Costa Rica - part 1

Three weeks ago Carrie left for Costa Rica for work, leaving me behind with a freezer full of food. (Incidentally, we returned home this week to a freezer full of food.)

Five days later I flew out with our friends Reuben & Irene to join her in the balmy south. Costa Rica is the farthest south I've been, at 10 degrees north of the equator. I don't imagine I'll get that close to the equator in future vacations.

Costa Rica is situated in Central America, between Nicaragua and Panama. It's a stable democracy with a population of 4.3 million, and it's the most visited Central American country by tourists. Tourism brings in more money than the three main exports combined (bananas, pineapples, coffee).

Costa Rica has significantly developed its ecotourism, and it's considered to be a very "green" country. Politically this may be the case, but you wouldn't guess it from the scads of people burning their garbage regularly in their back yards, or simply burning their back yards.

Costa Ricans are informally known as ticos (or ticas). It's a great label to which to aspire while travelling the country and trying to fit in.

When researching for our trip, we of course turned to the Internet for unbiased reports and reviews. Of course, much of what is reported is bad experiences by travellers. (Why would you report good experiences? That's just not worth sharing!) So we wondered about all the petty theft, rental vehicle risks (unscrupulous rental companies, crazy drivers, horrible roads, evil transit cops), the snakes, the bugs. Well, we braced ourselves for the worst, and as a result were rarely disappointed.

One tip when travelling to countries with a "minor" currency: consider not buying any of it in Canada! The currency is the colón, of which about 500 equal a dollar. We bought some at the Royal Bank before leaving (ordered in, as they don't stock much), and on a day when the official exchange rate was 514, the bank gave a lousy rate of 458. That means the bank charged us an exchange fee of 12%... ouch! In hindsight, we should have taken only US dollars, since those are accepted almost everywhere in Costa Rica, and exchanges were done on the fly at around 500 colones per dollar. We were quite amazed at the lack of ripping off by vendors accepting US cash. Also, bank machines there dispense both US and local currency, which is rather convenient.

Carrie had some time to see things during her work week. She took a day trip with colleagues to see the nearby Poás volcano. The nice thing there is that you can actually go right to the edge of the crater. Just don't hang around too long: the toxic fumes being emitted discourage prolonged exposure.