Costa Rica - south towards Panama

It was time to leave San Jose to set out on the longer leg through South America.  When going to the main border crossing with Panama, in the south-west of Costa Rica, there are several ways to get there.  Harold chose to go via Parque Nacional Los Quetzales, crossing the mountains to get to San Isidro de El General and from there to the coast.

Our first stop was rather close to home – La Lucha.  This is a farm and the home of one of Costa Rica’s most influential politicians, José Figueres Ferrer.  He is internationally most famous for having abolished the army.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Figueres_Ferrer

We spent the afternoon with a coffee & maduro con queso, and a tour around the museum which is in Figueres’ home.  He died in 1990.

Last year when we came to Parque Nacional Los Quetzales, we were forced out by a power cut, but this time we stayed in a great hotel, high up in the mountains, El Mirador de Quetzales.  We saw colibris, but no quetzales.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzal

The next day we drove to Dominical and spent two nights there.  The hotel was quite close to the waterfront but to get there was a mission.  There were stones rather than sand and it was certainly not a swimming beach.  It is great to go on jungle walks!  We saw a tucano and some creepy crawlies, but nothing scary. The rainy season has arrived and both our evenings were spent on the balcony in the rain, with a couple of whiskeys.

The next stop was supposed to be Golfito.  We’ll see if we get there!  The aircon in the car has behaved a bit strangely for a while, and it was a worry that it would stop completely.  So, when we drove and saw (and this is the only one mechanic, not to mention A/C place, in the area, we have learned now…), we decided to stay to see if the guys could fix it.  This was on Sunday 4 May, and we stayed at a place in Ojochal.  This is less than half an hour from our previous place!  At times the going is slow. Here we did a second walk though the jungle to the beach. This is a sandy beach, but in the last couple of years it has changed so that there is a very wide area of water between the waterfront and the jungle. It is near impossible to cross, even in gumboots, so we never saw the waves breaking. From the hotel we can see it, but of course in the distance. On this walk we saw a pair of guacamayas, several groups of monkeys and incredible vegetation. And the hotel restaurant where we have breakfast is on the monkey highway, so there are several coming past, some with babies. They are super cute. By our cabin we have a group of colibris, and a few different kinds of butterflies. Plus an avocado tree in the yard, pity they aren't ripe.

Last time we came this route, we had a coffee in a rustic restaurant near San Isidro. We repeated this time, and were caught up in catching a snake in the restaurant. Those are dramatic because you can't rule out it being a venomous snake and you also don't want to hurt it. Harold helps with the catching and Karin helps by staying out of the way.

Once the car gets fixed we will move on to cross the border to Panama. We need to be in Colón no later than 10 May to start the shipping of the car to Cartagena in Colombia. That is a process!