Costa Rica (EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE)

Features

• Turtleback: 288 pages
• Published by: DK Travel October 17, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0756613523
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0756613525
• Book Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Description
Recognized the world over by frequent flyers and armchair travelers alike, Eyewitness Travel Guides are the most colorful and comprehensive guides on the market. With gorgeously commissioned photographs and spectacular 3-D aerial views revealing the charm of each destination, these amazing travel guides show what others only tell.

Reader Reviews
We used this guide in our recent trip to Costa Rica. In this review I will tell you the benefits of the formatting style of this guide; the strengths of the guide, and then a few weaknesses where more information would have been helpful. I will end the review by relaying my assessment of the finest resource in Costa Rica and recommendations regarding use of the guide for travel in Costa Rica. The guide is formatted very well, as are all the Eyewitness Travel Guides. They give you basic cultural, historic and political background. They then give detailed section by section analysis of geographic areas where they identify the major points of interest and then show you a small photograph related to the item with a short basic informative description. The guide also gives more detailed two page essays with drawings and photos for major points of interest. The guide ends with traveler information on hotels, restaurants, transportation and safety. Now I would like to tell you about the strengths of the guide in describing Costa Rica. We were interested in spending time on the Pacific beaches and visiting the lowland rainforrests. However we also wanted to spend time seeing the volcanoes in the center of the country and visiting the high mountain cloud forests. We drove from San Jose to Manuel Antonio National Park and resort area. We stayed 3 nights in a beach hotel which was very basic but within a 5 minute walk of the beautiful Manuel Antonio beaches. These beaches have a mixed very fine sand of white silica and black volcanic pumice that is perfect for walking, relaxing, and playing. The Manuel Antonio Park is a must see attraction if you are visiting the Pacific coast. Giant varied bromeliads weight down vines and trees. Giant trees rise above the jungle to the light, buttressed by high bladed roots.The beaches within the park are excellent and the hikes to Punta Cathedral and other lookouts are worth the climb. Only 600 people are allowed to visit every day so go early. Wear or carry your bathing suit. To get to the park entrance you may have to wade through a creek in dry season. We saw spider monkeys and a family of Capuchin monkeys. The Capuchins are amazing with their pink faces trimmed with white fur and their agile black bodies and tails. We saw iguanas of every size as well as two sloths hanging from vines. We were warned not to drink local water but we drank it for 8 days while in Costa Rica without problems. To get to the park you have drive for 3.5 hours from San Jose through the mountains on twisting roads. You then drive on a long road that parallels the beach through the towns of Jaco, Puntarenas, and Quepos. The evenings cooled down to around 69 degrees, which were perfect for sleeping under a ceiling fan. The beach and park warmed up to 86 at mid-day. Driving along the beach roads you see African oil palms growing in fields that once held bananas before the Sigatoka fungus wiped them all out. One day we explored Playa Seca. We found ten miles of undeveloped totally beautiful beaches surrounded by jungle and a few beach homes. We then spent 3 days in a bed & breakfast in Heredia, a town north of San Jose founded in 1706 with a charming central square, cathedral and central market. From here we went on two long day trips. On the first trip we wanted to see the Poas and Barva volcanoes and the La Paz waterfall. Because of the twisty roads, expect to take far longer to visit a site that you may initially estimate. We arrived at Poas at 10:30 am and the clouds had already gathered so much that we had to wait between clouds to see the crater and its lake. We hiked to a hearby crater lake but by then the clouds were so heavy we couldn't see anything. However the hike was great with big navy blue-green hummingbirds swooping in and out of the cloud forest flowers. The La Paz waterfall was next on the list and it is very impressive. You can park your car and walk under. Then we tried to get to the top of the Barva Volcanoe. Along the way you will pass charming mountain villages and cool highland coffee plantations. Whereas on the beach you see Brahmin cattle bred to live in bright sunlight, in the mountain villages around the volcanoes you see dairy cows that provide the dairy products for the country. We finally reached the end of the road on the way to the Barva Volcanoe but found that we had to leave our car and hike 6 kms. or else try to drive over incredibly rocky dangerous roads. Our car would have been vulnerable if we left it to hike to the top whereas if we took the car, we could have easily broken an axle. Then next day we decided to try the Irazu Volcanoe and the Guayabo archeological site. Irazu was beautiful even if it took 3.5 hours to find the top. You are above the cloud line so the craters and the lake inside the principal crater were very dramatic. It took us hours to find the entrance to the Guayabo site only to discover that the road ran out and we would have to take our car over ten kms. of the most pot hole infested dirt road I have ever seen. Again we couldn't abandon our car for several hours to walk ten kms. into the site and ten kms. out and yet we feared breaking an axle on the road. We then had to return to Heredia after 7.5 hours on the road to see one volcano. So what were the weaknesses in the guide? First, because there are so few road signs in Costa Rica, a more detailed map with a few more minor roads and small village benchmarkes would have been helpful. Second, it would have been nice to be warned about the difficulty in reaching both Barva and Guayabo. Third, we tried to visit the Rainmaker Private Conservatory forest but found that there were only two tours a day with the bilingual tour at 1:00 pm for a cost of $65 per person. You could not explore except as part of the tour. I wish we had been prepared by the guide for the tour schedule and the cost. We heard that Rainmaker uses high suspension bridges rather than zip lines for tree top exploration and thus we were disappointed. Fourth, and this is the most irritating issue, is the issue of rental car insurance. We selected the lowest rate weekly car rental which was around $150 from a Coasta Rican company. We found out at 11 pm as we were picking up our car that whereas our credit card covered collision insurance, the cost of Costa Rican liability was $250 for the week, pushing the cost to $400. When shopping for the best rental car rate, make sure you explore whether Costa Rican liability insurance is included in the price quote or extra. Also, the car we rented had very little tread on the back wheels and we had a flat tire. The rental company told us it was our responsibility to pay for the tire repair which turned out to be on $3 at a filling station. Let me end by saying that the Costa Rican people are beautiful and warm hearted. The country is full of incredibly stunning young women and model-handsome young men. The children are so beautiful they are angelic. Because we got lost 100 times, we frequently had to ask people walking along country roads for directions. I was continually amazed by the hospitality and warmth of the beautiful people of Costa Rica. This guide was very useful for exploring this fantastic country.