My wife Meredith and I, along with two friends, just finished doing the Camino de Costa Rica.
The standard way of doing it is with a guide,
but we did it independently,
heavily relying on Meredith’s conversational Spanish skills and extensive travel experience in Latin America.
Over a hike of 165 miles (~265 km),
we climbed and descended over 30,000 feet (10,000 m) of elevation in 14 days,
with some days having over 4,000 ft (1,200 m) of gain or loss.
We ranged from the oppressive Caribbean coastal plain to chilly cloud forests at over 7,000 ft.
Costa Rica is a varied and steep country!
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean, at the end of the trail.¶
Most nights we were hosted by local Ticos,
with a range of accommodations from their own guest rooms to guest cabins specifically for hikers.
They made us dinner and breakfast,
and shared so much about the culture, history, and diversity of the country with us.
We took a group photo with most of our hosts,
and they have a WhatsApp group text where they share progress on our hike with our previous and future hosts.
It felt like we had a lovely group of humans watching out for us each night of our hike.
Having my wife speak conversational Spanish was really helpful.
I’d say about two-thirds of our hosts spoke primarily in Spanish,
with only very basic English.
Being able to chat with them,
talk about our day on the trail,
and hear about their lives made the trip much richer.
The other major highlight was definitely the wildlife.
We saw many of the classic Costa Rican animals, like sloths and toucans.
The number of birds we saw each day was also a treat.
As we went from sea level to 7,000 ft and back to sea level,
it was fun to see the climate change from tropical to cloud forest and back again,
with the corresponding change in wildlife.
The forests and plants are also varied and beautiful across the whole country.
Each day, you see amazing tropical flowers in bloom
and pass lovely houses with great landscaping to enjoy.
You walk through deep jungle with vines everywhere,
but also banana, palm, and coffee farms.
Each day, I’d look around and marvel at the feeling of being in a very different place than Oregon. :)
The main downsides were constraints based on the topography and the early stage of the trail.
You walk mostly on roads,
usually on the only viable right of way over mountains or through river valleys.
And the trails you do hike on tend to be muddy and steep.
The biggest downside is definitely the road walking.
In terms of the style of roads, I’d say:
0.25% of the trail is on busy roads with minimal shoulder. This only happened a couple of times, and usually only for 3-5 minutes at a time. Not great, but overall the only really scary part.
10% of the trail is on busy roads, but with a trail or large shoulder to stay safely away from cars.
25% is on somewhat busy roads (e.g., at least one car a minute), generally without a shoulder, but rarely with oncoming traffic so people can pass safely.
50% is on “roads,” which are barely roads. Many of these we didn’t see a car at all, and I’d question if it would even be possible for cars to drive on some of them.
15% or so is on trails (with the Palo Verde detour).
We hiked during Semana Santa (Holy Week around Easter),
so we might have had more traffic than usual on some days.
But overall, the traffic is definitely the biggest downside.
The other downside we had was the weather.
It was really, really hot and humid on the coasts.
I don’t think I’ve ever sweat as much as I did on a couple of days hiking up steep hills in the humid sunshine.
Often when we were on trails,
they were incredibly muddy.
We got a couple of days of all-day rain,
which also happened around our trail days,
so I think we got worse mud than normal.
Overall, we got some amount of rain most days,
but sometimes just in the evenings or a few minutes in the afternoon.
I started singing a song called “everything I own is damp,”
to give you an idea. :)
We got to do laundry a few times along the way,
but it was definitely on the wetter side for people used to hiking in the desert!
A few high-level recommendations based on having done the trail:
Don’t skip the canal section at the start – it was one of our highlights. It’s like a boat wildlife safari, and you see lots of animals.
Also, don’t skip the zero day for rafting. It was a really fun way to spend the day and take a break from hiking after the previous two hard stages.
Take the Palo Verde alternate – it cost us $6, but it was a nice trail and the ranger at the station was lovely. Lots of hummingbirds, and we heard quetzals!
Bring plenty of cash, which is easy to get at the airport. Most of the guest houses and restaurants only take cash. There are only a couple of ATMs along the way, and they don’t always work. We used the one in La Suiza.
Orosi Lodge was a really nice break in the middle with a nice bakery and pizza. We wished we’d taken a zero day here to explore Tapanti National Park and hit the hot springs and swimming holes nearby. If you have time, it’s nice to have a break in the middle.
Bugs were only notably bad on the coasts, and not terrible. Bring some bug spray, but we didn’t end up using a ton of it.
Don’t forget to make a Manuel Antonio park booking for once you land in Quepos, probably before the start of your trip. It was a lovely park with lots of wildlife and a beautiful beach. Though quite the shock to have so many tourists after two weeks of solitude.
I’d be less likely to recommend the trail if you don’t have at least a basic grasp of Spanish. Many of our hosts and most people we encountered didn’t speak much English – it was more enjoyable and kept us from making mistakes by being able to ask folks for help in Spanish.
All of our group has had significant thru-hiking experience on the Pacific Crest Trail,
along with other American wilderness trails.
The Camino is a very different beast – we didn’t have to carry much!
I had a few questions about gear while doing a self-guided hike,
since most of the info was about guided trips,
so I’m sharing ours:
Battery pack (I brought this, but was able to charge my phone and watch each night, so didn’t use it much)
A sleeping bag liner/sheet (I brought a sleeping bag liner and used it a few times when I wanted something light in warm climates, but definitely not required)
Air pillow (many beds only have one pillow, so this was more comfortable to have)
Food beyond snacks (there’s so much lovely food along the way and at the guest houses!)
Overall, it was a novel way to experience a country,
by hiking across it in two weeks.
The variety of environments and the connection with rural culture is hard to get any other way.
If you’re ready for a challenging and rewarding two-week vacation,
it’s definitely something I recommend.
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