Adventure is in the air -- and the water -- in Costa Rica

Amber Brinson on the zip line.

By Lena Katz

I never would claim to be an adventure addict. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that a scrappy seven-year-old girl (for example, pint-sized Amber Brinson, pictured here) is braver than me. Amber zipped along all 15 of the cables in the Arenal Ecoglide Park canopy tour in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, without a peep. I, on the other hand, kicked and squealed and tried to stop one zip line halfway through. Nonetheless, I find so many things to delight in a Costa Rica vacation — hot springs, secluded beaches, volcano vistas, inquisitive howler monkeys — that I can never go home without looking back nostalgically, fantasizing what it would be like to live in this patch of Central American paradise year-round.

To say that Costa Rica specializes in eco tourism is a major understatement. Locals are absolutely devoted to their beautiful beaches and indigenous wildlife and grumbling volcanoes. Various environmental certification programs like Bandera Azul and the Chamber of Eco-Tourism impose strict standards upon developers. As a result, none of the beachfront buildings attain the horizon-blocking heights you see in Honolulu or Miami, all beaches are public, and hotels are usually surrounded by acres of protected land.

Arenal Volcano

Though Costa Rica has its Marriotts and Hiltons, many of the country’s hotels are locally owned and independent. Sometimes the indie factor can lead to surprises upon arrival, but for the most part, the inns and resorts here live up to expectations while keeping their Costa Rican flavor. At the quaint cottage-styled Montana de Fuego in Arenal, each guest room is its own little slope-ceilinged cottage, with a glass sliding door in front and a private volcano-facing porch in back. Ten minutes up a bumpy gravel road, the new Springs Resort & Spa is just as breathtaking as the neighboring Four Seasons, with 18 freeform mineral springs pools set into graduated patios looking straight across at Arenal Volcano.
All of Arenal is a magic place — lushly tropical in climate and terrain, yet with the volcano majestic and ever-present in the background. This is one of the world’s most active volcanoes, and whether it’s spitting plumes of molten flame or quietly slumbering under a fringe of thick clouds, it rules the land. Zip line tours go through the jungle canopy and over grassy fields, offering glimpses at the many exotic animals which make their home in the volcano’s shadow. During my Ecoglide canopy excursion, we got in a shouting match with the local howler monkeys, looked on in awe as laughing falcons swooped in the sky, and nearly jumped off the 20-foot platform in panic when a bump on a tree trunk turned out to be a fat, creepy-crawly 4-inch-long caterpillar.
There are a lot of canopy tours in the Arenal region, but Ecoglide gets major traffic because it has the only Tarzan swing in the area. I don’t have nearly enough guts to hook myself to a rope, feel the platform drop beneath my feet, and swing 30 feet out into the jungle and back again…but brave souls like seven-year-old Amber and her cousin Will Myers (as seen in video) did it — and giggled all the way.

A surfer at Pura Vida.

If Arenal rules the inland regions, the coast is surf terrain — all the way from the Nicaraguan border in the north Pacific to Limon on the Atlantic side to the Nicoya Peninsulain the south. It’s here, in the little town of Santa Teresa, that one of my favorite surf schools is located. Pura Vida, owned by Oregon expat Tierza Davis, hosts mostly women but sometimes co-ed groups on 6-night surf safaris around Santa Teresa and the Malpais region. The camps cater to all levels of surfer and all ages from 20 to 60, with 1 instructor to every 3 or so students. Davis is a former dotcom casualty who found her awesome calling during a post-layoff sojourn in 2001. Costa Rica’s now her permanent part-time home, and her instructors hail from the U.S. and Europe — giving us all reason to believe that there’s life after job loss after all. From beginners who take the entire first day to stand up on their board, to practiced surfers who paddle right out to the point breaks, Pura Vida surf students enjoy waters warmer than Hawaii’s and all-inclusive rates than include meals, yoga and massage.
In the Guanacaste province, surfers and students from all corners of the world meet in the busy little town of Tamarindo, while families and American business travelers gravitate to places like the Hilton Papagayo Resort, located just to the north. This is nothing like a normal U.S. Hilton — half of the 75-acre property is set aside for reserve land and natural hiking trails, with a water treatment facility onsite and community programs with two local schools. Hotel management is hiring a dedicated Eco-Concierge to serve guests and staff. Double-certified as a biologist and an eco-guide, the Eco-Concierge will educate people about the many species living on or near the property: their characteristics, where to see them, and how to interact with them responsibly.
My favorite all-inclusive resort in the Guanacaste region is Paradisus Playa Conchal, located 15 minutes from Tamarindo. This property is one of the oldest in the Paradisus chain and one of the best — its idyllic setting, wonderfully friendly vibe and plethora of cultural/eco-tourism activities make it popular with all ages and nationalities.
The double-edged defining feature of a place like the Paradisus or the Hilton is that most guests who stay there on a Costa Rica vacation never leave the hotel borders — after all, why bother with the taxi and the unknown streets when everything is so comfortable at the resort? But I say, make a break for it. Take a taxi, conscript a local, team up with some other folks from your resort and get out on the town. There, bars like Babylon (couldn’t possibly be more inappropriately named — it’s a funky beach shack, not a tower of iniquity) and restaurants like La Laguna del Cocodrilo showcase Costa Rica’s mellow party-loving vibe to perfection.

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