whenever i travel, i am either hiking or visiting friends & family. if i’m real lucky, i get to do both. last march i went to visit my friend in jacó, costa rica. she is costa rican & it was my second time going down to see her while she was living there. at the time one of my other friends was visiting down there and my other friend happened to be going at the same time. it was lovely to spend most of the trip together – something we hadn’t done together as a group. i highly recommend travelling to costa rica. it is a beautiful country and i love the vibe.
wandering in jacó
the first couple of days we checked out local things to do. we saw the sunset the first night and then i went atv-ing with one of my friends. it was incredible seeing monstera deliciosa growing wildly – the leaves were huge!
manuel antonio national park
during the trip we spent the day at the national park chilling and hiking. the national park is on the pacific coast. the highlight was seeing a sloth in a tree! the beaches were beautiful and one of my friends and i hiked over to another beach. nothing like spending the day in the rainforest with great company.
hiking in carara park, jacó
one of my fave memories was hiking in jacó. my motto for hiking is to leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but pictures, & kill nothing but time. i decided to go on a solo hike one day. sometimes i travel alone, which i absolutely love! this trip was special because i got the best of both worlds – quality time with my friends & time to wander on my own. carara is a transitional forest of both dry and tropical rainforest, resulting in an extremely biodiverse zone.
hiking to los sueños
one of my last days was spent hiking along the coast. we hiked from playa jaco to los sueños. the hike took all day. we spent the first bit hiking along the coast. since the tide was low we got to chill in a cave for a bit just taking in the sounds of the ocean and the smell of the air. eventually we started climbing and wandered into the rainforest as the sun was setting. we ended up on the beach and sat there until the last bits of sunshine disappeared.
hiking to miro mountain + hermosa beach
i spent my last day hiking up miro mountain and eventually ending up at hermosa beach. at the top of miro mountain is an abandoned structure, said to be a restaurant, hotel or mansion with a view of the entire coastline of jacó. we sat taking in the views and then continued hiking to hermosa beach. we chilled there until the sunset.
conservation in costa rica
costa rica accounts for just 0.03% of the earth’s surface, however it contains approximately 6% of the world’s biodiversity. this is due to its geographical position, whereby costa rica has served as a bridge for countless species of animals & plants over thousands of years. national parks + reserves comprise 25.6% of its land area.
a map created by the international union for the conservation of nature (2016), entitled indigenous peoples, protected areas and natural ecosystems in central america, shows that approximately 51% of central america’s current forest cover is either inside or adjacent to indigenous territory. indigenous communities protect land + water & the presence of indigenous peoples significantly lowers deforestation.
according to the report (2016), costa rica’s reforestation policies have resulted in the country increasing forest cover from 21% to 52%. in fact, the most extensive tract of original forest in costa rica exists within the indigenous territory of the bribri and cabécar.
lostinplantopia 