#travelthursday – katherine stanley obando

The unvisited spot

Posted on August 20, 2020 by stanleyobando

On this Travel Thursday, I’m thinking about places I’ve yet to see in Costa Rica. I don’t know about you, but the enforced lack of travel this year has made me even more motivated to plan a visit to those places as health regulations allow.

One of mine is San Vito, a valley town in southern Costa Rica. I’ve always been fascinated with the town’s unique place in the history of Costa Rican immigration: it was a government-sponsored relocation spot for many Italians who first came to Costa Rica to work on the railways.

I’m eager to take a stroll around San Vito, learn more about its interesting history and, yes, try to sniff out some Italian food. What are the new spots you want to explore, when you can?

(Image by user Jarib, via Shutterstock.)

Caiman, caiman, wherever you are

Posted on July 2, 2020 by stanleyobando

I first came to Costa Rica when I was seven, and remember almost nothing from the whole trip. (That’s why I figure it’s ok that the pandemic is eliminating our travel spending this year, when my daughter is that same age: if she’s like me, it would have been a wash anyway, memory-making-wise.)

What I do remember very clearly, however, is seeing faces like this one as we floated through the canals of Tortuguero. It blew my Michigander mind. I haven’t been back to Tortuguero since, and I hope to remedy that in the coming years.

Do any readers out there have childhood Costa Rican travel memories – whether you visited Costa Rica from another place, or remember trips around Costa Rica as a kid? I’d love to hear them.

Happy Thursday.

What’s your favorite Costa Rican drive?

Posted on February 27, 2020February 26, 2020 by stanleyobando

Today I’m hitting the road and looking forward to my all-time favorite drive in Costa Rica: the route from Cañas to Bijagua. This route, which narrowly edges out the drive up to the top of Irazú because it’s so smooth and easy, barrels through extraordinarily scenic rolling pastures with Volcán Miravalles off to the left and Volcán Tenorio to the right. I once hit it right at the golden hour before sunset and drove along in a kind of trance.

Driving in Costa Rica gets a deservedly bad rap, but there are some spectacular and very manageable stretches of road, all the more enjoyable once you’ve gotten used to the crowded chaos and potholed travesties that reign supreme all too often. What’s your favorite Costa Rican drive or bus ride?

Ahh, February: the perfect month to run straight up a mountain

Posted on February 20, 2020February 19, 2020 by stanleyobando

I’ve recently discovered a new favorite genre: documentaries about people performing wince-inducing physical feats. In that vein, I’d like someone to make a feature-length film about the race that unites batshit-crazy badass superheroes every February in Costa Rica. That’s right. It’s the Carrera Internacional Ecológica Cerro Chirripó.

To put this in perspective, I may need to italicize, and possibly hit the caps lock button. You see, people in fairly good shape often train to make sure they’ll be successful when they walk up Chirripó, Costa Rica’s highest peak, over multiple days. The competitors in this race run up – and then down – a total of 34 kilometers, ascending and then descending 2,050 meters along the way. Yes, caps lock required. That’s running up the Empire State Building MORE THAN FIVE TIMES OVER, and then descending that same knee-jarring distance, except on uneven terrain and at high altitudes. All in a little over three hours, if you’re in the lead.

I would tell you more about the way the race links runners to local communities, homegrown food and regional traditions, but just writing about it has worn me out. I’ll be over on the couch, hoping that a documentarian is interviewing Saturday’s racers as we speak and preparing to strap cameras to their singlets so we can see just how they manage this extraordinary feat. Best of luck, you superhumans. May the road rise to meet you. I have a funny feeling it will.

A Who’s Who of allies: Costa Rica’s ‘diverse Directory’

Posted on February 13, 2020February 13, 2020 by stanleyobando

Throughout this month focused on LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality, I’ll probably mention Costa Rica’s Diverse Chamber of Commerce more than once. After all, the entity is one of the leading voices in the ongoing push to make Costa Rica a safer and more accepting place for all sexual orientations. But today, on this Travel Thursday, I want to point out a great resource on their website: the Diverse Directory.

While the site doesn’t appear to be translated (hey folks, want some help? Call me. For real), the directory is easy enough to sift through regardless, checking out the names of businesses that have committed to the principles of inclusion and respect that the Cámara de Comercio Diverso represents.

With marriage equality on the horizon, efforts like this are sure to grow exponentially. In countries around the world, the good business sense of, you know, treating people equally has made a huge difference in progress towards human rights. In Costa Rica, the growth projections for the LGBTQ+ tourism market are being bandied around with delight; a recent study, for example, estimated that the country has been losing up to 1 percent of GDP because of discrimination based on sexual orientation. I can’t wait to see what the near future holds in store for the Cámara Diversa and its kindred organizations around the country.

Head for the highlands

Posted on January 30, 2020January 29, 2020 by stanleyobando

Another place to visit while the sun is shining: Zarcero and the mountain roads that wind through its surroundings. A drive from San José (or coming the other way, from La Fortuna and the Zona Norte) to this highland region is spectacularly beautiful, and it’s nice to do it when you’re less likely to battle torrential roads next to a cliff face.

