16 years later I am back in Costa Rica! The last time I was here I was in transit coming home from Bolivia and stayed only at the airport, and before that was 16 years ago on a volunteering trip back in high school. I don’t recall exactly where in Costa Rica I stayed on that first trip but I do remember going white water rafting, sleeping by the waterfalls and under the stars, going zip lining in the rain, meeting my incredible host family and turning 5 shades darker before returning home. I have always had fond memories of Costa Rica, and when my friend Thuy posted about organizing a girls’ workcation trip to the land of Pura Vida, I jumped on the opportunity to visit again.

Unlike other trips I’ve been on, this Costa Rica workcation involved little to no planning on my part. Thuy booked the airbnb in Jaco, set up a Notion page, and the five of us met over video chat to discuss logistics. We kept a group chat going leading up to the trip, and discussed high level when we might want to do some excursions while we plan our work days in CR. As a normally anxious traveler I felt clam and relaxed preparing for this trip, probably because of the collective planning the group had done leading up to it.

Landing in San Jose

Those of us leaving from New York took a red eye flight (with a stop in El Salvador but you don’t have to exit the plane) and arrived at the capital shortly after 7AM. I was reminded of the beautiful landscape of Costa Rica as the first sight you see as you disembark the plane is the luscious green mountains surrounding the airport.

We hopped on the shuttle to pick up our car for the week after learning that we can do an earlier pick up. Our shuttle driver Mynor welcomed us and hyped us up for Jaco, the town on the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica known for its beaches, surfing and fishing, as well as proximity to the national parks. Not to mention all the local fresh fruits waiting for us!

We made a quick stop for the ATM to withdraw some cash and then headed to a cafe nearby to grab some breakfast and to meet up with another friend who arrived a few days ago.

Britt Coffee Tour

A little petting zoo at Britt Coffee Roasters

Before making the drive to Jaco we had one activity in San Jose, and that was a coffee tour at Britt. I would later find out that Britt is probably one of the most famous coffee brands in Costa Rica (or at least to tourists) because they practically makes up 80% of the retail space at the airport selling coffee and related merchandise. The coffee tour is held at the Britt Coffee Roaster location just 20 minutes from the San Jose airport, and our tour guide Maria who was amazing and incredibly funny kicked off the tour with a history lesson.

There are 2 main types of coffee - Robusta and Arabica. Costa Rica produces only Arabica coffee, and as the name suggests, Costa Rican coffee originated from Arabica and was brought into the country by Spanish colonists. Costa Rica has the ideal growing conditions for coffee - rich soil, high altitude and a cool climate. From a single coffee bean, it takes 2 months to sprout, another 1 year before the baby plant transitions from the nursery to the coffee plantation, and then another 2 years before it bears fruits.

Once a year for 20 years the plant will continue to produce fruits. April showers bring coffee flowers that smells like jasmine, but the bloom only lasts for 2 days. The coffee flower then turn into fruit with the rainy season from April through November. The green fruit turns red when ripe in the dry season from December to February, and that signals the harvest season. The coffee fruits are handpicked because, as Maria says, they are ready at different times, just like people. HAHA.

This is a roastery after all, so naturally we went through the prep process - how bad coffee beans floats to the top in the wash, and the bad coffee beans are used to… well, make bad coffee. Maria describes the roasting process where coffee caramelizes when heated, and demoed a “breaking the cup” test for quality control, which tested the coffee with steam.

We came out of the tour much more knowledgable about coffee and very wired after the unlimited coffee sampling.

Our little paradise in Jaco

Heavy rain came down as we start our two hour drive to Jaco - it is rainy season after all. Closer to the end of our drive the rain had stopped and we stopped by a grocery store in Jaco to stock up on groceries for the week. Our breakfasts and lunches would mostly be at the airbnb as all of us are working remote. And of course we had to stop by the rambutan fruit stand to stock up on rambutans for the week!

We arrived at our airbnb and home office for the next week, a lovely 2-storied home with a front yard, natural stone pool and balcony. It felt like an oasis in the middle of all the luscious greenery. More photos of the beautiful home to come later throughout the blog!

