Carnet de voyage

Costa Rica

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Par
14 étapes
1
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Par sangzi
Slot are so cute
Janvier 2018
15 jours
Partager ce carnet de voyage
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Today we arrived in Tortuguero. It's a mini town on the Caribbean cost in middle of the jungle. As the village is only accessible by air plaine or boat we left our car at La Pavana parking. It's hot here and very humid. The boat trip took around one our. It meanders through the rain forest. On the way you can see few animals like giant iguanas, fancy birds and we also saw a baby alligator!

Tortuguero is a small cabanas town, there is only one main street with coffee shops, restaurant and souvenir shops. My best friend and I walked though the village and the beach. The beach is beautiful, wild! The ocean is quiet scary with a lot of big waves and I heard, there are sharks...

At night we took the tour night walk to see some animals. It's a 2 hours walk through the rain forest at night with lamps torches. Even if we didn't see a lot animals because we were not so lucky I did enjoy the walk.

I can wait to go on the canoe trip through the rain forest.

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Today we woke up at 5h00 to go inside the national park with a small canoe boa. It was like entering an adventure movie. I saw myself as if I was going to find a secret tresor in a hiden temple in the middle of jungle. I could hear all the fancy birds singing. The atmosphere was just peacefull and mysterious. We saw many animals (howler monkey, spider monkey, and white face cappuccino monkey, solth, baby alligator, birds). The howler monkeys maid a lot of noise, the entire forest could hear them. The canoe slide silently on the canal surrounded by the rain forest. I love the experience, one of the best in my life.

After the boat trip, we had some Caribbean food (fish in coconut sauce with rice and beans). Then we had a nap.

At 3 PM, we went for a walk inside the jungle with a guide. The walk was easy. We went throw palm trees, cacao trees and some luxurious vegetation. My best souvenir is the two sloth in slow movement and scrawl attacking me with a nut.

At night we had nice diner by the weather with a Swiss girl we met during the day. We were too tired to wait until new year so we went to bed. However music outside was so loud than we couldn't sleep. So at 11:50 PM we went on the street and celebrate the new year.

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I hope that today would be the shitiest of the trip! We went to the beach at 5:30 am because we couldn't sleep all night. The music went on and on until 7am because of the new year! When we arrived to the beach, it was cloudy so we couldn't see the sunrise.

After that we pack our stuff and left Tortuguero. The boat trip was still very beautiful. But we were late.

After 5 hours of driving (the road was so busy! It was the 1st january) we finally arrived in Poas volcano! Bug surprise it closed a 1:20pm!!!! We had entry ticket for 1:20pm. We try to discuss with the person at the door but it was like talking to a piece of wood!

So we had no choice of driving back and go to la Fortuna. Again, there was traffic jam and we arrived at 7pm in la Fortuna.

We spend the whole day driving, I almost went crazy at the end! It was terrible!

That's the Poas volcano we haven't seen!
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Today we woke up early to go to see the Tenerio National Park. It was 1 hour and half driving from La Fortuna. We arrive there around 10am and start the trek to see the Rio Celeste. Legend says that when God finished to paint the sky in blue, he washed his paintbrush inside this water. The colour of the river was amazing. It was turquoise blue. We follow an easy path till the waterfall and the continue the trail until the end. After the waterfall, the track get a little bit more difficult. There was mud almost all the way. As it is very humid and raining all the time, it was very nasty mud! I had mud all over my shoes. I really enjoyed this trek. It really was wonderfull! The blue river weaves through the jungle. The whole trek took us around 3 hours.

After the walk we had a quick lunch just at the entrance. It was very good!


We needed food cause after Rio Celeste, we went to hot springs. It was so nice. All the pools are in middle of the jungle. There were waterfall coming down the hill...

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I hope that today was the most difficult day of the trip. We walked the cero chato trail. Which was really difficult at the begging. The track was very muddy with a lot of up and down very shape. Few times there was a rope to help you getting down or up. Actually that was the easy part of the trail. The last 2km was just hell! It was more like climbing that hiking. It was still very muddy but path was as sharp as a wall. We had to help ourself up with our hand by grabbing trees and roots to go up. But when we arrive to the volcano's crater it was amazing. The colour of the water was emerald green, surrounded by the rain forest. We had a swim in the lake. The water was soooo cold, it felt like needle!

The way down was just awful. I almost cried cause I couldn't continue. All the muscle in my body begged me to stop5. My legs hurts so much, my arms hurts, my back hurts... I fell a dozen of times. I was covert of mud. When we finished the trek it was almost night.


But we still had to drive to Monteverde. It tooks us 4h to get there. It was only 150km but the roads was only mountain road. And on some part it wasn't so good. The last part was only stone road with a lot of holes! And it was raining! I don't know how I survived!

When we arrived it was 10pm I fell on the bed dead. I didn't even showed. I was muddy but I didn't care!


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Today was a beautiful day. The sun shines! We went for a small walk inside the reserve (22$) it's say that the rain forest in Monteverde is a primary forest. A real rain forest "untouch" but I couldn't see the differences... We saw 2 colibris, one bird with a orange belly and a koati on the trees.


