If you are traveling to Costa Rica for Semana Santa (Easter Week) for fun in the sun and are planning to rent a car...a word of warning ..obey the traffic laws because there will be a lot of highway patrolmen on the open highways esp Highway 1 better known as the Intermaerican Highway. Also the road to Jaco Beach will be filled with Highway patrolmen. You will need your North American drivers license and your passport and of course the papers proving that you are renting the car. Speeding tickets are very expensive, sometimes up to $100's of dollars.
Penalties for driving and drinking are very stiff in Costa Rica now. Hugh fines!! And sometimes depending on the severity of the situation even a jail sentence.
If you happen to get a ticket do not pay the patrolman at the scene. Even if he tells you to do it. Take the traffic ticket back with you to the rental car company and they will assist you in settling it.
Semana Santa is Costa Rican's favorite time to go to the beach and this year all the government employees have been given the entire week off work. So the beaches will be flooded with people. As well as the highways. Expect long lines of cars to get from San Jose to the northern Guanacaste beaches.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A New Grand-Daughter!
[caption id="attachment_3701" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Four weeks of age."]
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- what size shoe?
I have not written in several weeks because I have been with my new granddaughter, Cara Isabella, and her parents, my daughter Maria and her husband John in Brooklyn, NY. Born February 14th and weighing almost nine pounds, she is a little bundle of joy., I should I say a big bundle of joy! She is my first grandchild and now I know why these little creatures are called grandchildren. They are indeed grand!
Fair skin and blue eyes of her Irish father and dark brown hair and large wide eyes of her Spanish mother.
She kept her parents and me (three adults) under her command, not being able to speak a single word. But she sure could cry! We could not bear even a whimper so of course she learned fast that being in our arms was better than in the crib.
I took the 3 a.m. shift of feeding her allowing her mother and dad to get some rest. But during the day I was unable to sleep, guess it was the excitement of it all.
She recently had her one month birthday party....three new pink outfits size three months, yes three months...she is going to be a tall girl--her Dad is six feet and she has his long slim body with long feet, toes, and fingers.
When Cara learns to walk I would like to take her to a beautiful Costa Rica beach and let her play in the blue waters of the Pacific and walk barefoot in the soft sand.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Costa Rica's First Female President: Laura Chinchilla!!
[caption id="attachment_3683" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Costa Rica's first woman president Laura Chinchilla"]
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Congratulations to Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica's first female president, elected with 46% of the votes cast, sixty years after women were first allowed to vote in Costa Rica. Ms Chinchilla was Oscar Arias' Vice President and Minister of Justice. She pledges to put security at the top of her agenda. She also pledged to support education and strengthen the National Health Care System in Costa Rica, and improve the protection and conservation of the environment.
Ms. Chinchilla is considered one of the most conservative Costa Rican politicians concerning many social issues. She is against abortion and against granting civil recognition for homosexual couples. She opposed any amendment to the constitution aimed at separation of church and state. The constitution currently defines Costa Rica as a Roman Catholic nation.
[/caption]Congratulations to Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica's first female president, elected with 46% of the votes cast, sixty years after women were first allowed to vote in Costa Rica. Ms Chinchilla was Oscar Arias' Vice President and Minister of Justice. She pledges to put security at the top of her agenda. She also pledged to support education and strengthen the National Health Care System in Costa Rica, and improve the protection and conservation of the environment.
Ms. Chinchilla is considered one of the most conservative Costa Rican politicians concerning many social issues. She is against abortion and against granting civil recognition for homosexual couples. She opposed any amendment to the constitution aimed at separation of church and state. The constitution currently defines Costa Rica as a Roman Catholic nation.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
"Costa Rica A Travel Adventure Spectacular" Video Customer Reviews
We would like to share with you some comments we received from a gentleman who recently purchased our video. He says, " I am a senior residing in New Jersey and I purchased your video "Costa Rica A Travel Adventure Spectacular". What a visual delight. Insightful, soft, stunning. With good insight into Tico life with just sufficient dialogue to allow the viewer to take in the sights and sounds. A real achievement and testament to the many hours of work that went into the final cut. Well done and Thank You! Robert M. Denville, New Jersey
Monteverde Costa Rica, Home of the Quetzal
[caption id="attachment_3671" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Giant Fern Tree Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve"]
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Monteverde Costa Rica is filled with tourist from all over the world from January through March which is the time it rains less. It is located high in the cloudy rain forest, atop the continental divide and about 110 miles from San Jose, the capital city. The only access is by road and the road (from the Interamerican highway (highway 1) is about 26 miles (43 km) of dirt, rocks and gravel taking over one hour to navigate. How to get to Monteverde? Take the Interamerican Highway north. 22 miles past the Puntarenas turnoff--on the Interamerican Highway are signs which are not easy to see so go slow and look carefully. If you get to the Lagarto River you have gone too far. It will be a right turn onto a dirt and gravel road going for 26 miles winding up into the Cordillera de Tiliran mountain range until you arrive to the small town of Santa Elena (Monteverde) Allow 4 hours drive from San Jose and do not do the drive at night.
