Costa Rica
Thursday, December 30, 2004 - Tuesday, January 4, 2005
Itinerary
American flight from Chicago to Miami
American flight from Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica
Drive (rental car) from San Jose to Arenal Volcano, 3 1/2 hours drive
Two nights at Arenal Vista Lodge (2 rating, 1-10 scale, 10 is highest)
Drive from Arenal Volcano to Tamarindo Beach, 4 hours drive
Three nights at El Jardin del Eden (Garden of Eden) (8 rating)
Activities
Arenal Volcano hike (5 rating)
Arenal Observatory Lodge (6)
Tabacon Hot Springs (8)
Sea turtles tour (5)
Canopy (zip line) tour (7)
Country Background:
Population: 4 million
Per capita GDP: $9,000
Size: slightly smaller than West Virginia
Currency: colon, 460 per dollar; dollars unofficially a second currency, accepted everywhere
Independence: 1821 from Spain
Language: Spanish; English common
This New Year's trip with our friends Steve and Mi Mack and their nearly ten-month old baby Jessica could be thought of as a brief trial run for the world tour. This trip continues our tradition of traveling to a warm spot south of the US for New Year's. We traveled with the Macks to Acapulco, Mexico for New Year's 2002 and to Brazil for New Year's 2003, but they could not join us for our (legal) trip to Cuba and Miami last year due to Mi's pregnancy. Steve was chief operating officer at Inforte for nine years, leaving in December 2003, about three months after Nick did, so he and Nick have had a lot in common in the past year as they have adjusted to a pensioner lifestyle. Steve is presently on summer break from a one-year master's degree vintner program at University of Adelaide (Australia). We will visit the Macks in March and April when we are in Australia.
Costa Rica is a top ecotourism destination. Without going into details best left to tour books on the country, the country has an amazing variety of plant and animal life, along with one of the most active volcanos in the world (always hidden by clouds during our visit). We are probably mangling this statistic, by the country has something like one-half of all bird species on the planet. The volcano area is jungle-like, while the beach area on the Pacific side is very arid (at least during the dry season), like a completely different country, only a few bumpy hours drive away.
The first day of travel to our volcano destination featured a two-hour lost luggage delay (a baby car seat for which we had no choice but to wait), resulting in the long drive on narrow, winding roads mostly occurring in the dark, when thick fog set in, followed by rain. The last 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the drive occurred through a pothole field that on occasion resembled a dirt road. This part of the journey took a mere 40 minutes or so and resulted in the Mack Theory of Increased Speed to Skim Potholes. All agreed this was the single worst road they had ever traveled on in their lives, foreshadowing Costa Rica's Winning of the Worst Roads in the World Award later in the trip. The poor nature of the roads was quite surprising given the level of advancement of the overall economy.
Of course the hotel did not have the pre-ordered baby crib, but they did still have an open kitchen, which at 9PM, after a 3:30 AM wake up in Chicago, was a welcome surprise. Over dinner, Deanna and Nick discussed that this was probably a preview of a rather routine day of travel they could expect to face in the year ahead. Nick thought that many days would be much worse. While Nick carried the luggage from the car to the room in the rain, Deanna discovered that this rather Spartan hotel did have its own unique custom of chocolates on the pillow. Let's just say that while we never saw any rodents in our room, their presence was vivid in our dreams, and the evidence of their comings and goings was plentiful. Oh and our room never did have any hot water. Arenal Vista Lodge was memorable, but not in any good ways.
While dining at many restaurants, it became apparent that Air Supply rules Costa Rica much as the Carpenters dominate China. Hotel California was not heard once, a troubling development for the Eagles.
