8 Days In Costa Rica – Where It All Began

10^th October 2007. The day my A Level Biology teacher handed us a letter to take home to our parents that read:

Year 12 & 13

Biology Adventure Tour to Costa Rica

Saturday, 6 April 2008 – Sunday, 14 April 2008

I remember that day so clearly. Our teacher asked us to raise our hands if we wanted to spend 8 days in Costa Rica to study the fauna and flora of the country. Biology was my favourite subject and travelling (even at 18, when the only “travelling” I’d done was in the form of family holidays) was my favourite thing. I shot my hand into the air like a rocket. 

Eagerly, and slightly nervously at the fact I knew full well I couldn’t afford this trip on my part-time weekend job, I handed the letter to my parents after school. Six days later we were sat in the Main Hall, listening to our teacher and a representative from Casterbridge Tours talk about the prospective trip. Next thing I knew my parents agreed to the tour and that was it, I was going to Costa Rica.

Travel Day

Waking up to snow wasn’t on the radar of things we’d expected. It had snowed a lot overnight and it just kept coming. According to reports it was the heaviest snow southern England had seen for two decades. I mean come onnnn, it was April and we were headed to the tropics. Really?! Checking the news, it was clear that hundreds of flights from London airports were being cancelled. We started to dread that ours would be too. 

A couple of my friends had been dropped at my house, ready for my Dad to drive us to London Gatwick airport. Our flight was still showing as on time (spoiler: it was definitely not on time), so my Dad slowly and cautiously drove us down the motorway to the airport. I’ve honestly never encountered another drive like it. We could barely see a few metres in front or behind us and were virtually ploughing snow out of our way with the front bumper.

Flight Delays

Somehow, we arrived in one piece at the airport and after waving goodbye to my Dad, we checked in to our flight. As far as I recall, we boarded on time, but it became quickly apparent that we weren’t flying anywhere fast. It turned out that all of the planes had frozen and needed to be de-iced before they could move.

Our plane was very far down the list of planes awaiting the de-icer and so we sat, in our seats, still attached to the gate, for 8 HOURS. We were due to be flying London > Newark (USA) > San José, so the 8-hour delay meant we’d definitely missed our connection in Newark. What was funny (and by funny, I mean not at all funny. English sarcasm.) is that by the time the de-icer reached us, our plane had well and truly de-iced itself and so we didn’t need it anyway.

Eventually we took off and flew to Newark, but arrived so late at night that we had to wait until the following day to fly to Costa Rica. We checked into a nearby airport hotel, slept for literally about 3 hours and then headed blurry eyed for our final flight.

Arriving in San José

Touching down in San José felt like such an achievement! We were all shattered but SO excited to see this new country and everything it had to offer.

After we’d arrived at our hotel and had a few moments to rest, we headed off on our private tour bus to INBio Park (which I’ve just found out is now permanently closed), an education centre with aims to show off the different habitats and species you can find all over the country. One of the first things I spotted was a SLOTH. An actual sloth, on day one. I genuinely hadn’t expected to find one so easily and actually didn’t spot a single other sloth for the entire duration of my trip, but I was (and still am!) over the moon to have seen one with my own eyes.

Bear in mind this trip was in 2008, so the photos I have aren’t the best quality and look like they were taken on a toaster…

8 days in Costa Rica

As I’m typing this post, it’s April 2021 and I’m at the beginning stages of planning an itinerary for my Mum and I to travel to Costa Rica in 2022! If you’ve visited more recently than 2008, please drop any and all recommendations in the comments! Muchas gracias in advance!

I’ll share my 2022 itinerary once it’s created and booked, so you can use it too if you want to plan your own trip.

This is what my 8 days in Costa Rica looked like and was without question the catalyst for my travel obsession!

Day 1

The first day should have involved leaving the UK and arriving in Costa Rica, but as you’ve just read, that didn’t go to plan!

Day 2

After arriving, we visited INBio Park, spotted sloths, alligators and iguana and ate (yes, ate) grubs from a tree. Please don’t go ahead and eat any old grub from the inside of a tree though (unsure why you’d ever do that…), this was part of the educational experience and the grubs were provided to us by a very knowledgeable guide! Note: they don’t taste as bad as you think, they’re just a bit….gritty.

