“Pura vida”
If you’ve ever been to Costa Rica, you’ll hear this phrase hundreds of times in one day. It means “pure life” in Spanish, but the people of this beautiful country use it in multiple ways; to say hello, goodbye, thank you, you’re welcome…any way you want basically!
I had the BEST time in Tamarindo, Costa Rica with my momma, so keep reading if you want to know what we did!
I’ll start off by giving the background of this trip. So almost 2 years ago, my boyfriend and I attended a NWTF Banquet (National Wild Turkey Federation). They have an auction every year there with random items like furniture, guns, hunting equipment, and usually a few trips. One of those was this Costa Rica trip! I begged my boyfriend to bid $500 and split the cost with me, so he did…and won! Fast-forward to now, I only had until June 2020 to use it, and my boyfriend was now unable to go. I had some difficulty finding somebody to take his place, but all it took was deciding I was going by myself for my mom to take the leap and come with me! Thanks mom!
The $500 only covered an inland hotel, so we decided to upgrade to an all-inclusive resort right on the beach for an extra $50 a day per person. We decided to stay at the Occidental Tamarindo, and I’m glad we did! While the rooms were nothing spectacular (we got the cheapest option so picture a basic hotel room), the rest of the resort was stunning with a giant pool, buffet, snack bar, great beach, and awesome location. We found round trip flights on Expedia for I believe $450-ish a person from St. Louis to Liberia. We also opted to get a private shuttle from the airport to the resort and back as I had read online that sometimes taxis weren’t always trustworthy and would overcharge tourists. When we got there it was about 5pm so we explored the resort a bit and went to bed early. The adventures start tomorrow!
DAY 1
My mom wanted to relax this day, so I opted to go on a tour by myself. I did most of my tours with a company called Native’s Way, and I’m so glad I did! I was very happy with them. They had incredible customer service, great drivers and guides, and allowed me to join this group as a solo traveler (they usually require 2 people per booking). Highly recommend them!!
This day I explored to Rio Celeste, Llanos de Cortez, and a small protected “organic farm”. The price for this tour was $120 per person and included transportation, lunch, and all entry fees (like almost all the Native’s Way tours). This was a pretty long ride in the van, I believe it took us about 3 hours to get there.
My favorite thing about this day was definitely the Rio Celeste waterfall! It gets it’s blue color due to minerals and a chemical reaction where two rivers meet. Though you’re not allowed to swim in it, there are stairs that lead down to an observation area to get an up-close view, and it was absolutely beautiful. I will say that to do this tour, you should be in decent shape because it was definitely a difficult hike (over 3 miles + 400 stairs!); I think out of our group of 17 people only about half of us actually made it to see the waterfall, including the guide! We also got lucky and spotted a sloth, several lizards, and a snake! I will be writing another blog post about this activity so stayed tuned!
Can you spot the snake? It blends in really well. Comment when you find it!
The Llanos de Cortez waterfall was much easier to get to. There’s a large parking lot right next to it with bathrooms to change in, and getting to the waterfall is just a short 5-minute hike down some stairs. The waterfall itself is quite large, and you can swim in it! The water was freezing but extremely clear, and entry was very shallow. This would be a great place to bring kids! There were lifeguards present so set your stuff down on some rocks and go for a swim!
I actually don’t know the name of the “organic farm” we went to…it was a bit off the path and we literally just pulled into a parking lot and 2 young girls walked us around in the jungle and pointed animals out. BUT we got to see multiple sloths (including a baby!), a red-eyed tree frog, different kinds of birds, butterflies, flowers, and more!
