Costa Ricans are family orientated. The family stays together and lives close to one another and help each other. Divorce rate is low.

The average middle class Costa Rican does not have a card and does not believe in going into debt. They live with much less materialism then we do here in the US.
In 2017 most adults owned a vehicle, but have learned it takes a lot of their monthly pay check, so many are returning to public transportation.

Weekend farmers markets in each town hold a market with fresh vegetables and fruits at very economical prices. However meat and fish remain expensive, so they mix a small amount of this with a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, thus eating economically.

Health care: Basic health care,including maturity,is provided in rural health clinics and people pick up their medication at these clinics. One has to be in line at 5 am to see a doctor assigned to the clinic. If surgery is needed, a long waiting time is necessary-unless it is a life threatening emergency. The socialized medical system has its own hospitals and doctors. Eeach citizen is required to pay a health care premium each month (usually not a large amount). This amount is based on their monthly salary.
However: Wealthy citizens who can afford to purchase private health care policies and
attend private hospitals and private doctors.

Housing: many young people remain living with their parents until marriage. Then they rent a small house or apartment. Home mortgages in CR are expensive with interest rates in colones up to 12%.
Wealthy citizens live in large expensive homes, still close to their parents.

Education- grades one-eleven. Public schools. Wealthy citizens send children to high price private school mostly taught in English.
Public schools teach well the basics-reading, writing,and arithmetic. Children can opt out of more advanced science and math classes.
University of Costa Rica is not expensive to attend. However: those Children must qualify by high grades to enter engineering, medicine, and veterinarian. Students with A average can attend tuition free.

Article written by ann cabezas creed costaricalearn.com

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However: at this moment July 18, 2017, this national park is closed indefinitely due to it’s eruption which began April 12,2017 .It is now spewing sulfuric gases into the atmosphere and often large boulders shoot out of the Geyer’s one mile wide crater which land near residential areas  and cattle farms.  This volcano has 2 craters.  First the Lake Botos crater which is inactive.  It erupted thousands of years ago. Now it is a gorgeous lake.  A well maintained path leads upward to the viewing area of the crater.  The second crater is the 1.7 K wide active geyser, causing havoc and causing the park to be closed.

You may ask -what is a geyser?  Geyer’s are known as nature’s tea kettles. Thank of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming USA.  This geyser regularly sprays hot water and vapor high into the air- entertaining tourists who come to Geyser Basin, the home to the largest number of geysers in the world.

I have visited many times this unique Poas Volcano National Park, Costa Rica, walking the trails  8,000 feet above sea level into the cloud forest of fog and rain. Hummingbirds love it here.  I saw 3 different species of dark brown hummingbirds.  Vegetation here is lush, the most famous is the umbrella tree with leaves 2 meters wide.  Ferns which habitat this area have thick hard leaves to protect from the cool environment.  One can easily spend 2.5 hours inside this park.  The interactive museum located in the visitors center is a must to see. Plus a very good gift shop next to the museum and a great Costa Rica coffee shop with pastries.

What you need when you visit this national park.  good walking shoes   light rain jacket  $10 park entrance fee..no credit cards…. 2.5 hours is enough time to hike the trails and visit the crater..also visit the National Park museum and gift shop ..plus the coffee shop with pastries and great Costa Rica Coffee.

How to get there:  rental car..35 minutes north of  Alajuela. Take road north out of Alajuela passing the Justice building (signs to Poas)     taxi is approx $80 to take you there and stay with you —   group tour for the day-different companies charge around $110 per day.

Thinking of vacationing to Costa Rica?  contact Ann to help you.  You and her together can create a fabulous itinerary to suit your desires and budget.   anncreed23@gmail.com

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My friend paulette and I set out very early and entered Tenorio National Park’s main entrance. We paid $10 national park fee. Our goal was to see as many birds as possible and hike the Blue River Trail which is 7 kilometers.  I told Paulette. ” I don”t think I can hike the entire trail.  I did remember to wear my old comfortable tennis shoes and rain jacket.  There was a small drizzle of rain because August is rainy season in this area.  We encountered quite a lot of muddy trails.  We saw flocks of  toucans and also  small green parrots.  Maybe fifty of them.  Squaking and making a lot of noise. I wanted to see a Scarlet Macaw but folks told us none in that area of Costa Rica.  We heard the early morning howler monkeys and one had a small baby monkey in arms.  We kept our pace until around one hour we arrived at the waterfall.  My! What a sight!  We had dry clothes our backpack so we took a dip in the blue lagoon. So refreshing.

Returning we encountered a hot springs but told tourist are not allowed  to get into it.  Also along the trail are “las ollas” fumaroles filled with hot gurgling mud.  Yes very eery  feeling to see this.  Looks like quick sand.  The rainforest is virgin (primary).  Buttress are sometimes two meters in diameter and the trees seem to cling to the clouds, blocking out the sunlight in the undergrowth of the forest.

