Tainted by Tourism: Travels in Costa Rica

Copyright © Mark Moxon 2024

All rights reserved

This version was compiled on 30 March 2024

This work has been released under the Creative Commons licence Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). This means you are free to distribute this work to others as long as you retain this copyright notice, do not use the work for commercial purposes and do not alter, transform or build upon this work. For more details please read the full licence.

Front cover: The cloud forest of Monteverde

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Preface

This book is a collection of writing from the road, covering a two-week trip I made to Costa Rica in 2014. This was part of a larger, six-month journey that took me through Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia during 2013 and 2014.

The travelogue for all these countries and more can be found on my personal website at www.moxon.net, where you can also find travel tips, recommended journeys and further free books for you to download.

I’ve released this book and its companions via a Creative Commons Licence, which means you are free to distribute it to everyone and anyone, as long as you distribute it on a non-commercial basis and make no changes to it. If you know someone who might like this book, please pass it on; I make no money from it, but I do enjoy the thought of people reading it and recommending it to their friends.

Finally, please be aware that this book attempts to be humorous every now and then, so there’s a slight chance that it might cause offence to those who think my sense of humour is as amusing as a puddle of mud. On top of this, some parts will be out of date – which is why each article is dated – and others will betray the naivety of a traveller who discovered his way in the world by throwing himself into it headfirst. It is, however, an honest account of how I felt as I travelled through Central America for six months, and as such, I hope you enjoy it.

Mark Moxon

June 2014

Costa Rica

Culture Shock

Written: 20 February 2014

Crossing the border from Nicaragua into Costa Rica is a fascinating exercise in ‘spot the difference’. This is not surprising, as Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, while Costa Rica is one of the richest; it comes out top in ‘quality of life’ measurements such as life expectancy, education, child mortality, crime prevention and so on, though Panama actually has a bigger economy because of the canal. As a result, the change when you head east is astounding.

While Nicaragua is dusty, pot-holed and rubbish-strewn, Costa Rica is landscaped and clean; in Nicaragua, farm-life spills out onto the street, while Costa Rica’s cows are neatly hemmed into fenced fields; Nicaragua’s cars are rust-buckets that drag their hind-quarters in the dirt, while Costa Rican cars look shiny and new; in Nicaragua, the roads are lined with shacks that are only kept upright by luck, while Costa Rica’s housing is clean, modern and architecturally stable; and while Nicaragua’s people are clad in clothes that reflect the rural and earthy way of life there, Costa Ricans sport sunglasses, tight jeans and a sense of fashion that is decidedly Western. It’s a total shock.

It made the taxi ride from the Nicaraguan border a slightly surreal experience, not least because the taxi driver seemed to be more interested in driving carefully and avoiding collisions than in overtaking on blind corners or ramming cows off the road. There weren’t any holes in the road to swerve round, or chicken buses heading straight for us, and even the policeman at the single checkpoint we passed through was dressed up in modern police gear, though one suspects that the police round here are still the last people you should call when there’s a problem.

And when we checked into our hotel in Liberia, the first major city after the border, it really hit home. We’d teamed up with Paul and Jenn, a friendly couple from Manchester whom we’d met on Little Corn Island, and they’d suggested a hotel that had good online reviews and a swimming pool, but what the website hadn’t managed to get across was the location. It turned out to be on a busy junction on the main highway just out of town, which wasn’t ideal, but it did mean that we were literally next door to a gleaming tower of modern American living in the shape of a huge McDonalds. Over the road was a Burger King and in the hotel were lots of pasty American tourists... and that’s where the culture shock started to make sense, for Costa Rica is not really a travelling destination, it’s a tourist destination, and there’s a definite difference.

I wonder whether it will turn out to be too much of a shock after the dusty trail through Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua...

Monteverde

Written: 23 February 2014

More often than not, recommendations from other travellers are like gold dust, and they completely transform your experience. Sometimes, however, they just don’t work out, and in Monteverde, one of Costa Rica’s main tourist attractions, things didn’t quite go as planned.

It all sounded great on paper. Monteverde is home to Costa Rica’s richest cloud forest – that’s rainforest that lives in a semi-permanent cloud layer, formed by moisture-laden Pacific air being pushed up by the continental divide – and this humidity creates a unique forest environment that’s teeming with wildlife. Back in Rio Dulce in Guatemala, we’d met an Australian couple who had raved about Monteverde and had recommended Selvatura Park as the best place to see the cloud forest, and we’d been looking forward to it ever since.

