Return to Costa Rica

I am writing this final post from home. This trip is over, and I am still frequently thinking about our experiences -- what we learned; what we saw. We met our objectives and more, and I hope we have a chance to return to explore areas of Costa Rica we have not yet seen: the northern pacific coast in the Guanacaste province; Parque Nacional Tortuguero in the Caribbean north area, Drake Bay and Parque National Corcovado on the Peninsula de Osa in the far south pacific area to name just a few spots.

The leading image in this post was captured on our shuttle ride from Manuel Antonio back to San Jose for our flight home. The driver spotted them high in a tree along the road with the pacific ocean to our left. Without anyone asking, he pulled the van off the to the side of the road so I could take pictures. A flock of wild McCaws -- not something you see back home. It's just a touch of paradise.

Pictures: McCaws

We arranged a guided tour of the park for early Tuesday morning. Although we had taken the tour before, the guides are particularly adept at spotting hard-to-see wildlife. Boy was it a good decision. Even before entering the gate at the new park entrance, we saw a white-tailed deer cross the wide path / service road. Immediately afterward, a troop of squirrel monkeys crossed the path high above us. In neither case was I able to get pictures.

Photography was difficult in the dense rain forest, especially on a sunny day. Without a tripod, I hand held the camera predominantly trying to shoot upwards at animals in relative darkness that were a little too far away for my 200mm zoom lens. Even with VR (lens vibration reduction) technology and at 400 ISO, I had to often lower the shutter speed to point where it was very difficult to get a sharp image. Even with a tripod, many subjects would not have been agreeable to hold still to have their portrait taken.

The park tours only cover a small portion of the park along two main paths. We passed through the forest and along two different park beaches before exiting about three hours later across a small stream flowing into the ocean at Espadilla Beach (see the picture from yesterday's post with the small blue boat -- that is the original park entrance and where we finished the tour today).

We saw more wildlife this tour than before, and included in the pictures are:

• red land crabs (found just off the path)
• a boa constrictor (relaxing in a tree, apparently after a recent meal given the size of his stomach); you might be able to just make out his head
• a small hermit crab on one of the beaches (taken by Sandy)
• a howler monkey (too dark to see his face); you hear them more than you see them
• several shots of the common white-faced monkeys (see Sandy's story below)
• a black iguana (they are everywhere, including at our lodging -- while sitting by the pool one morning, I saw one chase another on top of the office's red-tiled roof)
• a Jesus Christ Lizard -- yes, they can walk (rather, run) on the water without sinking
• one shot of a 3-toed sloth, I think (several were found but most too high up to see much except the fur)
• several shots of a pose-friendly and closer-to-the-ground 2-toed sloth

The final shot of the 2-toed sloth is my very favorite.

After the tour, the guide took us to Restaurante Marlin for a fruit drink and a fruit plate. The restaurant is open-air facing the beach on the corner of the main drag and the road to our hotel. (We had lunch there the day before and they have good food.) After a brief stop back at our room we returned to the park for some beach time. While we traded time in the warm ocean, we had unexpected adventures. I'll let Sandy continue . . .

SANDY:  Bill got some awesome shots of the white-faced monkeys when we returned to one of the park's beaches.  He quickly learned they are cleaver, deceptive little suckers - more so than him!  As I was taking a turn swimming in the ocean, he was lured away from our towels and backpacks by several monkeys in a tree no more than 5 feet off the ground. When he joined a group of tourists taking pictures, a couple of others raided a plastic bag with two snack bars that Bill left unguarded .  We were lucky.  One tourist lost his belly-sack as the furry culprit raced up 40-60 foot trees and moved from tree-top to tree-top with it.  I'd hate to think what he kept in that - wallet? money? passport? airline tickets?  The monkey's ultimate goal is free food, but human snacks make them sick.  They apparently aren't smart enough to figure that out!  

Coming back out of the ocean, Bill told me the story as the monkey who got our snack bars came back down by us.  He was being stalked by a number of other monkey's, all trying to get the food he stole from us.  The racing around the tree branches was quite a show as they tried to repeatedly cut him off.  I guess we looked safer to him to be close to than them.  However he misjudged that and made the mistake of coming down to a low branch by me, which I severely yanked down, scarring him enough that he dropped one of the two bars.  The recovered bar had the wrapper bitten through and the bar had a few small teeth marks on it.  But the fact that I got it back then became a lure for the other monkeys.  Although I didn't give them anything, they came down within inches of me and that provided some great shots for Bill and other photographers on the beach.

Today's pictures: Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio

For our final days of the trip we shifted to a wonderful little hotel adjacent to the park and just a 2-minute walk to Playa Espadilla, the public beach just outside the park. Pix: Espadilla Cabinas and Espadilla Beach. We spent Monday in deep relaxation on the beach and then poolside. Late in the afternoon, we noticed commotion in the nearby tree branches which we had learned before was a sign of monkeys jumping from limb to limb. We watched for perhaps 30 minutes as as the troop of white-headed (Capuchin) monkeys proceeded along their tree-top path.

