Copious rainfall has endowed Costa Rica with an abundance of rivers, but surprisingly, there are very few lakes. Nearly all the country’s rivers begin in the mountains, where many are frothy white water routes perfect for rafting and kayaking. Once those rivers flow into the lowlands, however, they become languid waterways, many of which are lined with verdant walls of vegetation.
Those lowland rivers are excellent routes for trips in small boats or rubber rafts and can be an excellent way to observe some of the country’s extraordinary wildlife. The trees that line most riverbanks may hold lounging iguanas, troops of monkeys, and such birds as ospreys, anhingas, colorful kingfishers, several species of herons and tiny mangrove swallows. Boat trips are offered on such lowland rivers as the Sarapiquí, San Carlos, and Río Frío, in the Northern Zone, and the Tempisque, Bebedero and Corobicí in the Northwest.
The seasonal lake of Caño Negro is also an excellent spot for wildlife watching, whereas larger Lake Arenal is a popular windsurfing spot.
Caño Negro Lake near the country’s northern border, is a bird watchers paradise during the second half of the year, when great flocks of ducks, herons, and other waterfowl gather there. Caño Negro has been designated a wetland of international importance under the RAMSAR convention.
Representations of Caño Negro on most maps are actually misleading, since they show the lake’s extension at the height of the rainy season. Once the rains die down in December, the lake rapidly shrinks, and by February it disappears completely with most of the waterfowl having moved on to the Río Frío –the river into which Caño Negro drains. Consequently the river trip on the Río Frío, which is the most common way of reaching Caño Negro, is often more interesting than actually visiting the lake.
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The most popular lowland waterway trip goes up the Caribbean Canals, which run along the Atlantic coast north from the port of Moín to the communities of Parismina, Tortuguero, and Barra del Colorado. Most travelers head to Tortuguero National Park, where an important sea turtle nesting beach, vast expanses of lowland rainforest, and swampy yolillal palm forests are protected.
A trip down any stretch of the canals is a true jungle adventure, offering opportunities to spot such animals as crocodiles, three-toed sloths, oropendolas and boat billed herons.
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Costa Rica’s nine active volcanoes vividly remind visitors of the awesome power contained by the earth’s thin mantle. At Irazú Volcano it is easy to see why Neil Armstrong said that its desolate landscape looks like the surface of the moon. Anyone peering into Poás mammoth crater, with its boiling, sulfurous lake, is reminded just how tenuous is man’s supposed dominion over the world.
Arenal, most active and no doubt the most studied of all Costa Rica’s volcanoes, booms and rumbles with an unnerving consistency, and its nocturnal pyrotechnics have struck awe in the hearts of thousands of observers. On the lower slopes of Rincón de la Vieja the power is vented in boiling mud pots, hissing fumaroles, and thermal streams.
The non-volcanic Talamanca Mountains are ruggedly beautiful and contain two of the nation’s tallest peaks. The Inter-American highway, crossing the 11,453 ft. (3.491 m.) Cerro de la Muerte, reaches over 9,843 feet (3.000 m.) passing through highland forests of Costa Rican Oak and the only road-accessible “páramo” vegetation in the country. To see evidence of the glacier that topped 12,533 ft. (3,820 m.) Chirripó during the last ice age requires a 9-hour hike and cold weather camping; but it’s definitely worth the effort.
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The forests on the upper slopes of Costa Rica’s mountains and volcanoes are frequently draped in mist and clouds. Algae, mosses, and lichens get a foothold on the constantly wet surfaces, providing a perfect place for orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and innumerable other plants to cling. So prolific is “epiphytic” growth in the cloud forest that bare branches are virtually nonexistent.
Sometimes harsh conditions, such as prevailing winds and supersaturated soils, cause the forest to be stunted – like the elfin forest at Monteverde’s continental divide or the gnarly, dwarf woods at the summit of Poás volcano.
The cloud forest captures the imagination of even the most cynical among us. It emanates a sense of ancient and enduring life and of peace. Sitting quietly overhead, its long feathery tail swaying gently in the breeze, is a scarlet and emerald bird that seems to embody the spirit of the cloud forest. Aptly named, the Resplendent Quetzal is considered by many to be the most beautiful bird in the world.
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In the foothills and lowlands of both slopes, Costa Rica’s rainforests harbor thousands of known life forms and yet thousands more to be discovered. They are among the last strongholds of biodiversity on earth. Resonating with the songs of birds at dawn, the rainforest is quiet in the heart of the day, its stillness punctuated by the insect-like call of poison-dart frogs, the rasping of cicadas, or the whistled notes of wrens and antbirds.
The dark, cool interior of a primary rainforest is surprisingly free of entangling vegetation. Only where light manages to filter through the interlocking canopy to the forest floor does vegetation proliferate. Walking in the rainforest is like taking a step back in time. The modern world and all its stress fade into insignificance.
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Attractions