Paul and Jenn had decided to hire a car for their trip and they kindly offered us a lift to Monteverde and on to La Fortuna, and the drive up from Liberia was spectacular. Costa Rica has been called the Switzerland of Central America, and it’s easy to see why; as you climb up from the hot plains of western Costa Rica and into the hills, it’s easy to persuade yourself that you’re in Europe, with all the pretty chalets and steep farmed slopes. The last hour to Monteverde is along a dirt road, which makes for a bumpy but atmospheric ride, and it wasn’t long before we’d arrived in Santa Elena, the main settlement in Monteverde, and checked into the hotel that Paul had booked online from Liberia.

Except it turned out that the room we’d booked didn’t actually exist; the hotel manager said that they were having a problem with one of their online agencies and this was the fourth time that week that they’d oversold rooms in the hotel, but he said he’d booked a couple of rooms for us in a nearby hotel. It all felt a little dodgy, to be honest, and none of us quite believed what he said, but we didn’t have much choice and ended up moving to a rather dingy hotel off the main drag, with the promise of being moved back to our original hotel for our last night.

Into the Cloud Forest

Undaunted, the following morning we all headed off to Selvatura Park to check out the cloud forest first-hand, and we were all in pretty high spirits as we hopped into the shuttle bus that picked us up from the hotel. The bus was full of elderly Americans on two-week holidays – who were sociable but completely out of sync with the kind of trip we’ve been on – so perhaps we should have spotted the warning signs from the start, because in the end Selvatura Park turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Now, if you’ve just hopped on a plane from a snowbound New York and spilled out into Selvatura Park, then it’s going to blow your mind. There’s a concrete forest walkway that meanders through the rainforest, crossing a number of high suspension bridges that take you high over the forest canopy, and after the shock of the American winter, it’s bound to be a thrill simply to be in the tropics. And then there’s a hummingbird garden where artificial flowers attract hummingbirds of all colours and sizes, where you can sit and simply watch these stunning creatures hovering, right in front of your face.

In hindsight, it’s no wonder the Australians were so enthusiastic in their recommendation, because they started their Central American journey in Costa Rica, and this was one of the first things they saw. But if you’ve just spent four months travelling through Central America, or you’ve seen a lot of rainforests in other parts of the world, then the cloud forest in Selvatura is a pretty dull place. There’s absolutely no wildlife to be seen, which is not surprising when you consider the hordes of noisy tourists who pile through the walkway every day, and the forest is just not that amazing. We all started off with high hopes, but towards the end of the walk we were more interested in our conversations than looking at the forest, which was a shame, especially as the walk cost US$30 per person. Even the hummingbird garden, which had an additional entrance fee of US$5, was slightly disappointing; the hummingbirds were pleasant, but it was hard to concentrate with all the groups of noisy Americans that burst their way into the concrete garden and stood there talking loudly about their hotel rooms and how excited they were about their itineraries.

Rather unimpressed by the cost and the overly touristy experience of Selvatura, we booked on a night walk at our hotel, and were taken on a three-and-a-half hour walk around the hotel grounds by an animated local called Sergio. Unfortunately this didn’t help to lift our mood, as we saw very little wildlife, and the walk ended up dragging on and on into the night, way past the point where we were still interested. We did see a tarantula in its hole, which was great, and we saw the odd pair of reflecting animal eyes up in the canopy, but overall it was a bit disappointing after the reports we’d heard about Costa Rica being so full of life that it practically jumps out at you all the time. Perhaps it was a quiet night, but by the end of day one in Monteverde, we were all feeling a little cheated.

So the next day we went for something completely touristy in the shape of a SkyTrek zipline trip through the rainforest canopy (there a lots of zipline companies out there, but we chose SkyTrek as they seemed to have the highest lines and the safest equipment). This was more like it, though as Peta is scared of heights, she wasn’t quite so keen, especially when we had to take a cable car up to the top of the continental divide before climbing a metal tower in buffeting winds and serious mists. She managed to hang on in quiet desperation before she was hooked onto the wire that shot her across a deep valley to the tower on the opposite side, and even though she had to endure a total of nine ziplines, with the highest 100m above the forest and the biggest a whopping 750m in length, she managed to get through to the end. I enjoyed it a bit more than she did, and while I’m not sure it’s an experience either of us will rush to repeat, it was good to be trying something new.

