Costa
Rica Pictures
|
|||||
 |
Take
a Costa Rica tour with the South American travel specialists who offer nature, culture holidays and multisport
adventures throughout Latin America. |
Click the image to see 9 pages of Costa Rica Pictures or go below to choose photos of a particular area.
Live
and spitting, Costa Rica's finest volcano, Arenal, backdrops
the ramshackle town of La Fortuna. Towns in this impoverished
Central American country are sadly disorganised and dilapidated,
packed with style-free cinder block buildings splashed with
eye-busting colours and gaily festooned with sagging cables.
But you don't go to there for urban action, do you? We sincerely
hope not.
Head for the green, mi amigo.
Flowers
Wildlife
Volcanoes
Beaches
San Jose
Activities
Costa Rica Images: Volcanoes | Activities | Wildlife | Beaches | Costa Rica Map | Central America Map
Travel Information: Costa Rica Travel Guide | Wildlife Parks Information | Costa Rica Tours
Outside
its tedious and tacky urban zones this country is a delightful
melange of vast, eco-friendly rainforests offering well-organised
walks, long or short, buzzing with critters - particularly exotic
birds [870 species, so they say, but who's counting?], frogs,
butterflies, iguanas, monkeys [200 species of mammal], turtles
and varied boggling insects embraced by deep, damp greenery
perfectly offset with frequent splashes of floral colour [9,000
species of flowering plants - 1,200 of which are orchids].
Tourist hotels out of town are usually delightful and often
efficient too, while local people are friendly and welcoming,
except of course, for the ones who go for your wallet with some
determination. See Costa
Rica Safety.
As far as non-hiking action is concerned there are dozens of high-anxiety rainforest tree-top wire slides, volcanoes to scout, rivers to raft, kayak or tube, golf balls to smack on manicured courses, big and consistent waves to ride off wild beaches or deep sea fishing and scuba diving if your pockets are deep. Alternatively just simmer on the sand of some spacious, wild beaches. Hot springs, mud baths and a cool one are a perfect way to end a sweaty day.
North
of Costa Rica slumps Nicaragua and to the south Panama. Neither
domain offers much in the way of interest though slightly further north lie Mexico and Guatemala both diverse and loaded with attractions, while serious wildlife watchers with fat wallets could head down to Ecuador and cruise out to the magnificent Galapagos Islands.
It's not difficult
to get to CR overland from North America though Texas is 2500
miles north; Peñas Blancas on the west coast is the main border crossing from Nicaragua.
The
best time to visit is from December to May when it's
cooler and drier, unless you're a committed surfer in which
case the big stuff appears on the Pacific side from April-October.
The rest of the year is a variably
wet season, though it doesn't usually rain all day, mostly a
heavy hour or two in the afternoon.
The coasts - Costa Rica has both Pacific and Caribbean coasts
- are pretty much always hot, ranging from the low 20Cs [70F]
to high 30Cs [90F+], with high humidity [which is more tiring
than the heat]. San José, the less-than-inspiring capital has a much more
comfortable climate due to its altitude of 1100m [3770ft] with
temperatures ranging from 15C [60F] to 26C [80F].
We hope that these pictures will give you an idea of what to do, and perhaps what not to do in Costa Rica. See Bugbog's Costa Rica Travel Guide for fuller information on this little Central American eco-haven.