The hilly (mountainous?) main road from Quepos to Manuel Antonio is lined with patches of the tropical rainforest, resorts, gorgeous views of the pacific, residences, restaurants, bars, shops, and language schools. Almost at the road's end, an innocuous, once-paved road to the left led to our accommodations. There are a number of resorts just off the main road, tucked away from the traffic, but close enough to hear the roar of the surf.

We were delighted with our cabina and its lush surroundings. Pura Vida!

With two previous trips to Costa, it was difficult not to fall in love with this incredibly diverse and scenic country with gracious and friendly people we met everywhere. While researching in preparation for our trips, it was impossible to NOT note that Costa Rica had become home to thousands of North Americans and Europeans. But research had also emphasized that a tourist experience in no way should be compared equally to that of a resident.

The goal of our third trip, then, was to try to understand as well as we could the resident experience. With a statistic of 50%+ of those who move to Costa Rica leave within a year, it was clear that people who see Costa Rica as "paradise" as a tourist fail to understand the many issues involved in living there. We met numerous ex-pats who choose to move to Costa Rica (some 20 years ago or more), many of whom no longer even care to return to the US for visits. While politics seems to be a factor with some, most have successfully committed to adapt to a different culture rather than try to have to have culture adapt to what they were used to in the US (the latter being a frustrating impossibility).

As one person put it, there usually is no "one thing" that drives people back to their home country, it's a collection of little things that pile up over time. Costa Rica is a socialist country; the government (until very recently) either directly owned or supported monopolies in the banking industry, the health care system, the insurance business, the electric utility, and all telecommunications. Couple this ownership with an unbelievably slow-paced bureaucracy and the US culture of wanting results yesterday, well, you might see the conflict. Just as one example, if you need a new residential phone line, you might wait months, or more likely 2-3 years to get one. Government monopolies are beginning to break down due to changes forced on Costa Rica by international institutions (WMF, IMF) as part of debt restructuring. Still, significant change will come slowly as the old guard continues to support the status quo.

Another insightful statement related to the general desire of most Americans (US) to pay lower taxes without having any of the services they want reduced. Our system is taking this to the extreme as we increasing our debt by providing ever-increasing services without paying for them. (Greece?) Well, move to Costa Rica and you can enjoy essentially no local taxes . . . but of course, there will be missing services, too. The government cannot afford to maintain many roads, provide police response, or dispatch ambulances in case of emergencies, just to list a few examples. The Red Cross maintains ambulances that may or may not respond, and if they do, there may be no trained personnel. So, the burden of missing services now falls on the resident . . . but hey, at least you are not paying thousands of dollars of property taxes every year!

The socialized health care system costs very little to residents, and from all accounts the level of care is excellent -- equal to if not better than in the US. But the stories we hear about waiting for non-life threatening procedures in Canada is true in Costa Rica. I find it interesting that the concept of socialized health care with all its good intentions has similar issues wherever it is implemented. We understand there are about 300,00, or perhaps 500,000, or some believe close to a million illegal Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica. They do the work that Costa Ricans do not want to do (sound familiar?), but their presence could overwhelm the national health care system.

There is also a private health care system in Costa Rica where people who can afford to pay cash or who have private health insurance can go for "immediate" treatment. Costs for almost anything are 20% - 40% lower than in the US. In fact, there is a growing medical/tourism business -- "come to Costa Rica for a knee replacement, or dental work, or cosmetic surgery, and stay to recuperate in paradise for a couple weeks, and pay much less for the whole package than you would pay in the US".

Living in Costa Rica obviously has many advantages. Can about 30,000 ex-pats be wrong? Paradise and a slower life style has a cost, however, that many are willing if not enthusiastic to accept. Others are not so comfortable to accept the changes that must make.

After exploring what it would take, we fall in the latter group now. Although we would return to Costa Rica in an instant, and return frequently if our budget would allow, the obstacles of making the move are just too significant for us. With this joint conclusion, we opted not to take the next step towards a possible move -- Spanish school. This decision resulted in spending the last few days in country back in tourist mode -- muy tranqullo -- and cutting a week off our trip.

The photos of us on the white water rafting trip down the Rio Savegre taken by the tour operator's photographer were awesome...we were so impressed, we bought all the images. Being on a much smaller raft than the one we went down on the Grand Canyon's Colorado River (just after 9-11), made this raft trip much more exciting. I only flipped out of the boat once and it happened so fast, I didn't even realize I was in (and under) the river water for about 10 seconds. As the rapids churned up all around me, everyone was frantically trying to get to me and get me back in the raft. In the meantime, I was a happy camper.

I always wanted to run a rapids without a raft. Now I can say I did!