for its profusion of beautiful birds.
I had feared that on the specialist holiday I had booked I might find myself surrounded by obsessives. In fact that was never the case. Bird watchers do it quietly, in groups.
I shared my quetzal experience with Betty, a retired dog-breeder from North Carolina, and her friend Prue, who had fetched up at the same cloud forest lodge.
Most, like me, liked birds but didn't know that much about them and none of the fellow birders I met was pushy, intrusive or competitive. All were ready to share what they had spotted.
Indeed, I became mildly obsessive myself. As we trudged through one forest trail thigh-deep in water-filled Wellingtons, poor Luc had to cheer himself up by exclaiming at intervals: 'At least I'm being paid for this.'
But for the next five days the sun was out, the scenery was spectacular and, if you don't mind dirt roads and skirting round the odd landslide, the travelling was fun.
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| | | | Turquoise-green honeycreeper
Luc wasn't a bird specialist but by the end of our trip he had been bitten by the birding bug, wading through a bog determined to find me a roseate spoonbill.
He did too. The glorious lanky pink bird rose flapping from a hidden pool and did a lap of honour before beating off to join some friends mud-stirring for dinner somewhere else.
At first Luc was bored by small birds. But he changed his mind in Carara National Park. Local bird specialist Stefan pointed silently to a rainforest rock pool and we watched a red-capped manikin, a little black bird with a scarlet head, and a zebra-striped black and white warbler take a morning bath.
A spectacular turquoise-green honeycreeper flew by while a blue throated goldentail sang his heart out against the din of the cicadas, a shaft of sunlight that had penetrated a gap in the high forest canopy glinting off his bright red beak. Now Luc wants to be a bird guide too.
If you have ever enjoyed wildlife you will enjoy Costa Rica's birds. Those I met who had come to see monkeys, tapirs and armadillos certainly did.
But go with the best set of binoculars you can afford and be prepared to rise early. Birds do, and the best viewing is between 6-8am and then again in the hour or two before dark.
Do not economise when it comes to local bird guides. Without them, you would be lucky to identify half of what you see.
Finally, don't go off piste in the forests or marshes. Costa Rica does have some pretty deadly snakes, such as the feared fer-de-lance, although, to be fair, I did not see a single one.
What I did see was 173 different species of bird, whose grace and glorious colours will linger in the memory, especially a flock of white ibis beating round a river bend just feet in front of me.
But it was a sound which will drive me back to Costa Rica with a new quest. Constantly in the cloud forest I was tormented by the bell bird, whose call in fact is less like a bell than the squeaking hinges of an iron gate which somebody has forgotten to oil. It is unmistakable.
I heard it far away and close to, advancing and retreating, but I never got to clap eyes on a bell bird.
Now I have to go back to see as well as hear what I am determined will be No 174.
TRAVEL DETAILS:
Sunvil (020 8758 4774, www.sunvil.co.uk) offers bird watching holidays to Costa Rica. Tailor-made itineraries can also be arranged. Robin travelled with Wildlife Worldwide (020 8667 9158). Other tour operators include Last Frontiers (01296 653000) and Naturetrek (01962 733051).
For further information contact the Latin American Travel Association (020 8715 2913, www.lata.org)
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| | Available rental properties in Costa Rica |
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| |  | | Casa Warilla
2 Bedroom home in Quepos. Walking distance to buses, restaurants, the town center, and the waterfront.
|  | | Casa Verdugo
Two Bedroom, Two Bathroom Villa in Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica. Sleeps 6, village and sunset views, close to buses, restaurants, and the waterfront.
|  | | Casa Bumerango, Quepos
Three Bedroom, One Bath home in Quepos, Costa Rica, walking distance to town, restaurants, tours and the waterfront.
|  | | villa visconti
600 m2 villa with pool next to 18 hole golf course, close to airport san jose but no noise
|  | | Villa Riviera
2 bedroom, 2 bath duplex condo on the beach for rent.
Short or Long Term rental Agreement
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