Most visitors only see the
dense foliage of Braulio Carrillo National Park from the window of a
tour bus that zips by. Instead, I chose to hire a private guide and
explore on foot. This is the closest national park to San Jose, Costa
Rica's capital. But Braulio Carrillo has few maintained trails and
those that are navigable are steep, often muddy, and require a guide
who'll lead you to refreshing streams and tumbling waterfalls and,
most importantly, keep you at a distance from one of the most venomous
snakes in the world, the fer-de-lance. (Luckily, I didn't see the
latter.) But this tropical expanse is also a birdwatchers paradise,
considering over 500 bird species can be found here, including the
magnificent quetzal that I did spot.
You certainly
can't hike down the active Poas Volcano crater filled with teal-hued waters. But on the periphery trails wind through an otherworldly
landscape of miniature bonsai-type trees and sizzling steam vents. In
this crater-hugging cloud forest, one path wanders through a forest
of twisted dwarf trees and leads to Laguna Botos, a lake formed from
an extinct volcano where you may even see the fiery-throated
hummingbird.
Puffy white masses meet
the trees and the world becomes enveloped in mist. Welcome to the
world of Costa Rica's cloud forests, include the most notable: the
Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Trails snake through a wilderness
dominated by bromeliads, orchids and other epiphytes, 200 types of
ferns and hundreds of butterfly species. Birdwatchers who get up
very early can spy the resplendent quetzal, a bird that's noted for
its iridescent green and ruby red coloration. Dozens of hummingbird
species are also a major draw.
A visit to Manuel Antonio
National Park offers a cross-training adventure, where you could
choose a different activity every day for a week. Among the options:
• horseback ride
through the rainforest-coated interior.
• white water raft on
the Sevengre River with its Class II and III rapids
• scuba dive where
you're likely to spot giant manta rays and white tip reef sharks.
• ocean kayak along
the coastline rimmed with white sand beaches or through the nearby mangrove
forests around Damas Island where sloths, howler monkeys and
anteaters can be seen
