It was summer of 2018 I had just been expelled from the country of Nicaragua and deported back to Panama City, Panama (cordially with all due respect to the Nicaraguan Government).I had a few hours to figure out how to get to Costa Rica, the original plan was a short bus ride from San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, a bus option now was over 15 hours, so I decided to splurge and got an expensive last minute ticket to San Jose, which was not my final destination, but made for a good transit spot. I found an Airbnb with a nice old couple in a very questionable neighborhood near the airport for $15 and got a good night's rest after a long day in transit to and immediately from Nicaragua. The next day after some thought I decided to stay on target and just head to Tamarindo my final destination earlier. After some bad breakfast in San Jose I hopped on the bus to Tamarindo. The sad detour from Nicaragua made for the best ending to a summer trip I could have imagined though. Here's my tips and advice for Costa Rica!
- Where to stay is going to be your biggest decision, in my opinion it's the beach, now what beach is of course negotiable. And I would not be against staying a night in Arenal or a night in the Costa Rican jungle, but for the best holiday possible, set up your main base in the beaches!
- For me this was Tamarindo, which the locals nickname Tama-Gringo for all the expats. The expats have certainly boosted up the prices of things, but Costa Rica is still a smoking deal for the budget traveler compared to other expensive world countries.I started my journey in a 3 star hotel right on the beach next to a famous night club there as I knew I'd need a few drinks after the Nica leg being swept out from under me. After I upgraded to an Airbnb I already had reserved for later in the week. My one bedroom Airbnb on the main strip of town was only $50 a night, a 5 minute walk to the beach, and a 1 minute walk to the main area of town.
Rio Celeste, or the day I went Rio Marrón :-0 - The jungle and zip line tours are great but my favorite tour despite weather was the Llanos waterfalls and Rio Celeste falls (which despite brown muddy rain I still loved going). You can only do the tour solo if you have a rental car as no buses will go there at the time of this writing. Bring some cash for restaurants and incentives credit card is widely accepted in the towns and cities but not so much on the rest stops on the road.
- Speaking of waterfalls, jungles, and nature, get on a horse while you are there. I was lucky enough to be the only rider that day with my guide, who was an absolutely gorgeous Tica woman. I showed up unshaven and hung over looking like a dirt bag, lesson learned on that one.
- Traditional foods are harder and harder to come by as the main stay tourists foods (burgers, pizza, and sushi) invade the main tourism cities But local beer was definitely on point. ¡Mas imperial por favor!
- Speaking of beer, and drink. Nightlife is where things really come alive. For my first night I had gotten a last minute tip from a co-worker to go to the Crazy Monkey on Friday nights in Tamarindo, this advice proved to be very accurate. Other notable places were Sharky's at night and Tamarindo Beach Club by day.
- Don't do what I did and not bring a great underwater camera if you are diving, I did without a doubt my best scuba dive ever in Playa Flamingo and my word and the great memories is all I have to show for it. If you don't dive the snorkeling there is still pretty damn good!
- While I am the type of guy that loves to be on the go and do tons of things, some of the best parts of this trip was to sit on the beach for a few hours and do nothing but look at this....
Going into this journey to Central America which was Panama, Nicaragua, and of course Costa Rica, I knew of the 3 countries Costa Rica was "the popular place for American tourists". And to me, this was a slight turn off, while I love popular places I also love the unknown and wanted to make Costa Rica just a small part of the trip rather than the main event. The events in getting kicked out of Nicaragua changed the tides on that and made it a 50/50 split between Panama and Costa Rica.
As a budget traveler nothing goes as planned so we must plan on nothing going as planned. I had read a lot about both Costa Rica and Nicaragua and within a few hours I was able to go from being escorted out of a country with no hotel, no flight, and no travel plan for a few days to sitting in a night club knocking down an imperial with a beach front room and an adventure ready to set in motion for the rest of my time in this beautiful country. I had an amazing time in this beautiful country and am so glad I got to spend more time there than planned, and I do plan on going back to Nicaragua regardless of the bad events (if they let me!). I left off social media with the same quote I will leave off with now....
"Adiós América central y muchas gracias por el viaje,
fue mi primer vez pero no va a ser mi última vez!"
"Goodbye Central America and thank you for the trip. It was my first time but it will not be my last!"
Choose the continent!!!!
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