*late post. We were in CR for most of March.

We have been in the Central Valley of Costa Rica near Grecia for the last 3 weeks. The region is mountainous with several volcanos and the hills are scattered with coffee fields and sugarcane. Each ridge of the volcanos have a different community and to access them you either have to drive to the bottom and traverse back up or cut across on windy backroads that are cut into the side of the mountain. The houses sit perched on the edge of the ridges offering sweeping views of the valley below. It is a stunning area of the country.

We have spent most of our time hiking through the coffee fields. By and large it is all private lands that have been farming coffee for generations. Most owners allow people to cross through their lands and we did not have any troubles or get turned away. Hydrangeas grow around the perimeter of the fields in what I assume to be companion planting to detract insects from the coffee. We arrived at the end of the last harvest for the year and most fields were quiet with the occasional worker spotted with a machete cleaning up. The harvests here are still done by hand with many transient workers hired to hand pick the harvest. A very labour intensive process.

We did hike up to the Bosque de Las Nino’s or Children’s Forest. It is a forest that was planted in 1979 by the children of the region and it is a well maintained natural area about halfway up the Poas Volcano. The hike to get there is not well marked and we took a few wrong turns here and there but eventually found it. I was on the hunt for a toucan and a sloth but sadly saw neither. The region has both the 2 toed and 3 toed sloth but they are very hard to spot and most people use a guide to find them. I did eventually see a toucan but it was from my backyard, it just landed in the tree out back and started making its call.

The weather here is ideal. Warm days around 25 Celsius and the evenings drop to 15 or so. No need for air conditioning and a nice breeze is always blowing. One downside though is that the Poas Volcano is really active right now so for one we couldn’t visit it and see the crater and secondly, the air quality was awful. It was ok early in the morning when we walked but the afternoons were terrible. The air was full of sulphur and we would hide out indoors. We did get a little rain for a few days as well, we are on the shoulder of rainy season starting and it was refreshing to get a good soaking.

We housesat a dog and a cat while we were there and the dog Chloe was just a dream and Leo the cat liked to cuddle on his terms and would take a round out of the dog once a day or so just to show who’s boss. All in all, an easy sit. We met the neighbours across the street, Trixie and Ingo who took us under their wing and introduced us to the community, They are originally from Houston but have lived in CR for 20 years. Trixie is also a big walker and we would head out each day with the dogs and she would show us new trails to explore.

This was our second time to CR and we wondered how we would like the mountains compared to the beach vacation we did the first time. The thing with Costa Rica is that it is stunningly beautiful, the people are incredibly friendly, and you can’t beat the weather however, it is really expensive, the cuisine is so so, and it kinda feels like a retirement community. Especially just coming from Mexico. I think I would go back though, to visit new friends and explore new areas. There’s always something new to see…..