DAY 2
My mom agreed to go on a tour with me this day, so we decided on visiting the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano National Park, which is one of five active volcanoes in Costa Rica. This tour was also $120 per person with Native’s Way, and took about 2 hours to get to. Fun fact: It had some small activity 2 days prior to our visit here! However our guide assured me it was still safe. Though you’re not allowed to hike to the very top anymore, we still got to see several spots where gases and vapors were coming out of the ground, bubbling mud pots, and boiling natural pools. We also spotted spider monkeys, a wild turkey, and a deer! This tour was pretty neat because we got to experience the rain forest and the dry forest in the same hike. For the most part this hike was pretty easy, just extremely hot. I do recommend that if you see a big group going through the entrance (there was a group of at least 20 elderly people going through right before us), to walk through the exit instead and do the hike backwards. You’ll still see all the same stuff and are much less likely to get stuck behind large crowds all fighting to see the same thing!
However, my favorite part of this day was visiting the Oropendola Waterfall, which earned a spot in the top 3 favorite things I did during this trip. It’s a very short walk from the entrance to Rincón de la Vieja and I recommend doing it after the hike to cool off. You can either change into a swimsuit in the bathroom at the entrance right after you finish the hike, or if you walk across the parking lot there’s a soda (small local restaurant/snack bar) near the entrance to the waterfall that you can change at as well. There’s a big sign where the path begins so you can’t miss it!
Getting to the waterfall was a short hike/walk that I managed to do in flip-flops (didn’t want to get my sneakers wet). If you go, just bring a towel and phone/camera and leave the rest in the vehicle, as there’s not a lot of room on the platform to leave belongings plus it’ll likely get soaked. You’ll walk along a small path through the forest and across a rope bridge and TADA, you’re at the waterfall!
The water was FREEZING but you get used to it quick since it’s so hot there! It was also pretty shallow in most areas. If you have sensitive feet bring water shoes because there’s a lot of rocks, so be careful where you step! You can also climb up the rocks and jump into the water, which was a lot of fun! I had always wanted to jump into a waterfall! Watch the video here.
After this we stayed in our swimsuits and got back into the van, because the next stop was the Rio Negro Hot Springs! I think this was my mom’s favorite part. There are multiple different little pools that are naturally heated by the volcano, so if you go, try them all out! Basically a natural hot tub! They also mix volcanic mud up in coconuts that you can paint on your body with a brush; it makes your skin feel amazing! Let it dry and either shower there or take a dip in the cold river to wash it all off.
DAY 3
Zip lining was on my bucket list, so if I was going to do it, I wanted the BEST one. If you want to try it out too, there’s really no better option than taking a visit to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. For $175 per person with Native’s Way, this was more than worth it and is one of my top 3 favorite things I did on this trip. If you’re staying in Tamarindo like we did, be prepared for a longgg van ride (over 3.5 hours). Bring your neck pillow and snacks and take a nap on the way.
Monteverde Cloud Forest gets its name because it’s LITERALLY in the clouds. Unfortunately, this also means higher chance of rain. Though it rained the whole time we were there, the zip lines still operate, so be prepared to get soaked! I honestly thought it made the experience more fun though – we REALLY got to experience rain in a rain forest!
We chose not to risk taking our phones during the zip line course, so we paid $25 once we got there and they took some picture of us during the first couple lines. Worth it to not chance losing your phone because trust me, if you drop it…it’s gone for good!
The course consists of I believe 14 cables (one of them is almost a mile long!) and a Tarzan swing; it looks super scary and I almost chickened out, but you must do it! I wish I’d had my phone for this to get a video.
After zip-lining we got to walk across 8 hanging bridges suspended above the cloud forest. It was awesome, but if you have a fear of heights I probably wouldn’t recommend this or zip-lining as you’ll be pretty high up.
On the way home we spotted a giant rainbow too, so that was pretty cool! Check it out!
DAY 4
After 3 days of long tours, I was pretty excited to get to sleep later than 5 am! After relaxing for a bit, I decided to take a 2-hour surf lesson, which ended up being a lot harder than it looks. I’m pretty sure I only successfully stood up on the board 4 or 5 times, but still had a blast! Costa Rica is known for surfing and there were surf shops everywhere you looked, so if you visit you should definitely try it! If not at least sit on the beach and watch others do it, because it’s pretty entertaining. I ended up booking this directly through the resort since it was surprisingly the same price as the tour company I had been using (other activities through the resort were WAY more expensive). We then went back to the resort and spent the afternoon at the pool, because we had a pretty exciting activity planned for the evening…
!!!!! SEA TURTLES !!!!!
