23rd December 2013
So yesterday afternoon was a blissful unwind at Finca Maresia to shake off the rainforest (just don’t ask about the confusion over the payment to the tour guide company). Juan is a wonderful host. Turns out that in a previous life he was a tax lawyer in Valencia, but now spends four month stretches in Costa Rica alternating with his business partner Miguel and no longer lawyering at all. Sounds nice. Though I have to accept that I’m not a tropical creature and would probably always look like the sweaty uncomfortable Englishman no matter how long I spent here.
Today we had the seven hour drive back to San Jose, punctuated by an unmemorable lunch at a very American eatery in Playa Dominical and by a coffee stop at the Bluegrass Cafe and Bakery which is actually a shack on the main road near Playa Hermosa run by a surfer dude who clearly decided that he might be able to make enough money baking cinnamon rolls to stay forever in the tropical surfer coast of Costa Rica. They were good cinnamon rolls.
Now we’re back in our airport hotel in San Jose, a thoroughly dull and low-grade dive after Finca Maresia, and we’re eating a takeaway pizza because the local cuisine in Costa Rica isn’t worth making a trip out for. We have a 6:30 flight tomorrow and so will need to be up at 4am. No problem really; there has only been one day this holiday when we’ve got up after 6am. We’re still pretty much operating on UK time. That’s mammal watching for you!
I’m really looking forward to unwinding in Bocas del Toro, Panama. For me the best bits of Costa Rica have been the mammals and Finca Maresia. It has otherwise been a tale of very average food, basic accommodation, lots of rain and mosquitoes and some reasonably pretty rainforest countryside.
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