Sunday, 20 August 2023

Natalie Lamb and the travel post: Costa Rica road trip

I was leaving one job and starting another so was requesting at interviews if I could please take my one month of required notice and one month of leave. It was a yes so I had a last minute month of holiday at my disposal! I really fancied going somewhere with jungle but I had done no planning and had no time to do the planning. I had never been on a group trip before but finally settled on the Classic Costa Rica trip with Intrepid*. I flew in one day ahead of the trip start date and stayed an extra 4 days after it ended (I also did a multi day stopover in New York en route but that's a different story!). I travelled to San José, Tortuguero, Santa Rosa, Rio Celeste, La Fortuna, Monteverde, Manual Antonio and Coco. This is the story of my 20 day Costa Rica road trip, my top tips and how much it all cost.

*One thing I want to note before I continue is how awesome our Intrepid guide Raffa was. The Intrepid trip wouldn't have been the same without him and I thoroughly recommend you ask Intrepid if you can be in his group.



Day 1/20

  • Area: San José
  • Hotel: San José Backpacker's Hostel £7
  • Spend: 2000 airport bus = £2.89

I flew from EWR to SJO in 5h22. On arrival, I took the public bus from the airport to San José (Terminal Tuasa San José - Alajuela), which cost less than £3 but you did have to move past a lot of people shouting "taxi" at you! You cross the road from the airport to go towards the car park, then turn left around the corner of the car park and there were bus stops. It was around a 30 min walk from the terminal to my hostel but it was worth it- the hostel was amazing! There was a pool with lots of hammocks and some beds outside. The perfect spot for lounging, which is exactly what I did the whole rest of the day. See! Sometimes I do relax on holiday!



Day 2/20

  • Area: San José
  • Hotel: Rincón del Valle Hotel
  • Spend: ₡3267 breakfast, 5445 walking tour, 1223 on fruit drink, 2178 hot chocolate, 980 beer, 945 fruit, 2537 Uber, 4950 dinner = £31.08

Today I went on a free walking tour of San José. I learned a fair amount of the history of Costa Rica but it turned out that my Intrepid guide also covered this later on on my trip. I'm not sure it's something I would recommend because there wasn't really all that much to see but the tour was around 3h and it was very hot. After, I went to La Casa del Cacao for some real proper chocolate (I recommend the hot chocolate, even if the weather is boiling!). And I went for a wander around San José Central Market, which I really enjoyed.

At 6pm I had a pre trip meeting for my Intrepid Trip which covered things like tipping, culture etc. in Costa Rica. From this point in, the majority of the trip was with Intrepid. We went for dinner together after having met and chatted a while.




Day 3/20

  • Areas: San José to Tortuguero
  • Hotel: Miss Junies Lodge
  • Spend: 2716 bus tip, 500 toilet, 500 boat tip, 7150 lunch, 1500 water, 2173 beer = £21
  • Animals seen: turkey vulture, spectacled caiman, river otter, green iguana, spider monkey, little blue heron, anhinga, mangrove swallows

Today the Intrepid trip proper began! This morning (8am-1pm) we drove from San José to La Pavona (Embarcadero a Tortuguero) dock (via a quick toilet stop at El Yugo de Mi Tata). This journey was very beautiful and passed through Braulio Carrillo National Park. Once at the dock we then had a 1h30 boat journey on Suerte River (Good Luck River) / Penitence Lagoon to arrive at Tortuguero. On the boat journey itself we saw a whole bunch of wildlife, including an otter, a crocodile and our first monkeys of the trip! We had spent a lot of time spotting (and a whole lot of time travelling) so we had lunch and free time until dinner, lounging by the pool, exploring the souvenir shops of the tiny town, getting a drink from the many colourful bars and walking by the sea. At this point of the trip I had realised how expensive this holiday was actually going to be so I gave dinner a skip!

Tortuguero was a beautiful place to visit- one I probably never would have had the chance to have visited if I would have travelled solo (I would have thought it was too far away and too much effort to get there). The hotel was just a few minutes walk away from beautiful black sandy beaches- it was like a postcard! But the sea was very rough and full of debris so I would give swimming in the sea a hard pass and stick to the pool instead.



Day 4/20

  • Area: Tortuguero
  • Hotel: Miss Junies Lodge
  • Spend: $9.13 dollars breakfast, $40 boat tour and hike, $15 dinner, $40 turtle = £81.71
  • Animals seen: tiger heron, green iguana, white faced capuchin, amazon kingfisher, great egret, northern jacana, grooved beak ani, green heron. howler monkey, snake birds, long nose bats, purple gallinule, ring kingfisher, emerald basilisk, green turtle

We set off on a nature spotting boat trip at 8:30am. The boat also brought us at 11am to Barra Del Colorado National Wildlife Reserve for an hour long hike (2.6km) around the jungle and up Tortuguero Mountain to admire the view. We saw a lot of animals on the boat tour (I especially enjoyed the capuchins) but we did have to pay extra. If I was looking for something to exclude to save a bit of money, this is one of the ones I would go for.

We then had free time similar to Day 3 until it was time for our night turtle egg laying walk 9:30-11pm (1.6km). This for me was the absolute highlight of the whole holiday. We got to see green turtles very close, maybe just 1-2m away, laying eggs in front of eyes. We then watched them as they journeyed through the sand back to the sea. The turtles were so beautiful, the rangers so caring of the wildlife and the experience magical. I was surprised by how big the turtles were but the rangers said they were medium sized!




