Video: A Vibrant but Little-Visited Cloud Forest in Costa Rica
About an hour north of Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, lies a little-known national park: Braulio Carrillo.
About an hour north of Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose, lies a little-known national park: Braulio Carrillo.
Imagine, for a moment, waking up to the sun bursting through a canopy of leaves... the song of tropical birds the only sound piercing the stillness of the morning air....
The "bean-to-bar" production of artisan chocolates is a way to make tastier chocolate in a more sustainable manner—and charge a premium to willing customers (three-ounce bars in the U.S. can go for as much as $8).
"You might wonder why I'm swapping Florida for Costa Rica," Steve says, "and, you know, the answer is really simple. I'm more relaxed when I'm in Costa Rica. I eat better.
I checked out of the traditional career path—the “rat race”—about 10 years ago at the age of 35. On the surface, life in Texas was great for me. I’d graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in journalism and worked in the advertising business as an account executive (a “suit”) for about 10 years.
When you live in Costa Rica’s Southern Zone, the beach and the blue Pacific become a focal point.
I'm from Florida, where a day at the beach means fighting for parking—often for an outrageous fee—struggling to find a bare patch of sand, and spending the day listening to loud music and shouting kids.
Fancy a few hours battling a half-ton striped marlin Hemingway style? The fish can get so big off the coast of Costa Rica that the skipper straps you into a chair to fight them. The waters of both coasts, the Pacific and Caribbean teem with legendary fish like marlin, dorado, and tarpon that, for decades, have drawn serious sport fishermen (and women) from around the world eager for record-setting catches.
After a lifetime of cold weather in Alberta, Canada, retired couple Rick and Peggy Stewart were ready for a change. And they found a perfect climate—and many more benefits—in the rural community of Santa Eulalia about 20 minutes outside of the small town of Atenas, in Costa Rica's Central Valley. From their new home in the tropics, they can't help but rub it in with friends and family back home.
Scott Dinsmore, 47, and David Russell, 52, keep busy running their Spanish colonial-style boutique hotel, El Castillo, on Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast. It sits 600 feet above the beach in the jungle-clad mountains that rise sharply from the deep blue waters.