Category: Central America
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Corcovado: Costa Rica’s last wild frontier?
Our next stop in Costa Rica was the biggy – Corcovado National Park. Located on the Osa Peninsula, on the south west coast, this region is a biodiversity hotspot, it’s the most biodiverse place in central America, not just Costa Rica. It’s a lowland rainforest, think hot steamy jungle, with brown muddy rivers, crocodiles, sloths,…
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Finding peace (and Quetzals) in San Gerado de Dota
Since we’d had such a hard time spotting Quetzals in Guatemala – we tried three separate places with no luck, I hedged my bets here in Costa Rica, and although we’d already had an amazing Quetzal experience in Monteverde, our next stop was another quetzal haven (just in case we hadn’t seen one) and was…
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Resplendent Monteverde: Quetzals, Clouds and Hanging Bridges
When I think of Costa Rica, for me, the first thing that springs to mind is dense cloud forest, high in the mountains, full of birds and wildlife, with bridges suspended high in the canopy…. That’s the Costa Rica I’ve seen on TV in documentaries and on social media, and it’s the Costa Rica I…
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La Fortuna: Frogs, forests and free hot springs
Miguel dropped us at the bus stop in Katira, a town on main road towards La Fortuna in the Rio Celeste region. We didn’t have to wait long until a direct bus turned up, and(!) we got seats this time! 🥳 The bus was big and comfortable, meaning we could really relax and enjoy the…
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Sloths and Snakes in Rio Celeste
Next stop in Costa Rica was the Rio Celeste region. Here, two clear rivers (the Quebrada Agria and Río Buena Vista) meet. One is slightly acidic, the other is rich in aluminosilicate particles, both thanks to the local volcanic activity. When they merge, the change in pH causes the particles to clump together in just…
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Liberia: the gateway to Rincon de la Vieja
Costa Rica has been at the top of my travel list for a long long time. I am a big wildlife lover and pretty much all of my trips in the last 6 years have been wildlife focused, from hiking to see wildlife mountain gorillas in Uganda, a snorkelling expedition in Philippines, Mashpi Lodge and…
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Sunsets in San Juan del Sur
After a great few days on Ometepe, we moved on to our final destination in Nicaragua, the beach town of San Juan Del Sur. Admittedly, neither of us really wanted to come here(!) we wanted to visit the amazing beaches of Nicaragua’s Pacific coast line, but we’d heard San Juan town was not the nicest,…
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Petroglyphs and Motorbiking on Ometepe Island
From the lagoon we got a taxi to the nearest town of Masaya. Before entering Nicaragua we’d heard that it wasn’t the safest country (only in terms of petty crime like theft etc) and we’d been advised to get tourist shuttles and avoid local transport like buses, which is what we’d done so far. But…
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Wildlife and Peace at Laguna Apoyo
Never one to follow the Gingro Trail exactly, we had a look to see if there were any lesser known spots in Nicaragua we could stay. Tourist infrastructure isn’t as well developed here, so staying in smaller towns can be a little harder, or at least pricier. But Laguna Apoyo stuck out as somewhere worth…
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Granada: Hot Streets and Cold Peaks!
Our next stop in Nicaragua was the pretty, colonial city of Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua and in the shadow of Mount Mombacho, another active volcano. We had booked 4 nights here as there seemed to be a lot to do in the region. We looked at public transport and all the buses…
Travel Alchemist 