Middle-aged flash packers

Costa Rica cogitations
It’s been over 2 weeks since we left Costa Rica and looking back over our trip, it’s a wonderful country that I will definitely return to. I would like to go back to Drakes Bay and see Emillio’s vision for his trekking area, explore the Pacific Coast and inland around Dominical, and revisit the gorgeous Nicoya peninsula.
Before we left for Costa Rica, I read blogs, travel guides and Internet articles to get a feel for the geography, people and culture of the country. There were certain things that came up again and again as “truths” about Costa Rica. Here are my thoughts as to whether these statements were accurate, at least from our own experience.
1.) Costa Rica is a beautiful country with huge bio-diversity.
True. The wildlife is unbelievable and each region of CR we visited seemed to have its own climate and geography.
2.) the driving standards are terrible.
False. Whoever decided this has not driven in Turkey, Thailand, Italy – the list goes on and on. It was fine and the speed limits are low which helps.
3.) The roads are awful.
The main highways are fine, but there aren’t many of them. Once you get off these, yes the roads range from mediocre to truly atrocious. I pity the poor people of Costa Rica trying to get anywhere in the wet season. You know you’re in trouble when the public buses have snorkels!
4.)Don’t drive at night.
I wouldn’t advise you to do a major journey at night in Costa Rica but proceed with caution and beware the potholes, and you’ll be fine if you want to go to a local restaurant etc.
5.) Costa Ricans work on “Tico time” , are lazy and have no initiative.
Patronising rubbish. We found people to be efficient and helpful. I felt locals looked out for us, and provided advice unsolicited if they thought it was necessary.
In most of the places we stayed, it was always a Tico lady who cleaned our room, made our breakfast and was generally busy all the time.
6.)you only need to take American dollars as everywhere takes them.
True, but then you are given your change in colones and get stiffed on the rate! Take plenty of both and if you pay in one currency make sure you get your change in the same one. Otherwise you take part in a little money making scam for Costa Ricans that will hurt your pocket.
7.) stealing is endemic in Costa Rica and you will almost certainly be a victim of it.
There is enormous paranoia about this, particularly amongst Costa Ricans themselves. Their properties are like Fort Knox – iron bars cover the windows and doors, and then there is razor wire on the top of the bars. They will only park their cars in a car park where there is a security guard and when eating at a restaurant they park their car so they can see it. A man running a restaurant told me not to look at my map in public, as someone would follow our car and steal our belongings.
Because of this, I was terrified we were going to get our valuables taken off us, so I was careful never to leave anything in sight in the car, I religiously locked my case up everywhere we stayed and didn’t let my bag out of my sight. Then I thought, “hang on, I do this everywhere we go in the world anyway”. Isn’t that just common sense? In England, we’ve had our cars broken into 3 times, one stolen and destroyed and have had our house burgled.
Nothing happened in CR. In fact, at the airport, I had to take my watch off to go through the security scanner and I left it behind. 20 minutes later I realised I didn’t have it and thought someone would definitely take it. Nope, someone had handed it in.
Local people would not be as concerned as they are if there wasn’t a problem so take care, be aware, but don’t let it scare you too much.
Overall, I loved Costa Rica – it’s officially one of my favourite places.
One tip from Steve – bring an old phone with you, buy a local sim and use google maps for navigating roads and tracks.
Pura Vida!