January 17, 2009

I wanted a country with tropical drinks, wild animals, outdoorsy type activities. Being known for strong coffee is also a plus. Turns out there's a place less than a three hour plane ride from Dallas that fits all of these requirements. The only problem was everyone one else in the US seemed to know about it too. Costa Rica's popularity amongst Americans sky-rocketed about the time I started at AA and flights seemed to be full nearly year-round. Enter the economic downturn. We finally found a weekend where the flights were open-ish, the weather looked good, and our schedule was clear enough to make use of both. We ended up going to the Guanacaste region, on the northern and Pacific side of the country.

Our hotel was right on the beach, a dirty looking black sand leftover from some long-ago eruption. Even though we were only twenty minutes from an international airport, it might as well have been three hours. We were at the end of our own road, on a stretch of beach with nothing else and no other people. The only sounds weaving through the resort at night were the waves hitting on the beach and there weren't any other lights to ruin the night sky (and the occasional blender).

Costa Rica doesn't really fit the mold that so many Central American countries seem to be sprung from. You see people doing the hard manual labor to harvest sugar cane in the fields, but it turns out they are mostly illegal immigrants from Nicaragua. The main fields that native Costa Ricans work in are tourism and semi-conductors of all things. They have no military, their democracy has been uninterrupted for decades, education is obligatory and free all the way through high school and their environmental friendliness ranking is THE highest in the Americas. As our guide put it, "our government has chosen to spend money on things that will help us improve our country and everyone who lives here."

Another thing Costa Rica is famous for is its wildlife. We decided to take a boat ride along one of the most famous nature reserves in the country (Palo Verde National Park ). I was skeptical at first, I figured we'd see a bunch of birds or something lame like that. We saw plenty of birds (mostly awkward looking, brightly colored ones), but we also saw a ton of toothy crocodiles, bats disguised as tree bark, white-faced monkeys (up close and personal), giant lizards, howler monkeys, and a whole host of other species that I didn't even catch the names on. I think we easily saw more animals than you would in a similiar amount of time at a zoo.

Having checked off the coffee, fruity drink, and nature portions of our trip, we wanted to do something that felt a little less scripted so we decided to rent a four-wheeler and ride along the coastline. It was dusty, dirty, hot, and I had a blast. I haven't ridden ATVs since I left for school and I had forgotten how much fun it was. The whole place seemed to be designed for it with trails sprouting off and climbing through the hills.

I'll restate the obvious, but Costa Rica had pretty much everything we were looking for on this trip. This is one of the few places we've been that we are actively planning to go back to (still want to see some lava). In fact, I think I've decided that after school, I'll be one of those guys who gets to drink coffee and fruity drinks all day before going four-wheeling in the afternoon.