Costa Rica was named by Columbus 'The Rich Coast' for the gold ornaments worn by the first people he encountered here. The major cultures, Aztec and Maya never reached here and the original tribes were largely wiped out by disease and slavery. It appears that many early Spanish settlers were Jewish converts fleeing the inquisition and so some three quarters of modern Ticos (Costa Ricans) have Jewish ancestry.
The country is small, 120 miles from the Pacific to the Caribbean and 250 miles from Nicaragua down to Panama.
After a night in San Jose we drove a couple of hours north to a private nature reserve in the cloud forest. Being in the tropics temperatures should be fairly constant in the upper 20s year round with just a wet and dry season so after our Amazon sweat-fest experience we have invested in more appropriate clothing, keeps you cool, sweat free and even keeps out the sun and scares off insects. However we have not taken altitude and Costa Rica's varied ecosystems into account, so at 1300 metres it is decidedly chilly, cloudy (the name gives it away really) and there are no mozzies.
The eco lodges are fairly basic but the showers are hot and there are plenty of blankets, no hairdryer so I still don't dare wash my hair yet. We walk the forest trails and have seen some beautiful birds and some wild pig-like agoutis and pacas, not yet seen the famous tree frog but on our night walk saw a leaf frog the size of a little finger nail as if carved from alabaster and next day a litter toad on the path, a little larger and looking just like a tiny piece of dry dead leaf. The guide's ability to spot and name everything is uncanny and he carries a phenomenal telescope on a tripod so that I can actually see everything instead of my usual fruitless search of the undergrowth or trees saying 'where? where?' while everyone else oohs and aahs.
Our group of 10 is a good size and we have a nice small minibus compared with other large busloads we pass, better for the small windy bumpy roads and dodging the articulated lorries coming round the narrow bends. After 2 days we are off to the Caribbean coast and looking forward to some warmer temperatures.