Costa Rica Jan. 7-24, 2025
We flew in and out of Liberia. We stayed in 4 communities and I will detail each of them in following posts.
Rented a car through SOLID/NU rentals. You can not avoid the one of the insurance costs, though because we had a copy from our CC saying we had some coverage it was not as high as it could have been. In the end we paid $900 for 18 days or $50 day. To use it was worth it to have freedom and travel when and when we wanted. Gas was about $6 gallon.
The roads do suck. I am a confident and good driver and I was exhausted on days we traveled from one location to the next. Yes they are curvy, yes they are narrow, but what is crazy is how motorcycles begin to pass you on both sides, sometimes at the same time. Another annoying thing is the fact that the 2 lane roads have NO shoulder and if a truck with a lot of things in the back is going 35 mph, the line of cars behind it can get up to 20-30 cars and NO ONE pulls over to let people pass. It was crazy. Lastly the yellow line is a suggestion, but you better not be caught crossing it! We did cross rivers. We avoided 100’s and 100’s of pot holes. We traveled on dirt roads that were closer to cow pasture trails I grew up with. I wonder where all the $ goes, as it is NOT into upkeep of roads.
We were surprised at how much it cost to see a waterfall. Every single one charges $15-30 per person. The ones in National Parks you have to buy your ticket in advance (Rio Celeste or Paos National Park). We wanted to see the LaPaz Falls and planned to go to locally owned family trails, but the floods had taken them out, so only option was $60 per person, NO THANK YOU.
Enjoyed eating at Soda’s (smaller locally owned cafes) every few days, but also found amazingly good pizza and fresh seafood on the coat. Hotels had breakfast included and they were good… eggs and fresh fruit each day.
We did not see many bugs at all. Had been worried, but ended up with only one bite and it was normal. No issues with no-seeums. Unlike other places we visited (Belize etc).
Visited San Jose for a day though did not drive into city, took and UBER in and out. We visited the market and two museums, Jade and Gold ($) Museums.
Our agenda was:
LaFortuna Jan. 7-12
Grecia Jan. 12-15
Samara Jan. 15-19
Playa Flamingo Jan. 19-23
Liberia night Jan. 23
I will do a write up on each one of these places and post soon.
timistravels 
Interesting👏I was surprised st the high costs. 😢Money the USA gives to other countries seldom improves the life of the comm
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