The afternoon we went to a parc there was in total 10 ziplines. The last two ones was superman. I was scared at first but more and more I trusted the material not to let me down. The superman zipline was amazing. For one minute I flew on top of the jungle!

The last thing was really scary. It was a mini bunggie jumping. I was so scared that I closed my eyes at the beginning. I couldn't see the void! It really felt against nature to jump like this in the void!

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We left Monteverde early this morning. We drove to the west side of Costa Rica. We are planning to spend few days on the Nicoya peninsula. We heard that it is very very beautiful The first beach we chose to stop is Playas del coco after 3 & 1/2 hours of driving we realised that the GPS took us somewhere else... to another beach, 100km away from where we want to go! So we went back on our footsteps and drove all the way to Playas del coco. We've done 200km more that what we should do!

Playas del coco, give me the impression to be in the US. There is a lot of American here. Actually there is only American here. After dropping our bags we went to the beach. We were expecting white send beach with no one, only palm tree... well... it's was very crowed and the sand was Brown, very windy. I had sand all over my face all the time... because of the weekend, all the family were on the beach, pic nicking, putting music very loud, doing barbecue...

Was nice to see costarican enjoying the beach but I really expected a idyllic beach!


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We left early this morning to go to playa Conchal. The beach sas beautiful. It was a white sand beach. The water was turquoise blue and crystal clear. We swam and stayed a little bit on the beach and left.

We went to the next beach, which is call playa Junquillale. The beach was less beautiful but it was wild. There were coco trees on the beach. Even if there were a lot of waves, we still swam. The water was hot!

We had a rest and left the beach. When we arrive to the car. We realised that some broke into our car and stole our backpack. Sarah lost her passeport and her credit card, and I had my camera in my back pack... We went to the police and did the police declaration. But know we knew that we had to go back to San Jose.

After the police declaration we went straight to Samara.

I really enjoyed samara. There were a lot young people and many Frenchies. The village baba cool.


By the end of the day, I almost forget our loses. Ok I lost a 900€ camera, but I still can buy it again. I was more pissed of for all the photos I've lost. And also for the time we've gonna lose by going to the French embassy in San Jose


We had a nice dinner on the beach.

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First thing we had to do is decide what we're gonna do. Because we wanna to do to much things and we had to go to San Jose to make a new a passport for Sarah. We couldn't do everything. We had to choose. First thing we went to the tour agency to find out if we can do a turtle tour at night. The Swiss guy (Pierro) in our hotel recommended us a Breton called Pierre. He honestly told us that there were not much turtle anymore. He recommended us a sunset tour where we can see dolphins and doing some snorkelling. But before the tour we needed to go to Nicoya to take a ID photos for Sarah's "laissez passé" so we did the return trip to Nicoya, found a photograph and came back for the tour.


At 2pm Pierre (another Pierre, as I said, everyone were French in this village) took us to the board It was a small motor boat and we were along. We did some snorkelling, there were some fish but not much, not like Fiji. After that we went far into high seas to look for dolphin. We could see the amazing sunset. But no dolphin. We saw a ray manta jumping out of the water. Some flying fish, I was amazed by the time they could stay out of the water.

When the colour of the sky became orange. We finally saw some dolphin. 2 of them! They were hunting fish. We follow they a little while and then we went back to see the sunset.


When we got back it was 6pm we had a quick shower and drove for 4 hours to San Jose and fortunately we didn't left early during the day cause Pierro still had my passport. He forgot to give it back to me the night before!


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Today we wake up at 6h30 to go to the embassy. We wanna to be the first ones! And we did, however Sarah forgot the police de declaration so we had to go back to the hotel and went back to the embassy. It took 30 minute to make the "laisser passer". We didn't left straight away cause I was so tired. We went back to the hotel I had a nap and we left San Jose at around 11:30. We arrive to Quepos (Manuel Antonio) around 3pm. The hotel was really nice. With 2 pools and jaccusis in a palm tree "forest"

After dropping our bags we went to the beach. The beach was exactly how I imagined costarican beached: with the jungle coming out on the beach and a lot waves.

After the beach we went for s quick swam before diner.

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Today we visited Manuel Antonio national park. It is a very easy walk into the rain forest. The beaches in the park were amazing. It is exactly how I imagined beaches in Costa Rica. Jungle and palm trees coming out on the beach. The sand was not white colour but the water so hot. I think the water was something like 34C! We saw many animals. Especially white face cappuccino monkeys, there were a lot of them, and they aren't afraid of human anymore. It's sad cause people feed them...

We spend some time one the beach and we left for Sierpe. Our plan was to leave the car there and take a boat to go to Bahia Drake. But we were a little bit late and didn't know if we could make it. Fortunately we arrived on time to take the 4pm boat wich cost us 20$ per person ! When we just arrive and drops the car, we had to face a tropical storm. The rain felt like someone opened a tape. We were wet in a second. It didn't last long but it was intense! After one hour of frast boat we arrived in Bahia Drake. It is a small village in the with almost nothing! Our lodge's car came and pick us up. The hotel was magical, it was in middle of the jungle. Each room was a private cabanas surrounded by rain forest with hamacs on the terrasses. We could stay out and watch the animal. The room was very pretty as well. There were a little cat that I played with. She was sooo cute. And she follow me into my room. I think she wanna me to keep on playing with her However it was very expensive. I really enjoyed that day.