New Year's Day saw us leave the Arenal Volcano area, driving to Tamarindo Beach. The trip began well, with a record-setting 23-minute traversing of the 10-kilometer pothole field. The Mack Theory was applied liberally, as Nick passed multiple vehicles, including one piloted by a veteran tour guide. Still early in the journey around the huge and beautiful Lake Arenal, Steve spied a real estate development sign inviting passersby to drive up to a property site overlooking the lake. Let's investigate, he rather innocently suggested. Sounds good, Nick replied, still imbued by his record-setting driving performance through the pothole field. Front seat testosterone-laden groupthink set in, as Nick directed the 4WD vehicle from the pothole-riddled main road onto an impressive concrete driveway. After approximately 10 meters, the concrete gave way to the native road surface, dirt, which after 12-straight hours of rain for some funny reason seemed to have turned into mud. Not yet realizing that he had entered a Costa Rican Road to Abilene, Nick pressed on, undaunted, for it really did not seem all that muddy. "Is this such a good idea," a younger, but much wiser voice from the back seat inquired as the wheels began to slip. "Yes!" was the driver's reply, now knowing that it was a terrible idea, surpassed only in magnitude by the idea of backing up down a very steep and narrow mud road, with a deep ditch on one side and a large dropoff on the other. Fortunately, the car made it to the top, the occupants briefly had a Kodak moment recording the view, and then the descent began. Traction was desperately desired, but not much in availability. Halfway down the hill, with the car sideways in the road, the back seat occupants decided that watching in the rain beat taking their chances in the car. With the women and children safely evacuated, Nick and Steve somehow managed to the steer the Titantic to safety, and the journey continued, albeit with Nick banished to the passenger seat, Steve ejected to the back seat, and Deanna behind the wheel in a female-lead mutiny.
While shopping on the one main dusty road in Tamarindo, Nick marveled that his Spanish acumen was growing exponentially and would soon surpass his impressive 15-word Chinese vocabulary. That his halting one-word Spanish queries immediately resulted in shopkeeper's switching from Spanish to English suggested that his accent and pronounciation still needed some work. The prices quoted confirmed that he was not yet mistaken for a local.
Tourism is exploding in Guanacaste, the province that Tamarindo Beach is in. The catalysts are infrastructure. Guanacaste is on a large peninsula, isolated by a bay and a mountain range to the east. This used to require a long, circuitous drive from the capital city San Jose around the bay and mountains, or a ferry crossing. Minimum time from San Jose with no stops was at least five hours. The distance is not that great, but Costa Rica's roads are either terrible and require slow driving or good but crowded, requiring slow driving. Then a couple of years ago, a new bridge cut a path across part of the bay, cutting an hour off the travel time from San Jose. More importantly, in December 2002, US airlines began flying directly into the greatly expanded airport at Liberia, one hour away. It is now no longer necessary to fly into San Jose. Arrivals at Liberia doubled in 2004 over 2003, and further increases appear likely in 2005, as more flights have come on line. American now flies direct from Miami five days per week, Delta direct from Atlanta six days per week, and Continental direct from Houston every day (schedule varies seasonally). The ultimate sign that the area has arrived was the opening of a Four Seasons resort nearby in January 2004.
While locals may bemoan the loss of old Tamarindo, the state of development is relative. There is one main road through Tamarindo, a dusty two-lane stretch of pavement. You could walk from one edge of the town to the other in 30 minutes or less. You could probably do the walk in 20 minutes if sidewalks existed. The quickest route to San Jose still requires a stretch of gravel driving. Newly opened real estate offices sit next to backpacker hostels and Internet cafes. The place vaguely reminded Nick of Bali, Indonesia when he was there 15 years ago, although it is not as developed as Bali was then, so maybe it's like Bali circa 1980-1985.
Real estate speculation and development seems to be a major local activity and Nick spent an afternoon talking to real estate agents and gathering materials, which he and Steve devoured. Like anyplace, prices vary widely, depending on location. Large tracts of raw land in the less-developed volcano region can be had for 50 cents per square meter ($2,000 per acre). This is cheap compared to $100 per square meter ($400,000 per acre) along the beach, but not so cheap when you consider that income-producing farm land in rural Illinois can be had for 75 cents per square meter ($3,000 per acre), a price that has been rising recently. So land in Guanacaste seems a boom/bust proposition. Prices have risen rapidly in recent years. As a complete guess, Nick imagined prices are up 10-fold over the past seven years. Some prices seem overdone. Other prices still seem cheap. Invest in Guanacaste land, and a year later you are more likely to have either doubled your money or lost at least half of it, than you are to have fared somewhere in between, was his impression. Figuring out which land offers which prospect (doubling or halving) is an intriguing proposition, at least for Nick and Steve.
Steve, always on the lookout for a turn-$1-into-$100 proposition, thinks the ground floor opportunity may be in neighboring Nicaragua. We made an overexcited-likely-to-never-be-followed-up-upon pact to explore this with a visit in 2006. Nick thinks the risk of being one year too late on Nicaragua is outweighed by the risk of being 10 years too early, but you never know. Property taxes in Costa Rica are only 1/4 of one percent per year, so holding costs are low, at least in Costa Rica.
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