Enjoy reliving one couple’s experience with three separate trips to both the Quepos, Manual Antonio and the Arenal, La Fortuna areas of Coast Rica. These trips encompassed both rainy and dry seasons over eight years. Many things stayed the same and many were different, but we always found a friendly country with a lot to say about ecology, peace, and responsibility for the environment.
Suffering from the empty nest syndrome, my wife and I decided it was time to do something different. Not only were we interested in escaping winter to sandy beaches and tropical rain forests, we wanted to learn and experience a very different world from that which we had known while raising kids. We decided to go to Costa Rica and have returned two times.
Our first trip to Costa Rica was in January of 2009. Not being familiar with the country, we took the advice of travel agents and planned our first trip for the dry season. The second two trips were during the wet season. All of our trips were very enjoyable and even educational. After having visited during both seasons; we now actually prefer the wet season and would recommend it. There are many advantages as you will see.
This is a small country with a lot to say to the rest of the world. They are moving forward and improving their infrastructure at a steady rate. Having abolished their military and not being burdened with this expense has greatly facilitated this progress. There is a lot of work still to do, but my wife and I noticed considerable forward progress between 2009 and 2017 in the areas of education, telecommunications and roads.
The literacy rate is very high and as a group; Costa Ricans, are a highly educated people. They are very proud of their country and aware of the world beyond Costa Rica. This pride and awareness tends to manifest itself in a very positive way toward the tourism industry. Having some command of Spanish, I was able to interact with these people and found their story very interesting.