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At the moment I'm writing those lines, I'm my cabanas in the middle of the jungle and it's raining outside like crazy!

Today was our tour for the Corcovado national parc. We woke at 5:30, and went to breakfirst (fruit, pancakes, and eggs). On the terasses, we could hear the jungle howling around us. All the cigale were making A LOT of noisies!

The hotel took us to the playa, the same one then yesterday, when we arrived. We took a boat to the national parc it took us around 1:30 hour to get there and on the way we were hopping to see some dolphin. As usual with my bad luck I haven't seen any! But big surprise, we found a wale with her baby, a baby wale! So maybe I don't have a such a bad luck after all!

When we arrive to the national parc, we washed our foot and put back our hiking shoes. We start to walk into the jungle with our guide. He told us that Corcovado became a protected area since 1975. This area represented 11% of the biosphere in South America and 2,5% of the biosphere of the world. We were a group of 6 people and we walked through the jungle for 3-4 hours, trying to see animals. The walk very easy but it was so hot and humid. The guide was funny cause he was trying to "hunt" a tapir. Often he would leave us and go into the woods and look for the tapir. But we haven't seen any! (Bad luck I said) we say many beautiful bird and I took picture though the "jumelle". We saw also the 4 kinds of monkeys they had in the jungle : howlers, white face cappuccino, spider monkey and scroll monkeys. And lunch time we stop at the rangers house with was a quiet big complex with dorms (300$ a bed per night) and a place to eat. We have to took our shoes and went all together to eat. The lunch was a burrito with fruit and a banana cake for desert. Durant lunch time some tucan landed on a tree not far from us. We could see them very well with the binocular. After luch we went for another walk, still, the guide was trying to look for the tapir but luch didn't smile at us cause we didn't see much more animal during the second walk. We took the boat back to drake without seeing anymore animal.

The guy from the hotel came pick us up. As we agreed before, he had only a room for one night and he was in charge to find us another hotel for the second night. On the way back to the lodge we talked to other people who did the snorkeling tour. They told that it was amazing and the saw so much think : Rays, sharks, turtles and so many fishes!

We arrived to our new lodge wich was a whole loft in a cabinas in the jungle, with a kitchen and "living room". Our terasses (with a hamac) was right on the border of the jungle. Few howler monkeys were near and we could hear them howling sometime, and when they scream they make a lot of noise. They woke me up few time during the night. We decide to go back into the village and do some grossest shopping for dinner. And because we loved so much the atmosphere and the fact that we felt like we were in some lost place we decide to stay one more night and do the snorkeling tour the next day.

We cook some veggies with fruit in a coco milk sauce and some rice. It was good eating something we prepared ourselves and not on a restaurant.

It was raining like I never seen before. On the terasses it was like a waterfall falling of the roof!

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Today was snorkeling day! As usual we had a lot of expectation especially me because I've never seen more beautiful coral reef the one in Fiji island. We had to meet our guide at 7am. She gave us all the material for snorkeling. We had one hour trip by boat to Isla del Caño. She explained us that we can not snorkel inside the marina reserve but we could do it on side of the island. Of course it wasn't like Fiji but it was still very beautiful. There were many tropical fishes! It was amazing and when we saw our first turtle I was so excited and full of joy! I did finally see a turtle! And it was a very big one! We swam for almost an hour I think and during that time we saw 4 turtles, one shark and one manta ray! I was sooo happy! I could now go back home fulfilled! We had a break o a small beach. It was nice but nothing exceptional... After the break we went for another swam and we didn't see much... just 2 rays at the bottom of the ocean.

When we finish snorkeling we went to a beach to have lunch. It was a pic nique prepare by the tour. The food was not bad. I remember the vegetable with some beef, it was good!

When we got back to drake. One of the guide propose to Sarah to take us on his own boat to give us a ride. But we just wanna rest a bit. We went back to our cabinas and read our book on the hamac the whole afternoon. We enjoyed the jungle and doing nothing one last time before going back home.

With had some fried rice and went bed.

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Today we had to drive back to San Jose in order to catch our flight at 10pm.

We took the 7am boat back to Sierpe pick our car and drove to Quepos. We stop at the hotel we had 3 days ago and had luch. After luch we enjoyed the swimming pool until 2pm and then left for the San Jose.

We had to drop back the car and I was very scared that they will make us pay the damage due to the robbery... But fortunately the girl who check the car wasn't paying to much attention and did not see the small small break and on the door!

We wait at the airport and that the end of our trip.


Even if we had some misadventure I still enjoyed Costa Rica very much! I never seen jungle in my life and I was very impressed by the rain forest. The noisies, the hundred and hundred years' trees, the lianne and all the animals make to feel like I was I some adventure movies.