Most Inspirational Moment
Highlight of the trip? There wasn’t any single highlight. Everything we saw was a highlight.
The colours are amongst the things you notice immediately on arriving in Costa Rica: the bright plumage of even the common birds, the array of brilliantly coloured flowers, the blood-red Pacific sunset, the vivid green jungle foliage reflected in the Tortuguero waterways. Another thing you notice is that wildlife is everywhere, even in the unlikeliest of places: a herd of coati around the minibus, a two-toed sloth and baby snoozing high up in the tree in an otherwise undistinguished restaurant car park; a three-toed sloth, in the same car park, laboriously descending his tree to do his toilet; a green parakeet on a suburban street in La Fortuna; crocodiles basking by the river under the motorway bridge.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Necessarily, there is a lot of time in the minibus so it was good to have 14 convivial fellow explorers. Our driver patiently negotiated the often difficult tracks that stood between us and the next discovery. As for our guide ….. . Johnny Villa-Lobos (no relation!) was a fund of information and expertise which he combined with good humour and bad jokes. He knew everything about everything Costa Rican; nothing floored him – he was equally knowledgeable about birds, flora and fauna, wildlife, history, the goal-scoring record of Mr Campbell. He knew it all. He was indispensable. Pura vida.
Advice for Potential Travellers
There are lots of early starts to make the most of every day: we are near the equator, so it gets dark around 7pm. The gallo pinto (rice and beans) breakfast, washed down with some Costa Rican caffeine, is an ideal launch pad for the rigours ahead. On the bus we get some history: ticos take pride in the fact that they abolished the army 60 years ago (they all became teachers, policemen or doctors apparently). Every village, you will be told, boasts a church, a school and a football field.
