Jamie Lafferty

Costa Rica

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By Teresa Machan

MAY 17, 2024

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Costa Rica destination overview

Whenever someone mentions Costa Rica, I think of wilderness, birdlife, and wild white-sand beaches. My memories are saturated in colour as I recall scarlet macaws, green-billed toucans, rose-breasted spoonbills, and the hummingbirds that paint the air like miniature fans.

And then there are the inexplicably hypnotic two and three-toed sloths. The first time I saw a sloth, in Manuel Antonio National Park, I watched it inch along a telegraph pole for at least half an hour before a sudden and intense tropical downpour sent it bounding into the rainforest.

Costa Rica is one of the most ecologically diverse places on the planet. It packs a lot for a small country wedged between Panama and Nicaragua in Central America. There are hundreds and thousands of bird, plant, mammal, and butterfly species.

Swathes of the country are cloaked in cloud forest and tropical rainforest, with five smouldering volcanoes (Arenal is well known) and many more dormant ones. There are mangroves, palm swamps, hot springs, and unspoilt beaches on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

There are opportunities for horse riding, canopy tours, river floating, tree-top zip-lining, boat trips through mangrove lagoons, deep-sea fishing, waterfall swims, relaxing in hot springs, surfing, and snorkelling. In Monteverde Cloud Forest, replica 19th-century steam engines roll through the misty cloud forest 1,300 metres above sea level. Trips to cacao and coffee plantations offer an insight into the country’s cultural heritage.

Whether surf or saddle, reef or rainforest, ship excursions are memorable and well worth the effort.
There’s a saying in Costa Rica, “Pura Vida”. It translates as “pure life,” but it’s more of a philosophy for life. Life is good. Enjoy nature. Be happy.

Cruising here is a privilege. Everyone who can should visit Costa Rica at least once. There’s nowhere quite like it.