Dinner by the beach

At 4:30PM (which was already 6:30PM back home) we headed out to Vida Hermosa for dinner. It’s a short drive from our airbnb and has a view of the beach front. It was still a bit gloomy out after the rain earlier but we had a great time enjoying our seafood dishes and getting to know each other. Our server even offered us free shots to close out the night!

Work from Anywhere starts now

This is indeed a workcation so the working part started on day 2. I was working regular East coast hours and I happen to have an early start so 5:15AM morning call it is. Hey at least I got to catch the sunrise! There were so much space at the airbnb and I just decided to take a meeting at different spots around the house.

Here’s my friend’s tiktok documenting our work day! My favorite spot is the hammock but the laptop does heat up on your lap…

The great thing about spending time outdoors (despite being glued to a laptop) is that you get to see and hear nature surrounding you. Check out the hummingbird that came back by the pool multiple times to keep us company!

After winding down our work day, we headed to the main town area of Jaco in the evening, got sushi for dinner and took a stroll down the strip. When we got home, we were greeted with a super friendly cat that wandered into our front yard. He followed us all the way to the front of the house as we said our goodnights and retreated back to our rooms.

Day 3

My work day started with our friendly visitor making a cat walk down the front yard as soon as I opened the front door. He (I think it’s a he?!) stayed pretty much the whole day, sunbathing by the chairs and on the porch. As the cat takes its morning patrol around the priority, I stationed myself upstairs on the balcony and carried on through my work day. The day flew by and I took a nice after nap in my air conditioned room, took a dip in our pool and finally took out my camera for some shots of the beautiful home in the afternoon light.

The vibrant red flowers by the pool are everywhere in CR. They may look like bird of paradise, but they’re actually heliconia, native to the tropical Americas. Some common names for heliconia include toucan peaks 🐦, lobster claws 🦞, and the most un-creative of them all, false bird of paradise. 🪴

Further down are some of my selfie attempts with the house cat, but I don’t know if they were all that successful…

Do you see the hummingbird?

Jaco Beach, Farmer’s Market and Beach front dinner

After another mostly productive work day, (might have taken a lunch time dip in the pool but miscalculated the time difference and missed the first 5 mins of a call), I got ready for a late afternoon adventure out in Jaco. Our first stop was the Jaco sign which we pass by every time on our drive to town. Can I just take the time to compliment my friend’s 0.5 selfie game? That was the perfect angle!

We continued our short drive to the main part of town. The original plan was to get dinner first but we got a peek of the beach at the end of the road and decided to take a detour for a sunset beach walk first.

It was so serene and beautiful catching the sunset at Jaco Beach. No large crowds, no screaming children, just a few surfers and the sounds of the crashing waves on the sand against the golden rays.

After the beach we took a little walk over to the farmer’s market that only opens on Thursdays and Fridays. A huge variety of fruits and vegetables lay on the table, many of which are fruits not known to me (my knowledge of fruits did expand after the food tour in Colombia but my fruit identification skills are still meh).

We picked up the ones that we know and love - papayas, mangoes, but not more rambutans because we have at least another 2 pounds back at the airbnb from previous trips. We also got to try some fresh coconut water to keep us cool in the summer heat.

The last activity of the night was a dinner by the beach, at El Hicaco Seafood. I had a sea bass filet with passionfruit sauce, along with an Imperial, the local Costa Rican beer.

A Healthy Breakfast

The start of our last full day in Jaco consists of a multiple plates of cut up fruits (have you seen a seedless papaya before?), and a coffee run to a local coffee shop, Cafe Bohio. I wrapped up the last bit of work for the week and it’s excursion time!

Manuel Antonio National Park

Manuel Antonio National Park might be the smallest national park in Costa Rica, but it’s known for it’s rainforests, white sand beaches, coral reefs, and most importantly, its diverse variety of wildlife and plants. You have the option to visit the national park on your own but we read that doing the tour would be the best experience so we had booked the tour a few weeks in advance. Our tour guide Andres met us at El Avlon restaurant and gave us instructions on what not to bring (no food or any single use plastics allowed inside the park to protect the animals and environment), as well as advised us not to stop for people selling their services as “guides”, parking and/or entrance tickets (as noted here on the park website). Our small group met back up at the park entrance after driving pass the Tico hustlers and generously applying bug spray all over - mosquitos have not been kind to me this whole summer, and we were on our way!