Day 3

Learnt about some of the 70 species of Heliconias on Heliconia Island in the Sarapiquí region. Most of these are native to Costa Rica, but some are from other tropical locations around the world. Here was also the chance to see lots of birds, butterflies and even spider monkeys!

We were also taught by local artisans how to make jewellery using seeds found in the forest; I still have my seed earrings somewhere, although 13 years down the line and a number of house moves later and I’m not 100% sure where they are…!

Day 4

The morning was spent at a local primary school, where we had the absolute best time singing, dancing and making crafts with the children. It hugely helped that the majority of us on the trip were able to speak enough Spanish to interact with them!

The afternoon consisted of a boat ride along the Sarapiquí River, which was incredible; the sheer diversity of wildlife we saw blew my mind! It wasn’t a matter of trying to scan the river banks and tree tops for animals, it was trying to figure out how to look in all directions at once so we didn’t miss anything.

P.s. don’t say I didn’t warn you about the photo quality!

Once the sun had gone down that day, we had a guided walk through the forest to see bats, study any caught in nets and then release them back into the wild. Don’t panic – they’re caught humanely and purely to study them and count their numbers. They’re also never held for more than 2 hours.

Day 5

Trekked through the rainforest and across suspension bridges for a chocolate tour! We learnt how cacao grows and how it’s made into chocolate, which was really interesting and of course, delicious. The humidity that day was something ridiculous like 95% though, so it was honestly like walking through water and the afternoon rain we had was the heaviest I’ve ever experienced anywhere in the world!

After the chocolate tour was a bus ride to the Arenal volcano and lake, both of which were stunning. The volcano was even mildly erupting at the time, which was a very humbling experience! We really did pack a lot in that day, as we also managed to visit La Fortuna waterfall, swim in its pool and climb the unimaginably steep (and slightly treacherous) steps back up.

The evening entailed a relaxing retreat at the Ecotermales hot springs, which sit at the foot of the volcano, surrounded by lush jungle. Never have I been anywhere so utterly idyllic and I’ll absolutely be adding this to my itinerary for 2022!

Day 6

We moved from the Arenal/La Fortuna region to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The difference in landscape and climate from Sarapiquí to Monteverde is huge; I’d really recommend visiting both cloud and rainforest regions during your trip if you can. The afternoon was spent at an education centre for amphibians and snakes, some of which we were able to hold. I’m not someone with a fear of frogs or snakes so I kinda loved seeing all the different species, but I can imagine this would be some people’s worst nightmare!

Day 7

Probably my favourite day was our final day. But it didn’t start out that way. We were told the itinerary was to visit a butterfly sanctuary, followed by a tour of a cheese factory (if you know me, you’ll probably be laughing as this, quite literally, is my idea of hell) and a pig farm. We did all of these things and expected to head back to our hotel for a quiet afternoon of packing and preparing to leave for home.

But, our teachers had a surprise in store for us – they’d booked (and PAID) for us all to go zip lining in Monteverde! I’m a giant fan of these kinds of adventure activities, so 18 zip lines and a Tarzan swing was the absolute best ending to the trip and totally counteracted the cheese factory hell!

Day 8

Day 8 meant it was time to fly back to London and leave Central America behind. You might be thinking that 8 days isn’t long enough, but we saw and experienced so much in that time. If you don’t mind a fair amount of travelling between places, you can really pack a lot in!

For my 2022 itinerary, I’m hoping to visit for about two weeks to still see a lot but travel a little slower.

Where It All Began

That 2008 A Level Biology trip to Costa Rica really did spiral my mind into a travel obsessed state and it’s remained firmly in that state ever since. It was then that I was bitten by the ever-infectious travel bug and it’s since that trip that I knew I wanted a life filled with travel. Costa Rica is where it all began for me and I’m so so excited at the prospect of returning.

Roll on 2022!

If you’ve been, don’t forget to leave recommendations and tips in the comments. I’d love to chat all things tropical with you!

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