San Gerardo de Rivas: Beautiful Hiking and an Escape from the Heat

Yet again, I am behind on my blogging. I meant to write this post quite a while ago, since it's been about a week and a half since I left San Gerardo de Rivas, but for some reason my motivation to write has been very low. I'm not sure why, maybe because the heat has been making me very lethargic and tired recently. I have lots of ideas for things I want to write about, and several half-written posts waiting to be finished, so now I'm finally putting in the effort to finish one. Hooray!


San Gerardo de Rivas was beautiful, and very quickly took the top spot as my favorite place in Costa Rica. As much as I enjoy the beach, I was feeling the need to get away from the coast and go up into the mountains again, and San Gerardo did not disappoint. It was just what I needed. I originally was going to stay 4 days and ended up staying 8 because I loved it so much. It was significantly cooler than the coast, although still very warm, summer-like weather, and the scenery was beautiful. As someone who loves to hike, it was perfect for me. Also, one of my favorite things about San Gerardo was that I actually got a bit cold during the night while I was sleeping and had to put a sheet over myself. It was amazing! It actually got chilly at night, I loved it!

Nearby are the Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, and Chirripo National Park, which has the highest mountain in Costa Rica. I decided not to hike to the Chirripo summit because I didn't feel prepared and it's super expensive. You have to pay an entrance fee for each day you are in the park, and then pay for lodging and food at the base camp about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. It's technically possible to do the hike up and back all in one day, but it takes about 16 hours and is not advisable. Therefore, most people hike up to the base camp the first day, spend the night, and then hike to the summit the next morning and do the hike down that same day. If you want to hike all the trails in the park, you'd have to stay an additional night at the base camp, and then hike down the third day. However, even one night was a a bit expensive for me, because the park entrance is $15 per day, the hostel is $40 per night, and meals are about $20 each, so you could easily spend $150-200+ depending on how many days you want to spend. It's also difficult to get reservations because if you don't reserve months in advance you just have to show up and hope they have cancellations, and if they do, you have to go back and forth between several offices and do a bank transfer to pay for everything, so overall it seemed like more effort than I wanted to put in and more money than I wanted to spend. It would have been nice to do it, but I figure it just gives me an excuse to come back to Costa Rica.

What I did do was lots of hiking in the Cloudbridge Reserve. This was a much more affordable option because entrance is by donation, so I went there all four of my first days there and hiked every trail in the reserve. It was gorgeous! Most of the time I was there I barely saw any other people, so I felt like I had the whole reserve to myself. I took lots of pictures, but here is just a taste of the views that I saw.

View from the hostel

Waterfall in Cloudbridge Reserve

Beautiful valley in Cloudbridge

Trail in Cloudbridge

The view from my favorite spot in Cloudbridge, called Vulture Rock

Another view from Vulture Rock

The hostel I stayed in for the first four days was called Casa Mariposa, and was basically right next to the entrance to the Chirripo trail, so it's very popular for hikers. It's owned by an American couple, and has a very nice, relaxed feel that I really enjoyed. Great for getting away from the hustle and bustle and enjoying nature. Here are some pictures of the hostel. 

Entrance (they were doing some construction while I was there, but it was okay most of the time)

Common area

Cool staircase up to the dorm

Dorm room, which is built right into the rocks on the hill

Now some more pictures of the beautiful scenery:

This trail had some inspirational quotes here and there along the way. I don't think the English translation is that good, I would say "Look within yourself and you will find all of the ingredients for success."

For the extra days I decided to stay in San Gerardo, I moved to a different guest house that an American guy I met on the bus the first day suggested to me. He was staying there and told me you get a private room for $20, including breakfast, which is a great deal! It's also owned by a local woman, so I liked the idea of supporting a Costa Rican business. One thing I don't like about the tourism here is that so many of the hostels and hotels, etc are owned by foreigners, which seems like it's taking opportunities away from the locals and just taking advantage of their beautiful country at the expense of the local economy. So as much as possible I like to support local businesses. This place was called Mis Ojos Cabinas, and the owner, Laura, was very nice.

Front of the house

My room

Common area

This place also had access down to the river to go swimming, which was awesome! The water was so cold that the first time I jumped in I came up gasping and immediately got out again shivering. But after the bath-warm water of the ocean in Costa Rica, this was a refreshing change. As I swam more I got much more used to it, and it was so nice! The time I spent there I mostly just relaxed and caught up on some things I had been putting off, and then I went swimming and walked around town a bit, including a trip to the organic chocolate shop in the next town, which was great. If I hadn't had plans on a specific day with a couchsurfing host for my next location, I think I would have stayed there longer. I miss the cool nights now that I'm back on the coast and sweating all day again.

Hopefully I can overcome the lethargy that's been keeping me from writing in order to post again soon. I have less than a week left in Costa Rica (where has the time gone?), so hopefully I'll be caught up on more Costa Rica posts by the time I leave, although I'll probably still be posting some from my next locations, and maybe even once I get home. Thanks as always for following my travels!