San Jose was to be our home for our final few days in Costa Rica, quite fitting in many ways, to prepare us for the next leg of our adventure, California. It also signalled the half way point in our trip. We started our Latin America adventure back in Buenos Aires some 74 days ago, almost 2.5 months of pretty much non-stop travelling, and as we have progressed through Latin America, and in particular over the last 4 weeks, initially in Panama and most recently in Costa Rica, it has felt like we are getting closer to the western lifestyle we left behind. I must say, whilst we are excited for the next leg of our adventure, there are some feelings of melancholy creeping in. Feelings that we are transitioning from exploring a country and had some of ability to interact with local communities, to firmly becoming tourists. Duolingo is going to take a bit of a hammering if we are to develop our Japanese and various Indonesian language skills to any level which isn’t regarded as insulting at best.
We have loved our time in Latin America, and in particular the places which have been less touristy. Having to speak in Spanish as there was no alternative felt like we had a deeper connection with the local communities and people we were interacting with, even if at times it wasn’t overly fluent. As our Costa Rica trip has evolved, we have found the western influences creeping in more and more, the need to speak Spanish has eased, and the abundance of tourists has increased, especially those from the United States. Don’t get me wrong, we have absolutely nothing against the people of the United States, and we love exploring the good old US of A, but we have just been spoilt for the last couple of months; in many places we were the only tourists around. Certainly some of the only English speaking tourists, and with children, which has really felt like we have been exploring, not like we are on summer break.
This has probably been exacerbated by our final stop being in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and in particular staying in more of a corporate resort hotel. Which has also coincided with US schools breaking up for the summer. All of a sudden the girls aren’t the only English speaking westerners around. The menus are all in English. The cuisine is much less traditional and much more reflective of the western palate. The prices are also much more akin to going on vacation in the US. And the identify of Costa Rica has been lost a little. Whilst we haven’t been to Costa Rica before, although we did have flights booked to go in 2020, but Covid put paid to that. As a result we don’t have a watermark to compare against, but it feels like we have missed the boat a little to experience true Costa Rican culture and what made it famous in the first place. Maybe it has always been like this, travel blogs and local stories would suggest otherwise, but I think there is a risk that Costa Rica is losing its own identity. It is certainly being diluted somewhat with the influx of foreign tourists and from what we can see, huge amounts of money, influence from and people from the US in particular. As a country that relies on 70% of its GDP from tourism, and like every other country are looking for GDP growth and societal progress, Costa Rica is going to have to work very hard not to turn itself into one big tourist playground for the 350 million people that live just a couple of hours flight away.
Granted we haven’t seen all of the country, and the more remote and natural areas such as Osa Peninsula feel like they will remain wild for a while, certainly whilst the roads make them pretty inaccessible, but it wouldn’t take much for even those areas to become like theme parks. We have loved the biodiversity in Costa Rica, and the people have been some of the most hospitable we have experienced, but at times it has felt like we are on the tourist train and it is hard to know where you can jump off. The areas of natural beauty are all tightly regulated and controlled, which is helping to preserve the flora, and in turn the fauna, but it is also feels like it is turning the country into one big zoo. It is very hard to just find somewhere to go for a walk in the forest without having to pay $50 each for the pleasure. In turn, as everyone looks to capitalise on the tourist trade, it can feel pretty passive aggressive, when driving unofficial parking touts trying to charge you for ‘looking after your car on the side of the road’, or tour guides following your down the road explaining ‘you won’t see a thing without my eyes and ears accompanying you’, or restauranteurs thrusting English laminated menus in your face like you were walking down Las Ramblas.
The other surprising aspect we have uncovered about Costa Rica is the lack of recycling and the volume of single use plastics. For a country that is pretty much carbon neutral, generating nearly all of its energy demands from renewable sources, has driven one of the most accelerated reforestation programs on the planet, and through a conscious demilitarisation strategy in order to invest in education, public services and sanitation, there has been hardly any signs of active recycling. Most of the hotels and AirBnBs we have stayed in have just said to put everything in the bin. Granted certain shops will encourage you to return hard plastic and glass bottles, but that only addresses a small proportion of the problem. Single use plastic bags are all freely available, and lots of the food, even down to single items of fruit and veg, including apples, have been individually wrapped. Maybe there is a mass recycling process behind the scenes that isn’t obvious to us, but the lack of public engagement feels like they are missing a trick, and is somewhat at odds with its green credentials and ‘Pura Vida’ mantra.
Don’t get me wrong, we have loved our time here, the wildlife has been truly breathtaking, the country is beautiful and so diverse, the people amazing, and their long term strategy of investing money in education, health, reforestation, and sustainable business models, is world leading. It is small enough to experience different aspects of the country within just a couple of hours in the car. If you don’t happen to speak any Spanish you can absolutely experience the country without fear. It is also wonderful being able to drink the tap water and not having to worry about in which establishments you are going to eat salads and pre-prepared fruit. We would absolutely recommend coming to visit, we would just encourage you to come sooner rather than later, to temper the expectations a little as to how wild your experience will be, and to make sure you have plenty of Colones and Dollars set aside for your trip. The tourist tax is here to stay and suspect only going in one direction.
So, our final couple of days were spent mainly in and around the hotel, which was conveniently located next to a massive American style mall, probably on a par with Westfield. We took full advantage of the gym, the pools, the cinema in the mall, although that wasn’t that successful as turns out PG-13 rated Marvel films might be a little graphic for 9 and 11 years olds, or our children at least who aren’t used to watching that sort of thing. And of course we took advantage of the western fast food outlets that are also readily available in the mall. We did venture into downtown San Jose for half a day, we visited a butterfly reserve and an archaeological museum, and saw some cool street art as we made our way to the main local shopping market. The city was buzzing with life. So as we packed our bags and headed for an early night, in readiness for our 0430 alarm, despite the small sense of melancholy at leaving Latin America, excitement levels were palpable. California awaits, where we are meeting Grandpa and Grandma Wren for a week, a holiday for them, some respite for us (we haven’t told them that yet), and then our Asia adventure begins. Just the small matter of back to back 4hr flights with US immigration sandwiched in between. Let’s hope the first flight is on time and the border official with the rubber glove is gentle so we can make our connection in time.
S, K, L & H x
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- Bird watching at the pool
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- Trotters up for a change
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- Exotic plants at Butterfly Reserve
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- Exotic plants at Butterfly Reserve
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- Butterflies galore
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- Butterfly (Name unknown)
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- Downtown San Jose
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- Downtown San Jose
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- Downtown San Jose
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- Definitely a daddy sloth
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- Archaeological museum
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- Under attack
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- Hatty Butterfly
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- Lottie butterfly
Safe journey to San Francisco, wall art of the five fat ladies a bit reminiscent of the picture post cards you used to get in seaside resorts in England!. Love Dad