The Boeing swoops low over a valley peppered with fields and farms, then little factories and a sprawling city – lights coming on in the tropical dusk. Pura Vida!’ the rental man exclaims – that is ‘Pure Life’ to you and me, and Costa Ricans say it on a regular basis. It isn’t for my safety, as a result of Costa Rica is a peacable place – they call it the Switzerland of Latin America. After 2 rings a nice lady in the jungle solutions and confirms that they do have space. I relax. I am given a cellular phone and the thought is that I call ahead to e book my room every night, no more than a day in advance. Simply make it up as you go alongside’ the nice individuals informed me earlier than I left London. We see birds galore, and i ask what number of stay right here. After i get to the lodge it is all the pieces I projected on to it, and more. Subsequent morning they milk the cows, fry up a hearty breakfast, and ask me whether I would wish to go strolling, rafting or riding. The coordinates are on my SatNav and that i park, pay a surprisingly modest entrance charge, cross a bridge and I’m in an space of neat cabins laid out beside a Visitor Centre. Next morning my affected person good friend returns, this time with a man from a rental automobile company with a wise little four wheel drive automobile. It was monumental fun. They could arrange all of it for me upfront they mentioned, but where’s the fun in that? I spend the next two days up in the northwest of Costa Rica, dry flatlands where they ranch cattle. My favorite is a shiny blue butterfly as big as my hand that flits dazzlingly into shafts of sunlight. I am here to visit La Selva, a analysis station that unravels the secrets of life in the rainforest. I cellphone forward to a cattle-ranch-turned-lodge inside a nationwide park, and hand over my little voucher to a man with a face the color of walnut and carrying a white Stetson. Next morning I wake to the distant roar of howler monkeys, a wonderful sound that haunts me still. I attempt the telephone. There is a special something about Costa Rica that I am beginning to grasp. Though I haven’t come very far from the lowland forest at La Selva, right here I’m excessive enough to be in a special type of forest, and i walk next day on the ‘Hanging Bridges’ – metallic walkways enterprisingly slung throughout little gorges connecting paths by way of the trees. They had some horses to round up. Birds name from each aspect as I amble to a breakfast of tropical fruit. In an hour and a half I see extra wildlife than David Attenborough might cope with in a 6-half mini-collection. A cheerful band of cowboys blowing kisses. My jungle lodge is true down within the south, at Puerto Viejo, about as far from San Jose as it may very well be. Twenty minutes later we’re circling a bunch of horses, dashing off to fetch escapees, yelling and whooping like the motion pictures. She approves and calls ahead for me. I consider texting London to chuck in my job and sell the flat. We shepherd them back to the ranch, arriving in a cloud of mud and whinnies that would swell the center of any proud homesteader within the badlands of Wyoming. They’ve been utilizing this system for self-drive holidays for years apparently, and it really works a treat. Not tonight, she says. It seems unimaginable from the images and I’m dying to attempt it. Chrysalises are exported to fanciers worldwide – a commerce in living glimpses of shiny Costa Rican sunshine. I am certain it has a weighty scientific name, however ‘Blue Denims Frog’ fits it just superb. His mum appears and we spend a happy ten minutes having them crawl weirdly on our fingers and up our arms. I spend the whole day exploring the jungle, being shown plants, insects, birds and butterflies of each kind. I didn’t know they’d those in the jungle. My information stops and lifts a leaf to reveal a tiny frog, no more than an inch long, crimson however with vibrant blue legs. I discover a promising resort there on my listing, pulled out my cellphone and inside a couple of minutes I’m booked in for the next evening. And great large macaws flying romantically in pairs throughout treetops by the sea. I noticed toucans bearing the load of beaks the size of a good banana madly decorated in seven different colours. A younger man with a beard and a t-shirt from the College of Arizona at Tucson greets me as a family of coatimundis race across the lawn behind him and disappear up a tree. It just would not get much better than this. Steak and beer for dinner. There is a map of trails that will keep Richard Lengthy busy for a fortnight, so I resolve on a modest loop that promises much. Nor have I climbed the mountains to the cloud forests of Monteverde or San Gerardo de Dota to see the Resplendent Quetzal, the sacred chook of the Mayans. A patient man in his early 60s meets me as I cross the barrier from airport madness into the real world. Late in the day there’s simply time to drive on to the little town of La Fortuna, just beneath a massive volcano known as Arenal. Not on the lips, thank goodness, but the sound of a kiss, loudly made. Stopping in a village on