Pura Vida on our last evenings ✈️

Time to say goodbye before I leave to Ecuador and Seb back home. And yes, I was sad and it felt strange to be traveling alone again. I will need to get used to it again… but my mission in Latin America is not yet completed and I am still very excited for South America ✨

Looking back at our 2 weeks in Costa Rica I must say that I really enjoyed slowing down, rest in few places for a longer time and just be ‘on vacation’.

However, I also have to say that I am a bit disappointed by the country I once loved so much as a volunteer: Now as a tourist, I really felt that the ecotourism which Costa Rica is admired for is more like a money machine than an authentic experience. Nature is protected, the landscape free from trash and overall the infrastructure appears better than e.g. in Mexico. But once you start talking to the locals and what they earn in tourism it seems that only a small portion of the country benefits from the high prices and the countless luxury tourists. The tourist pays high prices basically for everything and the employees earn max 3-4$ an hour whereas average living cost are high (food is more expensive than in Germany). That also seems to lead to an attitude that tourists are there to be exploited and cheated on which we sadly experienced often. All in all, I would recommend Costa Rica as a vacation destination only to people that are willing to pay unnatural prices or to avoid touristic places to encounter more authenticity.Read more