2009 Costa Rica

Feb-Mar 2009 – Southern Sky Fiesta & Tamarindo Coast

This was a two week trip to Costa Rica, with the first week being the same Southern Sky Fiesta astronomy and wildlife tour I took the previous year, arranged through TravelQuest. The second week was our own arrangements, where some friends and I travelled to Tamarindo, which is in the northwest corner of Costa Rica. This is a resort area on the Pacific coast with beautiful beaches, coastal forest, rivers and estuaries, and lots of wildlife, including sea turtles.

My full itinerary is listed below. Feel free to click on what interests you, however if you click on the top-most item, there are links at the bottom of each page (just above the Comments section) to take you to the next destination – from beginning to end. This is the best way to explore the whole trip as it happened.

If you just want to see all my photos covering the whole trip, click here.


Howler monkey at La Ensenada  Lodge
Howler monkey at La Ensenada Lodge

How it started

In early January of 2009, the weather where I live on the west coast of Canada was so dark, dreary, cold and wet, I think I caught the get me the hell outa here syndrome, which is so prevalent with Canadians during winter months. I had also recently visited with two friends who had just returned from Cuba, so my travel fever was growing. After a couple of failed booking attempts for other destinations, I decide to book TravelQuest’s Costa Rica Southern Skies Fiesta tour, which I had taken last February. The tour starts on February 21st, so I wasn’t sure they would have room, but they informed me a couple of days later that I was signed up.

How it evolved

Booking my airline tickets turns out to be a bit of a bother. Both of my preferred online booking sites for airline tickets offer routes to San José, Costa Rica which go through the east coast of the USA. This is not wise to do in February, since it’s easy to get stuck in those airports because of winter storms. I finally book directly through American Airlines’ website, finding an ideal flight with good connections through Seatac and Dallas/Fort Worth.

Two friends are also signed up to go on the Southern Skies Fiesta tour, and they are extending their stay, spending a second week in a very nice resort in the Tamarindo area on Costa Rica’s northwest Pacific coast, so I also book into Hotel Las Tortugas. They are planning to take the bus from San José to Tamarindo, but I’m not keen on that idea since it will be a full day’s drive. I decide to fly, and find local flights through Nature Air (no longer operating) taking only 50 minutes and costing US$190 return.

My return flight to Canada departs San José International airport on March 8 at 9:15am. Since there is no way I can fly back to San José from Tamarindo the same morning, I book a night at Hotel Casa Roland, a nice boutique hotel in a San José suburb near the local Pavas airport (SYQ) where Nature Air flies into.

So my escape from our cold weather is in place!

Costs

The cost of the 7-day astronomy and wildlife tour, 5 days at Tamarindo, a couple of days in San Jose, both local and international flights cost CA$5,500, which works out to just under $400/day. Due to booking the flights less than two months before departure, those costs were a bit higher, but otherwise all the parts of this trip were about what I expected.

So was it worth it?

I enjoyed having a second chance to observe and photograph the dark Costa Rican skies from La Ensenada “Star” Lodge. Although rustic, the lodge is a wonderful place to stay. Since TravelQuest’s astronomy group takes over the place, we get special treatment with early dinners, coffee available all night for those of us who want to stay awake to observe, tours of their ranching and farming operation, being treated to Italian Mama’s fresh antipasto snacks along with cold beer and soft drinks on lookout hill, and lots of bird watching. Observing from 10º north of the equator gives us a chance to appreciate some of the celestial wonders only visible from the southern hemisphere – a special treat. The second week at Tamarindo on the Pacific Coast was very relaxing, the food was great at Hotel Las Tortugas, and the morning beach walks were divine.

Crux and Carina constellations