Independent Travel in Costa Rica: What You Should Know
* Fly to San Jose, stay just two days to get situated. San Jose is a polluted city with just a few worthwhile attractions - Avenida Central, the University of Costa Rica, the National Pre-Columbian Museum and the Mercado Central.
* Travel northwest to Monteverde ("green mountain" in Spanish). This is the largest protected cloud forest in the country - a must-see. Plus, they have a cheese factory run by Quakers. Stay two days.
* Take a horseback ride through the mountains northward to Arenal Volcano, Tabacon Hot Springs and La Fortuna. This trip down a spectacular jungle trail takes at least four hours. Arenal is the most active volcano in the Western Hemisphere; Tabacon Hot Springs are a series of hot rivers (!) flowing off the volcano (full of natural minerals); and La Fortuna is the quaint town that sits between them both.
* ALL DAY TRAVEL to Montezuma, on the Nicoya Peninsula. This involves four bus rides and a ferry crossing.
* Stay in Montezuma, a tiny beachfront village on the southeast tip of the peninsula. It's a backpacker's paradise and a great jump-off point to Tortuga Island, Curu and Cabo Blanco Forest Reserves and surfing beaches. I stopped to catch a few waves at Mal Pais ("bad country") where surfers rule the beach. I lingered here six days.
* Head back to the mainland, traveling south. Stay one night in Orotina. Visit the Iguana Park, a conservation project to encourage iguana farming (rather than cattle ranching) to save the rainforest. Yes, I ate a lunch of iguana here ... it tastes like gamy chicken.
* Travel to Quepos, gateway to the beautiful Manuel Antonio National Park. The jungle meets the white sand beaches here, with giant iguanas, sloths, coatis and monkeys crawling in the trees. Stay two days.
* Next stop, Sierpe. This is a sleepy village on the banks of the mangrove-lined and crocodile-rich Rio Sierpe. Ask around about boats to Drake Bay and San Josecito Beach. This could take a few days in the off-season.
* Travel along the river and along the Pacific coast of the Osa Peninsula to Drake Bay, one of the last landlocked villages in the country. Try to get out to San Josecito Beach, an even smaller village. (See my last article: Time & Tide: An Osa Peninsula Journal.) Stay five days, exploring the rainforest, preferably with a local guide. Don't go alone - this is one of the wildest
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