It was lunch time when we returned to the park entrance.  We hopped into our small Jimmy 4×4 Suzuki and started our journey back to our hotel .  When we got back to the highway, approx 15 minutes on  rocky muddy road,  we drove awhile toward a small town called Upala.  We stopped at a great small owner operated soda named Toya. A very pretty young woman operated this and serves typical Costa Rican food for $6 a plate.  We had rice, beans, fried plantains, chicken baked in fresh tomato sauce, fresh tortillas, and flan (egg custard)  for desert.  Plus a great cup of hot Costa Rican coffee..What better could we ask for!!

Weather:  dry season is January thru April. Other months expect rain in afternoons.  Plan to enter the park early morning.

Clothing:  cool cottons, good closed walking shoes, sun screen, mosquito repellent, small back pack, bottle water and camera

Level of physical activity-very good physical condition

Entrance fee  $10 person      no credit cards

Location- close to town of Upala in north central Costa Rica.  Stop and ask in Upala and anyone can point to the road–dirt road–that leads you to the entrance to Tenorio Volcano National Park.  Dirt road is 20 minutes drive to the park. 

contact Ann, the Costa Rica Expert  to help you plan your Costa Rica Vacation.  email      anncreed23@gmail.com

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After gazing up at the volcano, Paulette, I said. “Do you remember our 9th grade sceince teacher Ms Mary Bernace Carter?” She told us that one day an earthquake was going to push California straight into the ocean. “I didn’t sleep well that night because my brother lives in California.”
Yes, I said “Ms Carter was an excentric old lady with long grey hair and to me she was down right scary.” Ms. Carter taught us about the Ring of Fire and that Arenal Volcano is in the “ Ring of Fire” along with another 450 volcanoes – all around the Pacific Basin.” Here the tectonic plates are constantly moving the earth, creating small and large tremors, which cause the volcanoes to erupt.

When I told Paulette that we are sleeping at the volcano base. She looked somewhat uneasy about this entire adventure.

We slept at The Arenal Observatory Lodge. Here scientist from University of Costa Rica come to study the seismic activity of the Arenal Volcano. Paulette and I will sleep right at the very base of the volcano. We can see the mammoth giant, right in front of our eyes. However, right now the volcano is not erupting. It stopped activity three years ago and now the people around here call it the Sleeping Giant.

That night-no tremors- no fire shooting from the top of Arenal. Yuk, what a disappointment!

The next day the sun rose at 5:30 am with deep hues of pink and blue in the eastern sky. We hopped on the bus to the most popular excitement in the Arenal area- Sky Tram, Sky Trek.
Inside a glass gondola we glided up the side of a gorgeous hill lined with primary rainforest We saw three howler monkeys with their baby-real close up. And also a flock of tucans with long pointed colorful beaks. I wonder why their beaks are sooo long. What an unusual bird.
Paulette was brave and tackled the zip line. It is 12 platforms high above the rainforest canopy.
I met her at the bottom at the last platform and she had a large gorgeous smile on her face.

Arenal Volcano has a long history. People say it is a young volcano. Would one consider 7,500 years being young? It has been dormant for hundreds of years and covered with dense vegetation.

However-suddenly- on a cool August morning in 1968 the farmers discovered that the water in the streams close to the vocano was unusually warm. The cattle began to herd together and dogs in the area were barking loudly. Suddenly a great boom, and hugh circles of smoke and red hot lava rocks were thrown from the summit. A major eruption was under way. The hot lava was headed north and destroyed the small village of Tabacon, killing eightly people.

Today, the Arenal Volcano is quiet. We saw a few dark grey puffs from the summit but no red balls of fire. Hundreds of tourist from all over the world still flock to see the giant, and bathe in the hot mineral waters which flow from far below the earth at the volcano’s base.
We took a guided 6 am bird watching adventure and saw four pairs of toucans in one large rainforest tree, as well as a flock of small green very noisy squaking parrots. A black female howler monkey with babe in arms greeted us with a very loud howl. Suddenly our guide screamed “freeze” and immediately we saw in our path a small fer de lance snake, among the most poisonous snakes in the world. We did not move and the snake crawled lazily into the bush. In Costa Rica the people don’t believe in killing the snakes because they are an important part of the ecosystem. Even the most poisonous ones.

How do I include Arenal Volcano National Park in my Costa Rica Vacation itinerary?
It’s easy: contact Ann, the Costa Rica Vacation Planner, and Arenal Expert. She will design an Arenal Vacation just for you and your family. For all the information visit her website costaricalearn.com please insert a good photo of Arenal Volcano in the blog.

We were anxious and headed north on the only road out of town leading to the Arenal Volcano National park.  All of a sudden the clouds parted and there stood  the mighty Arenal in all it grandeur.   Wow!   But very quiet, not a sound came from it,  just the massive cone shaped monster seeming to reach the sky.