Costa Rica - Liberia and Rincon de la Vieja

We left Nicaragua in what we think may be our last chicken bus, utter relief from the boys! We went out ‘in-style’ on-it, as we were crammed into the back of the thing, literally like chickens, with Tristan being told to sit on a bucket! I would have loved to have taken a picture of us, but there wasn’t room for me to lift my arm 😂. 

Apart from being a very long walk to the Costa Rican boarder, we had no problems crossing and we quickly found transport through to Liberia, the nearest major town. I have to admit, we all had a sense of relief when we arrived in Costa Rica, as it felt like ‘we’d made it’, leaving behind far more developing countries, for a while at least. 

One of our first visits in Costa Rica was to Wal-Mart!! I know this sounds daft, but this was a very exciting outing as it was literally the first time we’d seen a ‘normal’ shop selling goods that weren't knock-offs’ in 3 1/2 months, and boy-oh-boy, this really did feel great. It was also a great opportunity for us to replenish the contents of our rucksacks, as we seem to have  lost quite a lot on our journey (apart from Johnny who is much more organised and has only lost stuff if we’ve lost it for him!)

Despite the somewhat relief of Costa Rica being a more developed country, it was going to provide us with more of a challenge, as  the costs in Costa Rica are much more like home, making travel more difficult for us on our backpacker budget. To overcome this, we made the decision to hire a car in order to reach campsites, keeping costs down. 

Our first major destination was to Rincon de Vieja, a national park in the north. We arrived at our ‘private’ campsite, Sol de Verde, just a few miles from the entrance to the park, for an early get up for a long hike. It’s very strange, everywhere we go we seem to be the only ones visiting!!

We hiked through lush jungle, pristine limestone rivers, and arid landscapes before reaching a picture-postcard waterfall, where we had a swim and felt super proud of ourselves after a very long hike. On our way back, we were able to see the many fumaroles and boiling mud pots throughout the volcanic area, with spider and white faced monkeys hanging precariously above from the spindly branches. We also listened to an almighty ‘kerfuffle’ in the trees with monkeys fighting at full-volume, with one monkey falling from the tree to the ground 😳.  

The following day we hung around Rincon for a bit longer to play in the stunning rivers and swimming spots. What more can I say, a perfect start to our Costa Rica adventure ❤️. 

Off now the Northern coast…