Gallery · Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Summer 2021. Three weeks in San José, then ten weeks in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. 52 photos, in the order I took them.

Puerto Viejo

June to August 2021 · 14 photos

View down a jungle hillside over a small beach town with colorful tin roofs and turquoise sea on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast
Above Puerto Viejo
View over Puerto Viejo's rooftops and jungle to the Caribbean from a hill above town
Above Puerto Viejo
A colorful two-story wooden house painted blue, purple and green in Puerto Viejo
Painted house
Curving black-sand beach with driftwood and palm-lined jungle at Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo
Playa Negra
Rusted, graffiti-covered barge wreck with a tree growing on it in turquoise water off Puerto Viejo
The shipwreck
The colorful open-air front of Maritza's restaurant on the main street in Puerto Viejo
Maritza's
The small yellow church behind a fence in Puerto Viejo
The church
A yellow Chino Beach sign on the sand with swimmers and palm trees in Puerto Viejo
Chino Beach
The entrance to Stanford's Beach Club restaurant with thatched umbrellas and the sea beyond, Puerto Viejo
Stanford's
La Ventana de Eli, a small roadside window selling empanadas, patties and ice cream in Puerto Viejo
La Ventana de Eli
A roadside fruit stand piled with bananas, pineapples and coconuts in Puerto Viejo
The fruit stand
Blue motorboat moored in calm turquoise water, framed by tropical almond trees and palms on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast
Caribbean coast
Orange and purple sunset over a beach with silhouetted swimmers and a forested headland
Caribbean sunset
Muddy waterfall pouring beneath a concrete road bridge into a jungle pool
After the rain

Cahuita

July 2021 · 15 photos

Bleached driftwood and fallen trees on the beach inside Cahuita National Park, with jungle running down to the Caribbean
Cahuita National Park
Dylan Harris on the jungle boardwalk trail in Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica
Me, Cahuita boardwalk
Colorful CAHUITA letters and a sloth statue at the entrance to Cahuita village on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast
Cahuita village
Hikers on the boardwalk through the rainforest in Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica
Cahuita boardwalk
Wooden boardwalk running through dense jungle in Cahuita National Park
Into the park
Red heliconia flowers among broad green leaves in Cahuita National Park
Heliconia
A white-nosed coati foraging in the leaf litter in Cahuita National Park
Coati
Empty sandy beach with leaning palm trees inside Cahuita National Park
Cahuita beach
A tea-colored river meeting the beach under jungle in Cahuita National Park
Creek meets the sea
A sloth curled up high in a tree in Cahuita National Park
Sloth
Wild beach strewn with driftwood where dense jungle meets turquoise sea
Driftwood beach
Empty grey-sand beach with gentle surf under sea almond branches on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast
Empty beach
A brightly painted open-air Caribbean restaurant in Cahuita, Costa Rica
Cahuita restaurant
Mural of three women in headwraps on the wall of a restaurant in Cahuita
The mural
Quiet street with colorful houses in Cahuita village at dusk
Cahuita at dusk

Manzanillo

August 2021 · 6 photos

Colorful MANZANILLO letters by the road in Manzanillo, Costa Rica
Manzanillo
Wooden boardwalk with cable railings through coastal jungle and palms toward the ocean
Park boardwalk
A small rock islet topped with a tree off the rocky shore at Manzanillo
Rock islet
A curved golden-sand cove with palm trees on the Gandoca-Manzanillo trail
Manzanillo cove
The tree-topped rock off Punta Manzanillo with waves breaking on the reef
Punta Manzanillo
Clear shallow water over reef and sand on the coast near Manzanillo
Clear water

The chocolate tour

August 2021 · 14 photos

Two speckled green cacao pods hanging from a tree trunk on a chocolate farm near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Cacao pods
A ripe red cacao pod growing on a mossy tree trunk on a farm near Puerto Viejo
Ripe cacao pod
A hand holding a fresh cacao bean coated in white pulp
Fresh cacao bean
Cacao beans being stirred with a long wooden paddle in a metal pot over a wood fire on a chocolate tour in Costa Rica
Roasting cacao
A woman tossing roasted cacao beans in a wooden tray to winnow off the husks on a chocolate tour in Costa Rica
Winnowing
A wooden bowl full of roasted cacao beans on a chocolate tour in Costa Rica
Roasted cacao
A woman grinding roasted cacao beans by hand with a round stone on a flat grinding rock, chocolate tour in Costa Rica
The grinding stone
A man turning a hand-cranked metal mill that grinds roasted cacao into a wooden bowl, with bananas hanging behind, Costa Rica
The hand mill
Thick dark cacao paste coming out of a hand-cranked grinder on a chocolate tour in Costa Rica
Cacao paste
A gourd cup of hot cacao drink at the end of a chocolate tour in Costa Rica
Hot cacao
Pink mushrooms and a dried cacao pod on a tree stump at a cacao farm in Costa Rica
Mushrooms
A small green and black poison dart frog on a smooth river rock in Costa Rica
Poison dart frog
A brown river running over rocks through jungle on Costa Rica's Caribbean side
The river
A waterfall pouring into a brown pool under a road bridge in the jungle near Puerto Viejo
The waterfall

Wildlife

July and August 2021 · 3 photos

A tiny red strawberry poison dart frog sitting on a green leaf near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Strawberry poison dart frog
A bright green frog resting on a dark wooden post near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Green frog
A white-faced capuchin monkey in the rainforest canopy on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast
White-faced capuchin

More from the road

Planning a trip? The Costa Rica page has the routes and guides.

← All photosUnited StatesSouth KoreaVietnamCambodiaLaosThailandTurkeyBulgariaRomaniaSerbiaHungarySlovakiaAustriaCzechiaPoland