With our hosts Will and Cate returning from Uruguay, we reluctantly packed up the van for the trip to the house we’ve rented in Costa Rica for August. We’re sad to leave beautiful Boquete and the wonderful house we’ve been staying in, but we’re very excited to have 3 different sets of friends and family from home visiting us in Costa Rica!

Last happy hour in Boquete

Shortly after leaving Boquete the van turned over 100,000 miles. 20,000 of those have come since we started on our trip last June. It’s weird to think that we drove all the way from Denver to extreme northern Canada, then to Panama, and only covered as many miles as some people do driving back and forth to work every day. Having been that person in the past, I’d have to say the past year’s miles have been much more fun!

We planned to drive up the Carribean coast on our way back. The drive along the narrow, winding road across the continental divide was very pretty, with cool cloud forests and lots of fog.

We left the cool of the highlands and arrived on the sweltering Carribean coast. We used a different border crossing this time, and it was probably the easiest border we’ve done in Central America. Knowing that Costa Rica is expensive, we stocked up on booze at the duty free at the border. Gotta love $4 bottles of wine.

This is serious fruit and banana country. We saw plants belonging to Dole, Chiquita, and Del Monte, and even had to stop at a banana crossing.

Really, there are bananas in the blue bags. Here are banana trees with the bagged bananas.

We drove a little way into Costa Rica and found a great campground by the beach near Cahuita. The camp host was super friendly and we spent the evening lounging in the hammocks listening to the waves crash.

The beach!

We spent a couple of days in the beautiful Orosi Valley before heading to Alajuela to check into our rental house. We spent time sightseeing and enjoying the cool weather.

Looking down into the Orosi Valley

This is what’s left of the oldest church in Costa Rica.

Our campsite had a pool and a very nice setting.

These vultures arrived early in the morning to dry their wings in the sun

We were visited by a pair of raucous parrots.

We stopped by a botanic garden on our way to Alajuela. It’s famous for it’s orchids.