A group of Quakers from Alabama came to settle here in the 1950s as a place free from militarism. They supported themselves by making cheese from the milk cows they raised. Today this cheese is famous all over Costa Rica and can be purchased in most of the local grocery stores.
The infrastructure in and around Monteverde is basic. Many of the roads remain unpaved. You feel very peaceful here because it does have feel over developed by large hotel chains. The accommodations are small and many of them are locally run. The more upscale is the Hotel Sapo Dorado, Pension Heliconia, and Hotel Belmar. Also you will find many smaller pension type accommodations run by the locals.
What are the big attractions here? 1. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve- This reserve is home to the Resplendent Quetzal, the most spectacular bird in the tropics. It is a large bird with long iridescent green tail feathers. The Mayan people of Guatemala believed the Quetzal to be the "Bird of Life" and symbolized supreme freedom. These birds are not easy to spot and one should hire a local guide if you want to see one.
2. And of course you will find tourist attractions such as zip line tours (Canopy Tours) and walks over swinging bridges, butterfly farms, hummingbird gallery, snake exhibits, orchid gardens, horseback riding, and the Quaker cheese factory tour. You should stay a minimum of three nights to experience this place.
The weather is very cool and humid since it is in a cloud forest so you need a rain jacket and warm clothes plus very comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots.
Many restaurants are scattered around town. And most hotels include a full breakfast in their room price. Unique is the homemade granola made fresh daily from 100% locally grown ingredients. If you are there on the weekend be sure to go to the Santa Elena local farmers market where you will find all the home grown vegetables and fruits. Many of them are organically grown, plus you can interact with the locals.
Monteverde has some very nice art galleries, feathering beautiful work by local artisans. Just ask at your hotel. This is a small community and the galleries are easy to locate.
Monteverde is also famous for the "Golden Toads" which are now believed to be extinct. Scientist do not know why but speculate that a fungus killed them.
If you are traveling to Costa Rica and are looking for a laid back destination to experience the rain forest and unspoiled natural beauty then put Monteverde on your itinerary. Tips: 1. Rains a lot here especially August, Sept, Oct. Best to visit January through April when it rains less. Also more tourist come in these months and there is more activity-restaurants etc. 2. You need a 4x4 if you are renting a vehicle to drive there. 3. public bus goes daily to Monteverde from San Jose and back to San Jose.
I would spend the money and hire a local guide who knows where all the birds and wildlife can be located.
[/caption]Monteverde Costa Rica is filled with tourist from all over the world from January through March which is the time it rains less. It is located high in the cloudy rain forest, atop the continental divide and about 110 miles from San Jose, the capital city. The only access is by road and the road (from the Interamerican highway (highway 1) is about 26 miles (43 km) of dirt, rocks and gravel taking over one hour to navigate. How to get to Monteverde? Take the Interamerican Highway north. 22 miles past the Puntarenas turnoff--on the Interamerican Highway are signs which are not easy to see so go slow and look carefully. If you get to the Lagarto River you have gone too far. It will be a right turn onto a dirt and gravel road going for 26 miles winding up into the Cordillera de Tiliran mountain range until you arrive to the small town of Santa Elena (Monteverde) Allow 4 hours drive from San Jose and do not do the drive at night.
A group of Quakers from Alabama came to settle here in the 1950s as a place free from militarism. They supported themselves by making cheese from the milk cows they raised. Today this cheese is famous all over Costa Rica and can be purchased in most of the local grocery stores.
The infrastructure in and around Monteverde is basic. Many of the roads remain unpaved. You feel very peaceful here because it does have feel over developed by large hotel chains. The accommodations are small and many of them are locally run. The more upscale is the Hotel Sapo Dorado, Pension Heliconia, and Hotel Belmar. Also you will find many smaller pension type accommodations run by the locals.
What are the big attractions here? 1. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve- This reserve is home to the Resplendent Quetzal, the most spectacular bird in the tropics. It is a large bird with long iridescent green tail feathers. The Mayan people of Guatemala believed the Quetzal to be the "Bird of Life" and symbolized supreme freedom. These birds are not easy to spot and one should hire a local guide if you want to see one.
