We woke up at The Bird House to the refreshing sound of early morning chirping. Before we left, our Airbnb hosts prepared us such a lovely breakfast that was totally unexpected! When was the last time you stayed at an Airbnb and got breakfast?!
As many of our readers know, we’ve been seeing a lot of beautiful birds here in Costa Rica, but the one bird that we haven’t seen is the resplendent quetzal. We’ve been to a few different protected natural areas, both public and private, that are known for this magnificent and colorful bird, but have yet to spot it. The best time to spot them is said to be from February to July when their favorite food is in season (wild avocados) and during their mating season, when the males are more actively looking for a mate. It’s said that indigenous populations throughout Mesoamerica even used their long beautiful tail feathers as a type of currency!
After striking out in Monteverde and other popular places, we decided to try our luck at a national park named after the bird, Parque Nacional Los Quetzales. This park straddles the Cartago and San José provinces. From our Airbnb in Cerro Chirripó, we were able to take an amazing backroad route through and over the Talamancas Mountain range, which turned out to be quite the adventure itself!
We figured since we were already coming from the highest mountain of the country, that there wouldn’t be much more climb for us, but boy were we wrong! We winded through the mountains continuing our ascent…so much so that the temperature dropped from over 20ºC (~70ºF) to below 12ºC (~50ºF). The roads were unpaved and pretty steep, so again, we definitely recommend a 4×4 to get you through this climb, but if you find yourself on this adventure, the views off the side of the road are absolutely breathtaking.
When we arrived at the Quetzal National Park, it was about 9am. The park ranger explained to us that the birds are best seen during this time of year we mentioned earlier, but it’s still possible to spot them year-round. However, it would be highly unlikely to see any this late in the morning (a local guide was also highly recommended). By the time we arrived and heard this information, we were satisfied with our Talamanca Mountain adventure and decided to continue on to the capital area of San José.
After the consistent uphill drives over the Talamanca range, we finally began our descent down to the San José valley, where we will be spending the next week in three different areas. We didn’t expect to spend this much time in San José, but are doing so because of our itinerary changes due to the heavy rains and recent flooding on the Caribbean side of the country. For those of you looking to do quick trips to Costa Rica, San José can be a great place to use for day trips as well (which is what we plan to do). There are a handful of national parks, active volcanos, and even beaches that are two hours or less from this bustling capital city…not to mention the historical and cultural sites in the capital itself.
We actually did one of these small day trips to Cartago on our way to San José! This city has a storied history, but arguable the most notable is related to a small statue of the Virgin Mary carrying the infant Jesus…known locally as Virgin de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. Local historians claim that a peasant girl in the early 1600s found this statue and tried to bring it home. When she awoke the next morning, the statue was not there and was found back in its original place. She moved it again, and yet again it was found back in its original place. It was deemed holy and a church was to be constructed nearby to house the statue. However, during construction, the church was continually destroyed by numerous earthquakes. The local people viewed these events as signs that the statue should not be moved from its original place, and it was decided that a church should instead be built where the statue was found.
On August 2nd every year, over one million people from all over Costa Rica (nearly a quarter of the entire population) engage in a pilgrimage to the basilica, locally known as Romería to wash themselves and drink from the rock where the statue was originally found.
We decided to walk around Cartago a bit more and discovered another cultural heritage site called the Templo Inconcluso de Santiago Apóstol, which literally translates to the Unfinished Temple of St. James the Apostle. We learned that numerous churches have been built on this site since the sixteenth century, but earthquakes either damaged or demolished them over the same time period. What remains today was begun in 1870, but was actually never completed. Many do not consider them “ruins,” but rather “unfinished.”
After our Cartago adventure, we began to acknowledge our appetite and decided to stop for a quick lunch on the way into San José. We found a really great empanada spot aptly named La Empanadas. We ordered three different kinds of empanadas…chicharon, frijoles y queso (beans and cheese), and frijoles, queso y chorizo (beans, cheese, and chorizo), along with a bag of papas (chips) con salsa. It was early afternoon by this time, so we decided to ask for them para llevar (to-go), so we could enjoy them at our resort, The Hacienda Belen.
When we arrived to our room, we were surprised to see some welcome balloons for our honeymoon and a bottle of wine with a cheese platter.
After all this adventure, we’ll definitely be taking advantage of the resort amenities for the next two nights…so stay posted!