Costa Rica is famous for its world-class national parks that have received 40 years of government funding, attracting over one million visitors every year.

Itīs definitely compared to its poorer Central American neighbours Nicaragua and Honduras not a cheap country to travel, and the predominantly wealthy, Western tourist certainly donīt help to keep prices low. It took us some time to get used to significantly higher daily expenses.

In addition, Costa Rica has compared to its turbulent neighbours an impressive peace record, another factor contributing to the many visitors every year.

Costa Ricans are generally very friendly and helpful people. "Pura Vida" (which translates into "pure life") is "a national expression summing up the desire to live the best, most hassle-free existence" (Lonely Planet). Canīt argue with that.

96% of Costa Ricaīs population is of Spanish descent, a very high concentration compared to its neighbours.

We arrived in Costa Rica on 4 January 2005. It took forever to cross the border at Peņas Blancas as we had to queue for ages. Our first stop was Liberia in the northwestern pocket of Costa Rica, roughly a two hour bus ride from the border. From there we visited the "Rincon de la Vieja National Park" where we did a 10k round-trip walk, passing several waterfalls, boiling hot mud springs, sulphur springs, steam vents, and fumaroles. It was a great day-excursion and a nice introduction to Costa Ricaīs fauna and flora.

From Liberia we travelled to Montezuma beach on the Peninsula de Nicoya. After a massive detour (thanks to the wrong information from a bus driver) we arrived in Montezuma late at night and instantly hated the place with a passion. What was once a laid-back hippie hang-out on the Pacific had developed into a chic, bohemian gap-year beach resort. The first night we had to crash on the beach as the whole place was booked up. We gave Montezuma one last chance and stayed an extra night in a hostel, but fled the next day.

Our next stop was the the little town of Santa Elena near the Monteverde Biological Reserve. The later is world-famous for its cloud forest where 450 bird species have been recorded (among them the resplendent quetzal with its long colourful tail, perhaps the best living symbol of Central America’s wilderness beauty).

Santa Elena was super touristy, with lots of American ex-pads owning and running businesses (the Monteverde community was founded by Quakers in 1951). Consequently, everything was very expensive including park entrances. One morning we arrived at the parkīs gate before opening time, entered for free and had the whole place to ourselves for a few hours. There we spotted lots of multicoloured birds and butterflies, and a monkey family.

It was raining continuously for the whole three days we were there. But we felt at home at our pension (with a well-equipped kitchen) where we met some really nice people.

From Santa Elena we travelled to San Jose, which was a huge disappointment and then continued our journey to Golfito on the Pacific. One place I really wanted to see in Costa Rica was the coastal Parque Nacional Corcovado on the Península de Osa.

The park has been described as the Amazon of Costa Rica, with one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world. It is a wild region, with an abundance of rare wildlife, and the last area of primary forest on a Pacific coastline in Central America.

Corcovado sounded like the most attractive and least crowded national park in Costa Rica (there was a strict limit on the maximum amount of daily visitors to the park). You had to make a reservation in advance and record your name at the parkīs conservation office in Puerto Jiminez, the main town on the peninsula.

There were different options for trekking in the park. I voted for a two day round-trip, involving one night camping at a ranger station. You had to carry all your camping gear, food and all your rubbish. It was going to be a very wet, remote and rugged adventure.

Kate wasnīt up for the challenge and travelled on to Playa Zancudo, a laid-back Pacific beach. I ended up doing the Corcovado trek with Guy, a young Israeli we got to know in Santa Elena.

Guy and I bought our provisions and hired all the camping equipment in Puerto Jiminez. At 6am the following morning we were driven by a FWD to Carate, from where we had to walk for 45min along an unspoilt, picturesque beach to the first ranger station at Leona (the parkīs entrance). During this short walk we saw and heard lots of red scarlet macaws.

From Leona we then took off to the Sirena ranger station, a strenuous 9 hour walk on a clearly marked path parallel to the beach that cut through the rainforest and occasionally crossed knee-deep rivers. Some parts also involved walking directly on the beach in deep sand (tough).

The wildlife we encountered was amazing - several species of colourful birds, howler, spider white-faced, and squirrel monkeys, lizards, frogs, squirrels, raccoons, an otter and a 50-60 strong herd of white-lipped peccaries. I spotted them in the dense rainforest on top of a hill in the distance but they didnīt seem to notice us. Wild peccaries can be very dangerous and aggressive especially when travelling with their young.

Not taking any chances, I stopped and gestured to Guy who was a few steps behind me to leave the forest and walk straight out onto the beach. And thatīs what we did. After a 15min walk on the beach we went back into the forest and luckily the peccaries had vanished.

We arrived at the Sirena ranger station just before it got dark, soaked and totally exhausted. There were maybe half a dozen of tents on the ground and we pitched ours under a wooden shelter. It was very quiet and idyllic. But the peace and tranquillity only lasted for a short while when a big group of German teenage scouts arrived from nowhere, turning the whole place upside-down and making a hell of a lot of noise.

The next morning we left Sirena for the ranger station at Los Patos after a quick breakfast. This interior route was much more mountainous than the one on the previous day. It was raining non-stop, the steep trail was very muddy and we slipped and fell several times.

Originally we had planned to return to Puerto Jiminez the same day, but by the time we arrived at Los Patos, the rangers advised us to stay at the station for the night as it was too dangerous to walk in the dark. So we left Parque Corcovado Nacional the following day. We had to cross a river 25 times and on the river bank we saw jaguar tracks in the sand. We hitched a ride into the next town from where we caught a bus back to Puerto Jiminez.

Corcovado was a tough and challenging but also very rewarding experience - definitely one of the highlights of my Central America travels. Unfortunately, I lost all the photos I took in the park (and later in Panama). But I have found this site with some pics of Corcovado to give you a rough idea - click here.

At Playa Zancudo I meet up with Kate again and we enjoyed a few more days together on the beach before catching the bus to the Costa Rican/Panamanian border at Paso Canoas (also on the Pacific side).

Originally we were planning to head to the less developed Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and cross into Panama from there. But flooded roads caused by torrential rains permitted us from travelling to this part of the country.