2. And of course you will find tourist attractions such as zip line tours (Canopy Tours) and walks over swinging bridges, butterfly farms, hummingbird gallery, snake exhibits, orchid gardens, horseback riding, and the Quaker cheese factory tour. You should stay a minimum of three nights to experience this place.
The weather is very cool and humid since it is in a cloud forest so you need a rain jacket and warm clothes plus very comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots.
Many restaurants are scattered around town. And most hotels include a full breakfast in their room price. Unique is the homemade granola made fresh daily from 100% locally grown ingredients. If you are there on the weekend be sure to go to the Santa Elena local farmers market where you will find all the home grown vegetables and fruits. Many of them are organically grown, plus you can interact with the locals.
Monteverde has some very nice art galleries, feathering beautiful work by local artisans. Just ask at your hotel. This is a small community and the galleries are easy to locate.
Monteverde is also famous for the "Golden Toads" which are now believed to be extinct. Scientist do not know why but speculate that a fungus killed them.
If you are traveling to Costa Rica and are looking for a laid back destination to experience the rain forest and unspoiled natural beauty then put Monteverde on your itinerary. Tips: 1. Rains a lot here especially August, Sept, Oct. Best to visit January through April when it rains less. Also more tourist come in these months and there is more activity-restaurants etc. 2. You need a 4x4 if you are renting a vehicle to drive there. 3. public bus goes daily to Monteverde from San Jose and back to San Jose.
I would spend the money and hire a local guide who knows where all the birds and wildlife can be located.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The National Theater, "An Architectural Gem"
[caption id="attachment_3654" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="Golden Frog, Gold Museum, San Jose Costa Rica"]
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- Inside the National Theater, Neoclassical Architecture
The National Theater located in the heart of San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city is an architectural gem. It is a copy of the famous Paris Opera House. If you are traveling to Costa Rica on vacation and are in San Jose be sure and go see it or even better attend a performance. Costa Rica's symphony orchestra plays on Friday evenings during symphony season.
The theater was built in 1897 when the wealthy coffee barons of Costa Rica decided they needed an appropriate stage for operas coming from Europe. The first opera performed was a magnificent performance of Faust and was attended by the President and a select, finely dressed audience.
In the rear of the National Theater is the Gold Museum, which houses hundreds of pre Colombian gold artifacts, some of which date back to 500 years B.C. Definitely this is one of the best museums in San Jose so make time to visit. Takes about one hour to see it all. There is an admission fee.
Outside the National Theater is the Plaza de Cultura and is a great place just to sit and watch the people walking by. Mid-day is good when the people are on their lunch break and the streets are bustling with activity.
San Jose is not a particularly pretty city. It's noisy with lots of buses and cars and seems unorganized. It's hard to find your way because the streets and avenues are not well marked. Best to take a taxi which is relatively inexpensive. If you are looking for a place to stay in San Jose I recommend that you go to the following web site which has a good choice of hotels in San Jose with discount prices www.hoteltravel.com/costarica/sanjose/hotels/htm
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Limon is a town located on Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica
[caption id="attachment_3639" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Private garden on Caribbean coast of Costa Rica"]
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I have heard many travelers to Costa Rica talk about traveling to Limon and saying, "My it is not at all an attractive town and located in such a beautiful coastline on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica with palm trees and warm Caribbean winds which blow each day. Limon is a port city and this is one reason it is so unattractive. Filled will big trucks and large containers filled with all sorts of things coming into Costa Rica and leaving Costa Rica. And the weather is hot and steamy here and rains a lot..all year round. Takes around 3.5 hours to drive to Limon from the capital city of San Jose. The road is good and very scenic winding through Braulio Carrillo National Park with its dense forests and tall mountains. You dont' want to drive this road after dark due to the dense fog that sets in as you pass thru Braulio Carrillo National park. Then you arrive to the Atlantic lowland forest where you can immediately feel the temperatures warming and feel hot and steamy.
In the 17th century there were cocoa plantations in these Atlantic lowland areas which were worked by slaves from Africa. But in the early 1800s the cocoa production was halted. There was constant trouble from raids by pirates, English pirates from Jamaica, along with the local Miskitos (indigenous people inhabiting this area of Costa Rica.)
Today this area is planted in Bananas which is the second largest product of export for Costa Rica. Coffee is first.