Meanwhile, Santa Elena was starting to wear us down. The biggest problem was the food; the restaurants are overpriced (prices are similar to London, one of the most expensive cities on the planet) and the food is pretty lame. We tried spending more and simply got poncier food that still wasn’t terribly good, and we tried spending less and just didn’t get anywhere. We felt a bit ripped off by our hotel, because when we moved into the rooms we’d originally booked online, they were so much better than the ones in the other hotel, which simply rubbed our noses in the fact that for two nights, we hadn’t got what we’d originally booked. And everywhere the prices seem to creep up, whether it was the annoying tendency for restaurants to show prices that don’t include tax or service charges, so it’s hard to work out what the price will actually be; or the way the tourist attractions have tiered price lists, so although you get quoted a price for your visit, it turns out that it doesn’t include everything shown in the glossy brochure, and you end up having to fork out more dollars to do the things that you assumed were included.

But if you’re a tourist here on a short holiday, none of this is a problem, it’s only a problem if you’re used to travelling through countries that have similar attractions, but less of a tourist machine wrapped around them. Unfortunately, we’ve already seen a lot of what Monteverde has to offer in other countries on our trip, and then without a glut of American tourists clogging up the viewing platforms, so in the end it was hard not to feel a bit let down by Monteverde’s rampant tourism and inflated prices.

La Fortuna

Written: 25 February 2014

In La Fortuna, the tourist town at the foot of Volcán Arenal, the wheels completely came off our Costa Rican journey. We were already a bit jaded by our disappointing experience in Monteverde, but by the time we arrived in La Fortuna, we really needed a day off to take stock of our plans.

The problem is us, not Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a perfect holiday destination if you have a couple of weeks to spend in Central America, as it’s got it all. It’s got rainforests, it’s got wildlife, it’s got volcanoes, it’s got beaches, it’s got turtles, it’s got mangrove swamps, and it’s got lots going for it, but the problem is we’ve already seen plenty of all that on our journey so far, and when I sat down to plan our next move after La Fortuna, I just couldn’t get enthused by any of it. And we figured that while we could spend a small fortune exploring Costa Rica, it just didn’t feel that appealing to be paying European prices to see things that, to be honest, we’re getting a little tired of. And then I realised that shooting through Costa Rica would give us more time on Colombia, which people universally rave about, and the die was cast.

So we failed to explore the sights of La Fortuna, which include volcano walks – though not to the top of Arenal, which is off-limits – and a whole collection of hot springs, from the free local springs to resorts that cost hundreds of dollars a day. Instead we booked a flight from San José to the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama, and made plans to take the bus to the capital the following morning. It just felt like the right thing to do, and as soon as we’d bought our flight tickets and booked a place in Bocas, the weight lifted from our collective shoulders as we realised we were going to be out of Costa Rica within a few days. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut.

Unfortunately, staying in La Fortuna for a couple of days only helped to reinforce our decision, as the food is mediocre and the prices are high, and the town itself is a charmless tourist hole strung out along a highway. The big drawcard is Arenal, which used to spew hot lava from its summit, drawing in tourists by the busload; unfortunately the lava stopped flowing in 2010, so for those of us who’ve seen more volcanoes than we can stomach, it no longer has any special appeal, though when the cone pops out of its shroud of cloud, it’s still an impressive sight. But it wasn’t impressive enough to make us hang around, so after a couple of nights we said goodbye to Paul and Jenn with a disappointing meal in a disappointing restaurant, and hopped on the bus for the capital of Costa Rica, San José, to make good our escape.

San José

Written: 28 February 2014

The capital of Costa Rica is an interesting place, though perhaps not in terms of the tourist attractions. It does have some good museums that are worth visiting – we popped into the Museum of Gold and it was a worthy diversion – and the Plaza de la Cultura is quite good fun with its pigeons and people-watching, but the part that we enjoyed most was checking out the huge variety of hookers on every street corner in the area round our hotel, while avoiding the eyes of the shifty characters hanging round there at night.

We’d hastily booked a flight to the Bocos del Toro archipelago in Panama as part of our escape plan, but that still left us with a couple of days to kill in the capital. The food is better here than in the tourist areas of Monteverde and La Fortuna, so at least we were able to eat reasonably well and without feeling as ripped off as we did in the cloud forest, but to be honest our hearts weren’t really in it any more, so we didn’t do a great deal other than wander round and kill time.

