San José to Cortés, Costa Rica - It's off to Grandmother's house we go ;o)

Today we hired English speaking tourismo (tourist) van driver Manuel Solano Sanchez (506-363-9475, tokita@costarricense.cr) to take us from San José to Cortés, Costa Rica. Mario charged $200 for the 5+ hour trip of taking 5 passengers and alot of luggage.

Cortés is located in the Southern Pacific region of Costa Rica; North of Gulfo Dulce (the Dulce Golf), North of the sport fishing town of Golfito, West of the Palmar airport and East of Reserva Forestal Del Humedad Nacional Terraba-Seirpe (Terraba-Seirpe National Humid Forest Reserve) which is 85 square miles of Mangrove forest and swamp that is home to; lizards, iguanas, crocodiles, caimans, monkeys, coatis and crab-eating raccoons.

Bill & Junior + Doris, Junior (again), Beatrice and Karol in our tourismo bus ride from San José to Cortés, Costa Rica.

Junior's Tia (aunt) Karol and her friend Beatrice met with us at our hotel and joined us for the trip. The 5+ hour ride through the mountains and cloud forests of Southern Costa Rica was truly spectacular and hopefully my many pictures will do the trip justice. Our route took us East then South on Route 2 to San Isidro de El General then West on Route 243 to Pacific coastal area of Dominical (where all real estate is "Se Vende" or 'For Sale') and finally South down Pacific coastal Route 34 to Palmar/Cortés.

Over the mountains and through the cloud forests during our trip from San José to Cortés, Costa Rica.

As with any of our adventures there is generally a story to tell and this one involves some car sickness. First Junior got sick and then Beatrice had her turn. Lunch was in the valley town of San Isidro de El General where Junior and I dined on some excellent fire cooked chicken and for desert Junior and Beatrice had some pharmacy purchased car-sickness medication.

My impression of Cortés, Costa Rica is not especially generous … especially after driving so long to get there. Cortés has a small town square that could use a good clean-up and maybe some paint. Surrounding the town square are run-down buildings containing various businesses including a grocery store, clothing store and pool hall where young men leer and call out to women as they pass by. When our van pulled-up and my traveling companions were out trying to find a place to stay, I felt somewhat under a microscope from the locals – especially the local men that seemed to have nothing better to do than linger around the town square looking for wayward visitors (fyi: watch your luggage).

Prior to settling into our rooms for the night, we walked to the home of one of Junior's relatives and a turtle decided to cross the road as we passed. Then Junior met his Uncle Paublo (his mom's brother) as well as his cousin Eduardo (his aunt Karol's son). It turned-out that although Junior and his cousin Eduardo spoke different primary languages, they still had the common language of Playstation II (which they practiced together for about an hour ;o)

Junior meets a turtle, his Uncle Paublo and his Cousin Eduardo in Cortés, Costa Rica.

Finally we got a good look at our sleep accommodations for the night - not having done my homework as to hotel options in the area, our on the ground arranged sleeping areas appeared to be rooms built into an existing in-door parking garage. We walked through a gate where cars where parked under a roof and rooms surrounded the cars. For $12.00 we were allowed to sleep in rooms that were little more than janitor closets with beds and televisions … guess you get what you pay for ;o)

Our $12 "hotel" room located in a Cortés, Costa Rica indoor parking garage.