Costa Rica - Pura Vida!
Pura Vida! You’ll hear Pura Vida a lot in Costa Rica - as a greeting, as a thank you and in other ways. Roughly translated, it means Pure Life.
Costa Rica is a fascinating country with an incredible amount of biodiversity. There are 30 national parks, which make up 25% of Costa Rica’s land. At around 20,000 square miles, it is smaller than the state of West Virginia. However, while making up 0.03 percent of the earth’s surface, it contains 5% of the world’s biodiversity. Plus, between the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, it has 800 miles of coastland. This small country has 12 climate zones, 5 active volcanoes, 112 total volcanoes, hot springs, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, rivers, rainforests, a cloud forest plus 900 species of birds, and 250 species of mammals. With all of this, it’s no wonder this country of 5 million people is often ranked pretty high on the list of happiest countries.
Costa Rica has seven provinces, but tourism is often split into eight regions. Over four trips, we have visited five of these regions. To read about our different trips, click on these links; South Pacific (Osa Peninsula), Central Pacific, Northern Central (Arenal Volcano, Monteverde, and Volcan Poas), Guanacaste, and the Caribbean Coast (Tortuguero).
As there’s so much to see in Costa Rica, we’ve moved around a lot during our trips. Sometimes this has been to move to lodging in another area, making a long day trip, or just driving to a new beach. We wanted to have the flexibility to go where we wanted when we wanted, so we rented a car on each of our trips (except for the Osa Peninsula, which is the best part of Costa Rica! However, we’ve talked with plenty of travelers who didn’t want to deal with driving and saw the country by taking public buses, shuttle buses, private transfers, or inter-country flights. We saw so much more, on our schedule, with a rental car than if we had been relying on other forms of transportation. But, it doesn’t come without some downside. See more about driving below.
Costa Rica is one of the few places we’ve been where we’ve spent at least a week without having any real sense of the local cuisine. Most of the food was decent, and we had some pretty good meals. Some places near the water had good ceviche and seafood. But, it’s a lot of rice, beans, and tortillas. Gallo pinto (rice and beans) and Casado (combo plate) seem to be on every menu. Meals can seem repetitive, as rice, beans, and tortillas are often eaten with lunch, breakfast, and dinner. Breakfast can be heavy, with eggs and fried plantains served with gallo pinto, while lunch and dinner will swap out the eggs for simple proteins and add a few vegetables.
As we were in a lot of small towns during our visits, we ate some sodas and a couple of Marisquerias. Sodas are what Costa Ricans call their local restaurant. A soda is normally a small, casual, mom-and-pop open-air restaurant that serves only traditional Costa Rican food. A Marisqueria is similar to a soda, but it specializes in seafood. They’re mostly found along the coasts and will offer simple seafood dishes. You can usually spot a soda or Marisqueria when you see a Cerveza Imperial logo on a sign. Imperial is a Costa Rican brewed beer, you will see it served everywhere.
Eating out in Costa Rica was generally very cheap. We had many meals where dinner for two, plus a few Imperials would run about $25, with tax and tip. Sit-down dining establishments will add a 10% service charge to your bill. If the service was good, you can leave a few extra colones or dollars on the table, which is generally appreciated, but not expected.
So, about driving. As mentioned above, we wanted the flexibility of having a car and being able to drive to all the places we wanted to visit. While we’d recommend renting a car, you are not in the US. The driving is ok and roads are pretty well marked, but speed limits seem to change every half mile or so. Pay attention to the speed limits. You will have cars pass you at seemingly twice your speed. The traffic police do recognize rental cars, so obey the ever-changing speed limits and don’t worry about keeping up with local traffic. Also, look out for pedestrians, cows, sheep, oxen, and other hazards on the road. Do NOT drive at night. Costa Ricans (Tico’s) are extremely friendly people, however, once Tico’s get behind the wheel of a car, they become a bit crazy. Again, DON’T drive at night. Our only negative experience in Costa Rica was being pulled over north of Jaco for supposedly driving erratically. Long story short, the cops knew we were in a rental car and shook us down for a cash bribe to avoid being jailed for DUI. We don’t want to discourage you from enjoying Costa Rica and driving there, but always be alert and DON’T drive at night.
Make sure to read our other blogs about the different areas in Costa Rica!