Zarcero is famous for its topiary garden, a great place for kids to explore and stretch their legs after sitting in the car. For eats, my family loves El Rancho de Ceci, about 10 minutes after the gardens when you’re driving from San José.

Do you love this region? Where do you like to stop, eat or stay?

The joys of Orosi

Posted on January 23, 2020January 28, 2020 by stanleyobando

Here’s a summer travel tip: visit the Orosi Valley, about an hour east of San José. There are many places in Costa Rica that I actually prefer in the rainy season, but Orosi is a dry-season delight because it’s so nice to wend your way around the valley and visit multiple spots without rain getting in the way. Whether you go counter-clockwise (starting in the town of Orosi with its lovely colonial church and circling around to the dam at Cachí and the gorgeous ruins of Ujarrás) or clockwise, it’s a perfect day trip from San José with multiple spots to stop, stroll, explore, hike, river-watch, and more.

Come to think of it, I need to get an Orosi visit on my calendar before the rain sets in a few months from now. Do you love this area? What are your top spots in the Orosi Valley?

A terrific resource for your 2020 Costa Rican adventures

Posted on January 9, 2020January 28, 2020 by stanleyobando

Today my boost is for all those planning Costa Rica trips this year: Mytanfeet.com.

To be honest, they had me at the name, but I like the site for a number of other reasons. One is that the creators, Yeison and Samantha, are a bicultural couple (she’s from Washington State, he’s from Costa Rica) who can anticipate foreign tourists’ questions while also reflecting a Costa Rican perspective. Another is the multiple ways they’ve organized their information: you can browse articles on a nationwide map, check out in-depth city guide ebooks, or look up itineraries for different interests and traveler types.

You can find a very solid packing list, recommended travel resources and driving tips, plus reports on their travels around the country. I particularly like their “driving to and from” guides including videos where you can get a feel for what it will be like to drive to a particular place; here’s an example about La Fortuna. Those would have been very handy before my first adventures behind the wheel in Costa Rica, years ago, since they can help avoid those “Is this seriously the route?” moments of doubt. (By the way, the answer is almost always yes. Yes it is.)

In other words, if you’re planning a trip or just fantasizing about travel during your coffee break and want a resource that’s quite a bit more manageable than the vastness of TripAdvisor, check out Mytanfeet! Have you used the site? What other resources are essential for you when you travel in CR? Let me know…

Day 64: Some Costa Rica travel resources I love

Posted on December 12, 2019 by stanleyobando

On this Travel Thursday, I know some readers are planning trips to Costa Rica in the upcoming high season. Here are a few resources that are not only handy for trip planners, but that I like to follow just for a splash of color in my Facebook or Instagram feed, along with travel inspiration for the future.

Costa Rica Traveler brings you amazing photographs by co-creator Andrés Madrigal along with useful links and articles from around the web. I kind of want their Instagram feed to be the wallpaper in my house; it’s a thing of beauty. The featured image on this post was taken by Andrés at Playa Negra on the Caribbean coast – see what I mean? You can follow them on Facebook or Instagram.

GOPlaya is “the beach engine of Costa Rica” – a site, feed and app that helps you figure out which beach to visit. The award-winning platform allows you to search more than 200 beaches and find useful info including access routes, photographs and videos. (If you’ve never been to Costa Rica, I can assure you that “Hmm, which of the 200 beaches should we visit?” is indeed actually a question that befuddles the tourist. There are so many, and often the best ones are down unpromising-looking dirt roads, and you wouldn’t find them unless you had a helpful platform on your phone. The struggle is real.) Check them out on Facebook or Instagram.

If you’re in the Central Valley and looking for things to do, I highly recommend GAM Cultural, a massive and searchable online directory of events. It’s only available in Spanish, but honestly, the information is so well organized that you can get the gist (name, place, time) and then consult your host or hotel. As a mom I miss 99.9% of the events they share, but I like to follow them on Facebook just to keep tabs on everything that’s going on in the city.

What’s your favorite Costa Rican (or international) travel resource? I want to keep sharing useful info and giving a shout out to people doing great work. Let me know what you love to follow or rely on!

Day 59: Summer beckons

Posted on December 5, 2019 by stanleyobando

Happy Thursday! I’ve written about how much I love the rainy season and the spots I prefer to visit during those wetter, less crowded months (Arenal hot springs, for example, or Manuel Antonio National Park, which I think is fabulous in the rain and where peak season lines can be considerable). However, there are certainly destinations within Costa Rica that are at their best when the rain goes away.

One, to my mind, is the Río Celeste, whose otherwordly blue can be affected by heavy rainfall that mixes mud into the water – we’re splitting hairs here, since it’s beautiful 365 days a year and I’ve had incredible visits there in the rainy season, but if I had an entire 12 months to schedule a visit, I might pick the summer months. Another is the Volcán Irazú, near my home: again, it’s great whenever, but the view of the crater itself and of the surrounding countryside from its summit are particularly stunning on a clear day. Most of the country’s volcanoes and peaks fall into this same category. Of course, travelers visiting more remote areas of the country often need to choose the dry season to have the best chance to usable roads and crossable rivers.

What about you? What Costa Rican spots do you think are particularly lovely – or just more accessible or convenient – when it’s dry?