We went for a walk through the jungle today in Tapanti National Park, located just 20 kms from our finca guest house. Tapanti is the wettest spot in Costa Rica, with 7,000 mm of rain per year. That’s seven times as much as we get in rainy Vancouver. However, here it buckets down for short periods between sunny breaks. And it’s warm.
Standing on big boulders by a river in the midst of a sub-tropical jungle, Sophie and I were struck by the same thought: the scene here is not much different from what you see standing by the river in Capilano Canyon in North Vancouver. Lots of green all around and lots of water, with low-lying clouds shrouding the hillside.
To enter a national park like Tapanti, there is a fee. For tourists it is $10 USD per person. This seems high in view of how far you can actually go into the park. The road is just four km long, and the various walking trails are 2km at most. Although the full extent of the park is massive, the part you can access as a visitor is not. Ten bucks seems like a lot of money for a stroll down some groomed paths with picnic areas all about. Prices for everything in Costa Rica are higher than I expected. Admittedly, those expectations stem from my experiences in Mexico. And as I’ve discovered, the differences between CR and Mexico outweigh the similarities. This holds true for what they eat, what they drink, and how they live. What else is there?