We followed Andres who was carrying a huge binoculars on his shoulder into the park and he immediately spotted a 3 toed sloth. Through his binoculars we were able to see all the animals clearly - from their noses, claws, even their fur. The hardest part was actually to spot the wildlife and plants without any tools because they are so nicely camouflaged - I had trouble even though Andres had the binoculars pointed in the exact direction!

With the help of our guide, we were able to see some beautiful animals and exotic plants, including 4 sloths - three 3 toed sloths and one 2 toed sloth, crabs, birds, lizards, fruit bats, spiders, and iguanas!

Most of the photos taken below are done on an iPhone through the binoculars. If you’re wondering what the photo of leaves with light brown stick floating in front is - there’s actually a spider hiding in there!

We also learned about the differences between 2 toed and 3 toed sloths, how they are 2 different species that are not as closely related as we think. The easiest way to tell them apart other than looking at their toes would be their nose as 2 toed sloths have nose that resemble that of a pig. 2 toed sloths are primarily nocturnal while 3 toed sloths are active during the day, both species have a bad reputation of being slow and lazy (cue the Zootopia sloths at the DMV!). This is a result of them being extremely energy efficient - it takes them 4 weeks to digest the leaves they eat, and when they do eat, they smell the leaves first to make sure they are not poisonous. A fun fact is that sloths have an interesting bathroom habit - they come down from the comfort of tree canopies and come down to the forest grounds to defecate, a task that takes up about 8% of their daily energy usage. Scientists believe this has to do the symbotic relationship they have with sloth moths that live on sloth’s fur (pregnant female moths will leave her host and lay her eggs directly in the sloth’s dung when the sloths come down the tree to go to the bathroom). The more sloth moths there are on the sloth’s fur, the more algae can be found on the sloth, and the algae will turn the sloth’s fur green in the rainy season, providing an excellent camouflage for sloths.

Andres told us one interesting story of something he witnessed in the park that I remembered clearly. Because 2 toed and 3 toed sloths are different species that fight for the same resources, they normally would not interact with each other. But he saw a 3 toed sloth taking care of a 2 toed baby sloth, and a male sloth taking care of a baby sloth, a task usually taken up by the female. He spoke passionately about all the animals and you can check out amazing animals on his instagram here!

One of the sloths was moving and grooming itself - a rare sighting!

Our guided tour ended at the beach inside the National Park and we’re off to explore on our own. We came across a dozen or so white-faced monkeys who like to hang around the lower branches of the trees by the beach. Andres had mentioned that some of these monkeys have been diagnosed with diabetes from coming across human food- another reason why the park is so strict about what you can bring in. To exit the national park, we followed the path around the beach and cut through the rain forests to arrive back at the entrance. Clouds started rolling in and thunder can be heard in the distance, so we knew some heavy rain was about to roll in.

While waiting for our friends to come pick us up from the national park, we grabbed smoothies and did some souvenir shopping right outside the park. I did manage to find myself a postcard but knew the chances of mailing it out is slim as we’re departing on a Saturday and post offices were already closed. The rain started as we waited and turned into a torrential downpour, and we ended up going back to El Avlon for dinner as the heavy rain did not show any signs of stopping. After dinner I took the wheel and drove us back in the heavy rain, almost took us on the wrong side of a traffic circle, dodged a few downed trees but made it back safely! It was supposed to be a girls’ night out but turned into a girls’ night in with card games (and postcard writing).

Last Day

On our last day in Costa Rica I got up early to pack, said goodbye to our house cat and hit the road around 7:45AM. We made one final stop at Cafe Bohio, and drove back to San Jose to drop off one of our friends staying in town for an extra night. We got time to spare at the airport after returning the car so ended up getting some snacks - cup noodles and Imperial beer was the perfect pair, and a perfect way to end our lovely workcation!

Costa Rica. July 2023