Costa Rica – A Pricey Beauty
Ah, the famed Costa Rica, where tourists and expats pay handsomely to frolic amid the tropical flora and fauna, far from the gang violence and authoritarian dictatorships of its neighbors. In a nutshell, this is all true. There are many non-Latin tourists and expats, everything is VERY expensive, the nature and critters everywhere are freakin’ awesome, and there are no dictators or military running around with machine guns.
By ocean standards, Costa Rica is BIG. Coming from Nicaragua, you have a lot of sailing to do before you reach any safe anchorages, and the impolite Papagayo winds don’t stop at the border. This is where we really came to appreciate not having a mainsail. (The repair on our busted boom had failed in light air en route to Nica.) Without the main, all we could fly in its place was our storm sail (trysail), which is smaller than our double-reefed main. Since that was the only option, there was never a discussion about whether or not to reef. And it turns out the boat balances very nicely in heavy (25+ knot) winds with just the trysail and staysail.
We had one particularly terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day going around Punto Extremo (yes that’s the name). Normally, when you round a big mountainous point with the wind behind you, you expect the wind to drop. The big rock is supposed to block the big winds, and then it’s cocktail time. Physics were defied that day. The wind and waves only built as we sailed into the shadow of the rock, and we saw a few gusts over 50. I knew the boat was fine, but I was still scared. It all finally dropped when we were about 30 feet off the beach. GAH! Thank goodness for our little 50-horse engine that could.
A few easier days later, we shared a (big) bay with the former Starbucks CEO’s 253-footer ($200M) and Jeff Bezos’ two yachts. Ya see, you can’t land a helicopter on a sailboat, even what’s arguably the world’s largest sailing yacht (417ft, $500M), so you need a motor yacht too. The $75M motor yacht is a better place to store all the jet skis and speedboats anyway. On a still morning, we took our 9ft $3k dinghy over for a look at them and the jillions of crew polishing every surface. Over on the sailing yacht, we got a good close-up view of the figurehead, carved in the likeness of wifey #2 and nearly as long as our sailboat. This display of unimaginable wealth is even more gross in person.
Which brings me back to Costa Rica, where the gap between rich and everyone else is on full display. You have your mansions tucked into the cliffs as vacation homes for Michael Jordan, Brad Pitt, and Britney Spears. Then there’s Las Catalinas, a private town advertised on billboards as the only place in CR to retire worry-free. It looks like a Vegas façade full of Mediterranean villas and $14 ice cream. Next up are your standard gated communities, where nearly every home is available on Airbnb. We met locals occasionally, but they were all “staff” who lived far from these wealthy and white enclaves.
The upside to all the hype and gentrification is that friends and family from the US are eager to visit! Two couples came down and gave us the excuse to play tourist. We took a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park, and our guide pointed out way more critters than we’d ever have spotted on our own AND took amazing pictures through his scope. He also taught us the extremely important difference between two-toed and three-toed sloths. Betcha didn’t even know there were two kinds!
So, the following may just save you a trip to the ER. Three-toed sloths are the cute, slow, gentle herbivores that fall asleep scratching their adorable little heads. If one is holding up traffic while slowly crossing the road, you can safely pick it up and deposit it on the other side. Try the same with a two-toed sloth and you’ll end up like this guy. Two-toed sloths eat protein and get quite feisty when threatened. All of a sudden, those cute little claws are murder mittens, and that sweet little face bares razor-sharp teeth that don’t let go without a fight.
Our other friends asked AI for the best thing to do in Costa Rica. The answer? Whitewater rafting on the Pacuare River! WHAT A BLAST! The Pacuare is world-famous for its rapids, views, wildlife and accommodations. Most outfits offer overnight stays in cabins accessible only by river. The guides make dinner while you spot toucans, macaws and the famous giant blue morpho butterflies. The river is more exciting than most because the rapids just don’t let up. You get little swim breaks, but for the most part you’re always in some degree of whitewater. SUPER RECOMMENDED!
What I cannot recommend are CR marinas. Oof, they’re expensive – like 3x California rates. We left Solla in the cheapest one we could find, but despite assurances to the contrary, the river wasn’t deep enough, and she spent a full tidal swing at an uncomfortable angle.
On the long drive back from rafting, we got a more personal view of the country and its history from our driver, Mario, a very proud Costa Rican.
(See a brief history of Costa Rica below.)
Mario simply beamed about his country, especially the animals and agriculture. He stopped several times to show us sloths and monkeys, plus exotic fruits like cotton candy beans (SO yum). When I asked if there was anything he didn’t like about his country, he thought for a sec and said he wished fiber internet were more widespread. LOL. From others, we heard that petty crime is a problem because the police don’t have much of a presence. And from our vantage point, the roads need a lot of work. Still, it’s easy to imagine a peaceful life up in the highlands, where the air is cool and the soil is endlessly abundant. The western half has the ocean views, but it’s hotter and drier. (Though ask a westerner about the east and they’ll tell you it rains too much! :))
After all our inland adventures, we were more than ready to get back to the boat – to sail and swim, to catch and eat fish. But there aren’t any protected anchorages until Golfito, which is muddy and polluted from river runoff. Golfito does have some friendly docks for easy shore access, though, and a free (albeit multi-stage) checkout.
It’s unlikely we’ll return to CR by boat. I could see meeting visitors there, but I’d push to get them to come to Panama instead. CR went too far with the tourist infrastructure. There are souvenir shops EVERYWHERE, and ziplines. OMG, the ziplines. Meanwhile, the locals struggle to make ends meet with the higher cost of living… because of all the tourists!
Clearly we didn’t fall in love with Costa Rica. But the sloths? Totally smitten. (The three-toed ones anyway.)
Costa Rica in a Nutshell
- 1821: Independence. Costa Rica broke from Spain along with the rest of Central America.
- 1948: Civil war, then no army. A 44-day civil war over a disputed election killed about 2,000 people. The winning side, led by José Figueres, abolished the army and gave women the vote, and the 1949 constitution made the no-army rule permanent.
- 1987: A Nobel Peace Prize. President Óscar Arias won it for the peace plan that helped wind down the civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.
- 1990s–today: The green turnaround. Paying landowners to protect and replant forest helped bring forest cover back to well over half the country, and about a quarter of the land is now protected as parks and reserves.
- 2020s: Rising crime. As a transit point for cocaine headed north, Costa Rica has seen record murders, with 907 in 2023.
- 2026: More of the same. Laura Fernández, outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves’s handpicked successor, won in the first round and took office in May as the country’s second woman president.
