South of the border...
...is where I went for a while recently.
In fact, I was South of a number of borders...in Costa Rica.
The first place I stayed was the Hotel Santo Tomas in San José, which is the capital city:
This had been a huge mansion at one time, but has since been converted into a hotel. It was undergoing a lot of renovation when I stayed there, but my room was fine. There was a nice little restaurant in the hotel, too.
Within easy walking distance of the hotel were numerous points of interest, as one might expect in the capital of a country.
The first spot I checked out was a national park:
It wasn't a National Park along the lines of a Yellowstone or Yosemite, for example, but they do have (and I did visit) a number of those as well. More on that later.
After visiting the park, I meandered around an old part of the city:
It's actually a nice and quaint kind of place.
Eventually, I went to the national zoo:
That was also within easy walking distance of the hotel.
The Rio Torres passes through town, and runs along the zoo:
It's really a pretty little municipality.
Other than in the zoo, there's some cool wildlife:
Those guys are pretty mellow, unless you get too close.
(In which case they tend to scramble away)
OK, as previously mentioned, Arenal National Park:
I found it rather amusing that they had several signs stating that it was a "high volcanic risk" area, considering the fact that the most recent lava flow there was in 1992. I realize that's a very brief span in geological terms, but generally speaking I'd have to consider it quite safe. There is some genuine volcanic activity going on at the Poas Volcano, but I only saw that venting steam from my flight back out of the country.
Another Parque Nacional is Marino Las Baulas.
There's a Playa Grande (big beach) there:
This is a popular nesting area for sea turtles, in fact.
After the hotel stay came the resort.
Here's a view from there, looking out over the Pacific:
They had beach access a short walk from my condo.
The last Parque Nacional I went to was Monteverde:
It's called El Bosque Nuboso, which means "cloudy forest" in Inglés.
It truly is a cloudy forest, most of the time:
I think that's a pretty decent photograph, myself.
Last, but not least, I visited my "hometown":
Well, not really, but the name is very close...
Update! More pictures posted HERE.
In fact, I was South of a number of borders...in Costa Rica.
The first place I stayed was the Hotel Santo Tomas in San José, which is the capital city:
This had been a huge mansion at one time, but has since been converted into a hotel. It was undergoing a lot of renovation when I stayed there, but my room was fine. There was a nice little restaurant in the hotel, too.
Within easy walking distance of the hotel were numerous points of interest, as one might expect in the capital of a country.
The first spot I checked out was a national park:
It wasn't a National Park along the lines of a Yellowstone or Yosemite, for example, but they do have (and I did visit) a number of those as well. More on that later.
After visiting the park, I meandered around an old part of the city:
It's actually a nice and quaint kind of place.
Eventually, I went to the national zoo:
That was also within easy walking distance of the hotel.
The Rio Torres passes through town, and runs along the zoo:
It's really a pretty little municipality.
Other than in the zoo, there's some cool wildlife:
Those guys are pretty mellow, unless you get too close.
(In which case they tend to scramble away)
OK, as previously mentioned, Arenal National Park:
I found it rather amusing that they had several signs stating that it was a "high volcanic risk" area, considering the fact that the most recent lava flow there was in 1992. I realize that's a very brief span in geological terms, but generally speaking I'd have to consider it quite safe. There is some genuine volcanic activity going on at the Poas Volcano, but I only saw that venting steam from my flight back out of the country.
Another Parque Nacional is Marino Las Baulas.
There's a Playa Grande (big beach) there:
This is a popular nesting area for sea turtles, in fact.
After the hotel stay came the resort.
Here's a view from there, looking out over the Pacific:
They had beach access a short walk from my condo.
The last Parque Nacional I went to was Monteverde:
It's called El Bosque Nuboso, which means "cloudy forest" in Inglés.
It truly is a cloudy forest, most of the time:
I think that's a pretty decent photograph, myself.
Last, but not least, I visited my "hometown":
Well, not really, but the name is very close...
Update! More pictures posted HERE.
posted by camojack | 07:15
|
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