A bonus was that we managed to meet up with Neil and Bronwyn, whom we’d originally met in Playa Esteron in El Salvador and again in Granada in Nicaragua, and we enjoyed a few drinks and an evening meal in the main shopping street in central San José. It was interesting to talk to them about their perspective, as on their first visit they hadn’t been overly impressed with parts of Costa Rica either, though they had found that hiring a car meant you could avoid the more touristy areas and discover the more enjoyable parts of the country. But we were already committed to our flight, and on our ninth day in Costa Rica, we hopped in a taxi at 6.30am, checked in at the airport, and ran like the wind for Panama without so much as a backward glance.

Thoughts on Leaving

Written: 28 February 2014

We didn’t do Costa Rica justice, there’s no doubt about it. It isn’t Costa Rica’s fault, but a lot of travellers spend less time here than they’d originally planned, as it’s an expensive place that stands out among its neighbours as a massive tourist hole. In the end, we were no exception.

It wasn’t the expense that got to us, but the lack of value for money. We felt ripped off all the time in Costa Rica, because we’ve seen similar things in other countries, but without the high price tags and without the crowds of tourists. Costa Rica is a great destination if you’re on a short holiday, but it isn’t so great if you’re travelling through the whole of Central America, and it had the astonishing effect of making us nostalgic for Nicaragua, which we’d left only a few days before with a sense of relief.

Our frustration lasted to the end. At the airport in San José, you have to pay a departure tax in cash, which we knew about, but we assumed we’d pay at the check-in desk. There were no signs anywhere telling us what to do, so we queued for the check-in, only to find that we had to pay the tax at the other end of the airport first, and then check in. So we dragged our bags to the snaking queue at the other end of the airport, where we had to pay US$29 each in cash, and dragged them back to the check-in, thinking all the time that this is Costa Rica in a nutshell: extra charges pop up everywhere that are inconvenient and not insignificant. By the time we finally got onto our flight, which was delayed because the airline ‘had a lot of planes going today’, we were itching to leave.

But it would be churlish to blame Costa Rica for all this. It is what it is, and in the end we just weren’t in the mood for a long trip in an overpriced tourist destination. I’d originally planned a month here; instead we managed nine days, and we decided to leave after just five. That’s the good thing about travelling; if you don’t like where you are, you can always move on, and that’s precisely what we did... and without an ounce of regret.

Further Reading

This story is continued in another of my books, Alone on Two-Palm Island: Travels in Panama (also available for free from www.moxon.net/ebooks). If you enjoyed this book, you might like to know that there’s a whole series of free books like this available from the same source, covering 25 countries and six continents:

- The Back of Beyond: Travels in Australia

- Into the Deep Blue Sea: Travels in Belize

- A Town Full of Nothing to Do: Travels in Burkina Faso

- In Search of the Lost City: Travels in Colombia

- Tainted by Tourism: Travels in Costa Rica

- A Funny Sort of Socialism: Travels in Cuba

- Snow on the Sun Loungers: Travels in Cyprus

- Love at First Sight: Travels in El Salvador

- Paradise Has Teeth: Travels in French Polynesia

- A Million Mosquitoes Can’t Be Wrong: Travels in the Gambia

- The Road to Jesus: Travels in Ghana

- Stuck on the Gringo Trail: Travels in Guatemala

- Many Ways to Change Your Mind: Travels in India

- Hello Paul, What’s Your Name? Travels in Indonesia

- The Muddy Confluence: Travels in Malaysia

- The Lapping of the Dunes: Travels in Mali

- A World-Class Dive: Travels in Mexico

- Snaking Patterns of Sand: Travels in Morocco

- Roof of the World: Travels in Nepal

- God’s Own Country: Travels in New Zealand

- Poverty and Paradise: Travels in Nicaragua

- Alone on Two-Palm Island: Travels in Panama

- The Head and the Heart: Travels in Senegal

- Serious Fun: Travels in Singapore

- Melted Meccano: Travels in Thailand

If you know someone who might like any of my books, please pass them on; I make no money from this, but I do enjoy the thought of people reading my books and recommending them to their friends. If you’ve enjoyed reading my writing (or even if you haven’t) I’d be delighted if you could sign my Guestbook at www.moxon.net/guestbook – after all, it’s the feedback that makes it all worthwhile. Happy travels!

THE END

Table of Contents

Preface

Culture Shock

Monteverde

La Fortuna

San José

Thoughts on Leaving

Further Reading

Table of Contents

Preface

Culture Shock

Monteverde

La Fortuna

San José

Thoughts on Leaving

Further Reading