my manner a small boy shows me his beetles. About 170 species, I am instructed, which puts my London fowl desk in a brand new mild. At dinner I meet a delightful couple from Virginia who come to Costa Rica yearly, who suggest a village on the coast. I’m curious and discover that they farm butterflies. Or so I am told. I arrive at sunset and, seeing smoke coming from the top, ask the resort receptionist if it’s about to blow. She takes my name, and I’m all set. The road climbs into mountains, the traffic thins, and all of the sudden there’s a wide view throughout the slopes that result in the Caribbean – a spell-binding sight. A tattered magazine slicing on the wall tells me that is where a special wave referred to as ‘Salsa Brava’ arrives. I narrow my eyes to a Clint Eastwood squint and say I will lend them a hand. Arenal is completely active and spends its time contentedly steaming and gently burping lava, which I can simply see as a ragged rim excessive on its steep cone, glowing crimson as night falls. I lounge, swim in pool and ocean, dine on fish and sleep like a log to the sound of waves flopping lazily against the shore. Tired after a busy day I make for sizzling springs and gently decrease myself into volcanic waters as a waxing moon appears. Of the four motels in the area the first choice is sadly full, however the next has area and I’m sorted. Every so usually there’s a distant rumble as Arenal gets on with its job. There are seven of them on his stick, each about three inches long with nice horns and humorous legs. I stop at a seashore bar where a small group of surfers are joshing one another over coffee, stopping to stare lovingly at the breakers rolling in. There’s another 50 or so of them on a bush of their backyard, some beetle festival is in progress. By difficult doors I step inside and find a world of fluttering gorgeousness: lots of of vivid wings flap about merrily mating, laying eggs and mating again. I know the place I am to remain tonight, and he drives me there, but all I’ve obtained for the remainder of my keep is a e book of vouchers and a list of a hundred or so hotels who will gladly alternate them for a room and breakfast. However Costa Rica is a small place and by lunchtime I’m virtually there. Neat wood boardwalks wind round large timber hanging with lianas, to picket platforms raised on stilts, with excessive pitched canvas roofs like some very properly organised and unexpectedly luxurious safari camp. He fishes into his bag and brings out a SatNav, pushes the buttons for my destination, and units it up on the dashboard. I do not. I faucet my heels into the sides of my mare. She wants a kiss. The command system thus mastered, we set off. Here they really take pleasure in, and revel in, the nature that surrounds them and apply loads of ingenuity to make it possible for you to share the expertise. On the plane I flicked through the hotel record and determined to attempt Almonds and Corals Lodge, an ecolodge in the forest where you sleep under canvas. Later I stopped for a muffin and juice (do not ask me to call it but it surely was delicious) at a hummingbird gallery, where I swear a hundred hummingbirds buzzed and swooped round plastic gadgets filled with some tempting liquid. She ambles just a little, but does not appear very sure about it till I am let in on the secret. Over lunch I plan my subsequent move, and ask the lady at the desk for her opinion of Sarapiqui, which my guide e-book says is a wildlife hotspot. I am arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital and, let me inform you, I am a touch nervous. I am not disenchanted. My lodge at Sarapiqui is a lovely little place and I am shown a room with a view of their farm. And they really like having guests, you may see it in faces that mild up when a vacationer comes within the door of the lodge, or walks down their street, or stops to ask the way in which. It isn’t very huge, about the size of a tennis courtroom, and shrouded in netting. The colours, for a start, are unbelievable. I’m certain it is not just the cash, however whether it is I don’t begrudge them a penny of it. Now I am not a birder, although I fancy I can inform a robin from a wren, however looking by means of my guide’s binoculars made me realise, for the first time, that I might become one here. It is time for the seashore. We pour over maps, discuss my route, and i confess to the mounting tension I’m experiencing. A few minutes later my bag is within the back of the automobile and I’m making my way out of the automotive park. I have never been to Ostional, where turtles arrive by the hundred to lay eggs, nor to Manuel Antonio, the place sloths dangle from timber over forest paths behind tropical beaches. We mount smallish horses with surprisingly comfortable saddles, and the cowboys set off. I haven’t explored the southwest, the place humpback whales and dolphin patrol the Pacific off the Osa Peninsula, whose forests are so thick and undisturbed they hold jaguar. What a great strategy to set each other up for a optimistic take on the day. My time has run out. I return the praise and we slap palms.