Around 1871 the Costa Rican government, because of the growth of the coffee export market, decided that it needed a port of the Atlantic side to facilitae getting the coffee to Europe, so the port of Limon was established in a place that was little more than a migrant black fisherman's village consisting of five huts. And in the same year the Atlantic Railroad was constructed which went from San Jose to Limon. Workers were brought to work on the railroad from China, Jamaica, and Italy. Today we see many Chinese, Italians, and Black people who remained in the area and made it their home.
So Limon became a banana town and a railroad town, populated mostly by blacks from Jamaica and Chinese. These people who worked on the Banana plantations were no given any rights of citizenship by the Costa Rica government. They were not allowed to move from this area and go to work in San Jose or any other towns of Costa Rica. However, today the story is quite different and they are full fledged citizens of Costa Rica and work where ever they can find work.
"SUMMER TIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY"
Tourism is a big thing if you travel south of Limon on the coastal road. Most of these roads are in great need of repair but the landscape along the beaches is beautiful with palm trees swaying in the tropical wind. You don't see large fancy hotel complexes here, just small hotels. The weather is not really suitable to draw the big crowds of tourist to the sun because it rains here all year round. Life seems very laid back , no one in a hurry. Lots of people of all ages riding bicycles. "Just summer time and the living is easy" There is lots of wildlife here such as sloths, howler monkeys, and so many colorful tropical birds! The flowers and shrubs are so unique...no seen in any other parts of Costa Rica.
Costaricalearn.com filmed the Tortuguero Canals and Tortuguero National Park and the inhabitants there. This National Park is located a few miles north of Limon. You can see it on our video "Costa Rica A Travel Adventure Spectacular Video." Just go to home page and there see the 2 minute trailor and if you would like your own full length copy, you can order it there.
[/caption]I have heard many travelers to Costa Rica talk about traveling to Limon and saying, "My it is not at all an attractive town and located in such a beautiful coastline on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica with palm trees and warm Caribbean winds which blow each day. Limon is a port city and this is one reason it is so unattractive. Filled will big trucks and large containers filled with all sorts of things coming into Costa Rica and leaving Costa Rica. And the weather is hot and steamy here and rains a lot..all year round. Takes around 3.5 hours to drive to Limon from the capital city of San Jose. The road is good and very scenic winding through Braulio Carrillo National Park with its dense forests and tall mountains. You dont' want to drive this road after dark due to the dense fog that sets in as you pass thru Braulio Carrillo National park. Then you arrive to the Atlantic lowland forest where you can immediately feel the temperatures warming and feel hot and steamy.
In the 17th century there were cocoa plantations in these Atlantic lowland areas which were worked by slaves from Africa. But in the early 1800s the cocoa production was halted. There was constant trouble from raids by pirates, English pirates from Jamaica, along with the local Miskitos (indigenous people inhabiting this area of Costa Rica.)
Today this area is planted in Bananas which is the second largest product of export for Costa Rica. Coffee is first.
Around 1871 the Costa Rican government, because of the growth of the coffee export market, decided that it needed a port of the Atlantic side to facilitae getting the coffee to Europe, so the port of Limon was established in a place that was little more than a migrant black fisherman's village consisting of five huts. And in the same year the Atlantic Railroad was constructed which went from San Jose to Limon. Workers were brought to work on the railroad from China, Jamaica, and Italy. Today we see many Chinese, Italians, and Black people who remained in the area and made it their home.
So Limon became a banana town and a railroad town, populated mostly by blacks from Jamaica and Chinese. These people who worked on the Banana plantations were no given any rights of citizenship by the Costa Rica government. They were not allowed to move from this area and go to work in San Jose or any other towns of Costa Rica. However, today the story is quite different and they are full fledged citizens of Costa Rica and work where ever they can find work.
"SUMMER TIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY"
Tourism is a big thing if you travel south of Limon on the coastal road. Most of these roads are in great need of repair but the landscape along the beaches is beautiful with palm trees swaying in the tropical wind. You don't see large fancy hotel complexes here, just small hotels. The weather is not really suitable to draw the big crowds of tourist to the sun because it rains here all year round. Life seems very laid back , no one in a hurry. Lots of people of all ages riding bicycles. "Just summer time and the living is easy" There is lots of wildlife here such as sloths, howler monkeys, and so many colorful tropical birds! The flowers and shrubs are so unique...no seen in any other parts of Costa Rica.
Costaricalearn.com filmed the Tortuguero Canals and Tortuguero National Park and the inhabitants there. This National Park is located a few miles north of Limon. You can see it on our video "Costa Rica A Travel Adventure Spectacular Video." Just go to home page and there see the 2 minute trailor and if you would like your own full length copy, you can order it there.
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