White beaches, green jungle (Costa Rica)

Just after the border on the Caribbean coast is the small town of Puerto Viejo. Similar to Panama, the American influence was very noticeable here. We stayed in the Roots-Family Hostel, a very nice accommodation with a family atmosphere.

White beaches, turquoise water and a green coastal jungle, the nature in this region is beautiful. Costa Rica is known for its sloths and this area in particular. They seem to be everywhere here and that's true. It was really very easy, you just had to carefully stroll through the forest that was right on the beach. Most of the time you would see them hanging around high up in the treetops, although if you were lucky one would come down. Either for going to the toilet (which was once a week) or to snack on the sweet flowers on the lower branches. Luck was on our side and a two-toed sloth came down very far and we were able to watch it eat up close, a great experience.

Half an hour north by bus is Cahuita National Park. The national parks in Costa Rica are usually relatively expensive, but this one is an exception; here there is only a free donation. The path through the park leads very close to the coast. On one side were beautiful Caribbean beaches and on the other a dense, green coastal jungle full of life. The inhabitants of the forest constantly crossed our path. We saw many birds, capuchin monkeys, coatis, raccoons and much more. You have to be careful of raccoons, especially when eating. All of our bread was stolen right from under our noses.

Because Costa Rica is relatively expensive and we had been traveling a lot from one place to the next lately, we decided to just make one more stop before heading to Nicaragua. From the Caribbean coast we drove (by bus) across the country to San Jose in the capital and from there straight north to La Fortuna. This small town is located at the foot of the Arenal Volcano, in the mountainous region.

There are many waterfalls, cloud forests and volcanoes here. Among many other animals, this area was a paradise for frogs due to the high rainfall. During a night hike we saw a lot of representatives. In addition to the highly poisonous poison dart frog, there was also the red-eyed tree frog, one of the most beautiful frogs we had ever seen. It was spectacular to see so many at once, the whole forest was full of all kinds of frogs.

From November 1st we have booked a small house with a garden in Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lago Cocibolca in Nicaragua. We would stay there for at least a month, and we were really looking forward to that.