If you know me, you know sea turtles are my absolute favorite animals EVER. We actually almost didn’t get to do this as we were supposed to do this on day 3 instead of zip-lining, but after we switched we found out that Native’s Way was booked up for the turtles. I was heartbroken BUT they were nice enough to put us with another group called Discover, which was just as great!
Now, I am a big lover of animals and am against touching them or interfering with them (even when I’m diving, I don’t touch anything). But the chance to observe turtles nesting and babies hatching was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, especially since we were there in peak season for it.
To do this, it’s very important you wear dark clothing, dim the screen on your phone, and don’t use flash. The bright light on your phone can really mess with the turtles; instead, the company should give you small red lights to use to see where you are walking and help guide the babies to the water if you find any.
All beaches in Costa Rica are public and government owned, but the beaches we were on are apparently protected and are trying to be kept that way so these turtles have a safe area that’s not full of resorts. It wasn’t long before a group spotted a green sea turtle nest hatching!
Green sea turtles lay about an average of 110 eggs and trust me; there were lots of babies! Us being there made sure they weren’t attacked by predators and didn’t get caught in any debris. I personally got to lead seven babies to the ocean by myself; it was a dream come true! At one point my mom and I were surrounded by so many babies we had to stand perfectly still because they were crawling right over our feet! Check out how cute they are by clicking here and here.
We also got to watch a very large momma turtle digging a nest, which was pretty cool! I was so happy to get to check this off my bucket list. This was by far my absolute favorite thing we did on this trip.
After this, we spent our last day relaxing by the pool and beach and doing some souvenir shopping, then flew home the next day. Costa Rica has definitely earned its spot as my 2nd favorite country (Philippines still holds #1) and I can’t wait to come back and explore more of what it has to offer. Next time I plan on diving, visiting the Arenal volcano, and more!
I plan on writing more about tips for visiting Rio Celeste, so if you’re interested in visiting keep an eye out for that post! Thanks for reading, and pura vida!
TIPS & THINGS TO KNOW
- Costa Rica felt very safe, and in fact, has been voted the safest country in Central America to visit. However, always use caution no matter where you travel! Most people spoke at least some English as well, but it wouldn’t hurt to brush up on your Spanish before visiting.
- We exchanged currency in the airport in Dallas, and I wish we wouldn’t have because USD was accepted everywhere we went. If you want to have “colones” (pronounced ca-low-nays) which is their currency though just in case, wait until you get there to exchange in the airport free of charge.
- Book any tours you want to do ahead of time to make sure you get your spot. Also, it will likely be significantly cheaper to book on your own instead of booking through your resort. For instance, we paid $40 a piece for the sea turtle watching, while another couple that booked through the resort and went with the same company paid $70 per person.
- Always check with the CDC to see if there are any vaccinations required or recommended no matter where you are traveling.
- They use the metric system, so it’s good to be familiar with that because signs will be in kilometers, not miles. Same with converting Celsius to Fahrenheit.
WHAT TO PACK
- Rain jacket! We went during the dry season for the west coast, but still brought ours with us everyday and it came in handy in Monteverde.
- Bug spray! I used it and still got 14 mosquito bites; they are vicious!
- A mini battery powered fan; it is HOT down here!
- Motion sickness/nausea medications. Though Costa Rica is pretty developed and had mostly decent roads, there were some places that were very curvy/rough and if it wasn’t for Dramamine and Zofran, I definitely would’ve been sick!
- Waterproof case for your phone or camera
- Backpack for tours (I use mine as my personal item for flights)
- Binoculars to spot wildlife (you can even take a picture through them!)
- Sturdy hiking boots or decent tennis shoes
- Refillable water bottle. This is the one we have.
- Battery sticks. We have TravelPass with Verizon, but signal still wasn’t great and between that and taking pictures, our batteries drained pretty fast.