We recently returned from a short trip to Costa Rica. This was our second trip there. We wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny to escape the winter blues. Costa Rica seemed like the perfect place since we had such a great time on our first trip.
We chose Jaco as the destination for this trip because it’s a reasonable drive from/to the San Jose International Airport, it’s on a beach, and it’s within close proximity to a rainforest. Jaco is on the central pacific side of the country, about 1.5-2 hrs drive from the San Jose Airport. We rented a car at the airport. The Hotel Club Del Mar where we were staying provides transportation to/from the airport, but we rented a car for more flexibility in our daily activities.
The Hotel Club Del Mar is a beautiful, small hotel on the south side of Jaco Beach and even though it’s only a few blocks from downtown, it felt very peaceful and a little secluded (if you only looked left when facing the beach). More details on the hotel will be included in a future post.
Each morning we embarked on an adventure in the nearby area then returned to the hotel in the afternoon to relax by the pool or on our verandah. We explored Carara National Park, the Tarcoles River, and the area around Jaco.
After breakfast on day two we visited the Tarcoles Bridge to see the crocodiles in the river below. I was surprised and glad to see the bridge was under construction. They are expanding the walkway and adding better guard rails. There were police officers stopping traffic to let people cross the very busy road. There weren’t as many crocodiles in the water as I remembered from the first trip, but that could be due to the construction activities that were in progress. There were more souvenir shops selling typical Costa Rican items but I thought the prices were really high.
Next we stopped at Carara National Park in hopes of seeing macaws, monkeys, and maybe a sloth if we were lucky. We met Jairo Sanches, a local naturalist/guide in the parking lot. He offered to be our guide and suggested that we go to the north trail a couple kilometers up the road towards the bridge as we would have better chances of seeing more birds and animals. We agreed on a price with Jairo and headed to the north trail. In about 2 hours, we saw many birds and animals including a Ghost Bat, Manakins, Jacamars, Trogons, Motmots, lizards, and capuchin monkeys. After the tour we ate lunch at Ti-ko Restaurant based on Jairo’s recommendation. The view of the ocean, river, and surrounding area from this open air restaurant was fantastic.
The third day we went on Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. I pre-booked the tour before the trip choosing the earliest time available (7:30AM) hoping to see more birds and crocodiles. We were the only people on this tour. Our guide Luis made the tour fun and interesting. He had many hilarious comments that had us engaged and laughing the entire time. Jimmy, our excellent boat driver, risked life and limb to get us up close and personal with the crocodiles. Watch this video from our tour to see Jimmy in action:
I highly recommend Jose’s Crocodile River Tour. We had such an amazing time. We saw scarlet macaws in flight, egrets, herons, cormorants, anhingas, pelicans, vultures, white ibis, frigatebirds, a black hawk, osprey, caracaras, and swallows. The tour website: www.crocodiletour.com
After telling the hotel manager about our day, he recommended we hire a local guide named Sergio who would take us around the area to find more interesting birds and animals. He showed us several of Sergio’s photos of birds hanging in the hotel. Based on this recommendation we booked a tour with Sergio through the hotel.
The next morning Sergio picked us up at the hotel at 6:30 AM. He very thoughtfully brought us cinnamon rolls from Pachi’s Pan (a bakery in Jaco). He took us back to the town of Tarcoles where we saw scarlet macaws in almond trees. Then we stopped by the tour boat launch were we saw hummingbirds, motmots, a black headed trogon, a hawk, a wood pecker and a variegated squirrel. Next Sergio took us to Carara National Park where we walked around the main trails of the park. Here we saw leaf cutter ants, bats, a kingfisher, a jesus christ lizard, a night hawk, orchids, and a little hermit. We heard spider monkeys but didn’t see them. No frogs either. Sergio explained that it’s difficult to see frogs during the dry season. He suggested we return during rainy season (May-Oct) or visit the Caribbean side of the country if I want to see frogs.
On our way back to the hotel, Sergio pointed out several good options for lunch and dinner in and around Jaco. We had lunch at Casita del Sabor and dinner at Caliche’s Wishbone.
We stayed at the Doubletree Hotel near the airport on the last night because our flight home departed at 7:00AM. The Doubletree offers a free shuttle to the airport starting at 4:00AM and hourly after that which was very convenient.
Even though we were up early a couple days, we saw many extraordinary birds and animals that made it worth while. Overall our time in Costa Rica was very relaxing and we felt completely detached from the realities of our lives at home.
Check out our photos in the gallery below.
