Costa Rica Into The Wild

With its mist-shrouded waterfalls, dewy cloud forests, fuming volcanoes, and multi-hued sands, Costa Rica feels like the living product of an overactive (and indecisive) imagination. Its magma craters seem volatile, its shores seductive, its towering trees full of mystery and their massive root mazes born of design and intent. Connecting all the elements of this living system is ecotourism, the lifeblood of Costa Rica’s economy, which has managed to simultaneously preserve and profit from the country’s many diverse ecosystems. Costa Rica established its national park system in 1970, and by now just over one quarter of its land has been protected by an extensive system of reserves, parks, and refuges throughout the country. These parks (and the many tourism agencies that have sprung up alongside them) cater to every whim and preference—whether you want to calmly stroll along well-maintained trails or muscle and push your way through the underbrush with a machete and a healthy supply of optimism.

Conveniently, none of the country’s natural wonders lie too far from the capital city of San José. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve is full of thousands of animal, plant, and insect species, which visitors encounter at varying speeds along an extensive network of trails, tree-top bridges, and ziplines. Just a short and scenic bus, boat, and taxi ride away (in that order), enjoy famous hot springs and marvel at active lava flows at Volcán Arenal, or venture underground to explore 10 stalactite “galleries” at the Cavernas de Venado nearby. The slopes of nearby Volcán Tenorio are studded with hot springs, rugged craters, sparkling lakes, and surging waterfalls. Farther north, Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja offers an even more elaborate geothermic variety show, complete with sulfuric lagoons and boiling mud pits. Site of one of the Costa Rican army’s first, best, and only victories, Parque Nacional Santa Rosa now hosts an enchanting cast of spider and howler monkeys in forests that border miles of secluded beach. The Nicoya Peninsula is a mecca for surfers and sun-worshippers, while the Osa Peninsula and Parque Nacional Corcovado persist in relative obscurity further south, preserving a region that National Geographic has called “the most biologically intense place on earth.” Located on the Pacific coast between the two peninsulas, surf and sand meet the rainforest at Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio , where visitors encounter monkeys and migrating butterflies along jungle trails that lead directly to the beach. On the Caribbean coast, mangrove swamps and fossil-filled coral caves await to the south at the Refugio Nacional Gandoca-Manzanillo, while the remote Parque Nacional Tortuguero to the north draws thousands of nesting turtles each year, along with the devoted leagues of conservationists that come to study and protect them.