Day 5/20

  • Areas: Tortuguero to Santa Rosa
  • Hotel: La Reserva Juanilama Rural homestay
  • Spend: 2100 snacks and drink, 2000 beer, $10 farm tour  = £13.78
  • Animals seen: three-toed sloth, iguanas

Today we had the journey from Tortuguero to Santa Rosa. We set off a 9am for our 1h30 boat, followed by our bus journey. We had a quick pit stop on the side of the road to see a sloth our lovely guide Raffa had spotted by the side of the road. We also had a stop at midday at Frutería Kristal to try lots of different fruits from all around Costa Rica, including: mango, pineapple, soursop, palm peach, baby banana, zapote, yellow mombin, rambutan and passion fruit. Soursop was my absolute favourite, even more so than mango (which I love!). I tried rambutan while in Costa Rica a few days ago but I would never have tried such a wide variety of fruits so I was really glad our guide had arranged this for us.

After a second pit stop at Centro Turístico Las Iguanas (where lots of iguanas hang out), we arrived at La Reserva Juanilama at 3pm. We paid $10 for a coffee and chocolate tasting tour as well as a a walk around the garden (1.5km). If I were to repeat this trip, I would not have attended the farm tour. I was expecting a big walk around whole farm but it was actually more of a garden. The money did help the local people, however. Talking of helping the local people, that night we had a "homestay", where we stayed in someone's home (in groups so for instance in mine there were 6 of us in 4 bedrooms) and cooked a dinner with them. It was nice spending time with the people and it wasn't awkward like some of us were concerned it might be.



Day 6/20

  • Areas: Santa Rosa to Rio Celeste
  • Hotel: Hotel Catarata 
  • Spend: $1.66 water, $40 tubing = £32.66
  • Animals seen: crested caracara, three-toed sloth, yellow throated toucan, tiger heron

We left the homestay at La Reserva Juanilama that morning (8am) and arrived after around 2h at Reserva Indigena Maleku Capi Capi to learn more about the Maleku indigenous people, do some artwork with them and have some lunch. None of us really knew what to expect with the visit but it was really nice to sit down and do a little artsy project together.  

We set back off again at around 12:30pm (via a quick stop at Santa Isabel) before arriving at our hotel for 15 minutes to drop our bags off before the pick up for a white water river tubing adventure, which was 1h30 of fun (and bruises!) on the water. It was so much fun! I recorded the visit with my Go Pro and put together a little video without checking the audio first and I am laughing the entire ~~the entire~~ way through! The water was also a beautiful blue colour.




Day 7/20

  • Area: Rio Celeste
  • Hotel: Hotel Catarata 
  • Spend: $3 bus to national park hike, £10.65 entry fee to national park, $8.13 dinner = £19.38
  • Animals seen: eyelash viper, yellow throated toucan, common paraquat, daddy long legs, masked tree frog, red eye leaf frog, gar fish (heard a coyote)

We left our hotel in the morning at 9am (notice how we always set off early, that's because the weather is often quite bad in the afternoon with giant downpours) for Parque Nacional Volcan Tenorio for a 3h hike (6.5km), including a bright blue waterfall. This day was our only exception to the early morning weather. It poured it down! I've never seen so much rain before and I used to live in the valleys of South Wales! Some people had dry bags which were a great purchase for the soggy walk. It was actually really refreshing to see the rain part of the rainforest in full HD for the first time. After the deluge, we had the rest of the day free until a night walk hunting for amphibians at 6pm (1km).




Day 8/20

  • Areas: Rio Celeste to La Fortuna
  • Hotel: Hotel Lavas del Arenal
  • Spend: $60 volcano and hot springs, £5.84 washing, £2.53 iced tea, £10.73 dinner = £66.29
  • Animals seen: three-toed sloth, strawberry poison dart frog, eyelash viper

We set off (still soggy, despite the washing line I had made in our bedroom overnight!) from Rio Celeste at 8am. We had a quick stop at Árbol de la Paz to see a very old, very big and very beautiful tree, which was a really nice addition to the itinerary. We also stopped to do some laundry because all our clothes were still wet. At almost 11am we arrived at Arenal Volcano National Park Visitor Centre for a hike of a volcano (3.7km). Most of the time this volcano is covered in cloud but we were very fortunate to get the full and very lovely view. In total contrast to our previous walk, it was very hot and sticky. Some rain wouldn't have gone amiss! A lady took a group photo of us all in front of the volcano but managed to not include the volcano so I photoshopped it back again!

After our walk we arrived at La Fortuna for lunch at 1pm and then went to the hotel for some down time. At 4:30pm we headed back out again but to the hot springs for two hours followed by dinner in La Fortuna. The hot springs were lovely, especially after all the active activities we had been doing, but they did surprise me. I was expecting the springs to look very natural but actually it was pretty much a spa of a UK standard but with naturally heated water pools and no saunas. It was quite built up and I don't think you would have known it was natural thermal pools unless you read the signs that were around.  




Day 9/20

  • Area: La Fortuna
  • Hotel: Hotel Lavas del Arenal
  • Spend: £66.75 white water rafting, £3.94 on a thing to hold my glasses = £70.69
  • Animals seen: toucan, jesus lizard, egret

Today I separated from the group to go and do a day of white water rafting (level 3/4) with Arenal Rafting. I got picked up at 9am and the 3h of rafting began at 10:30am. It also included some lunch at 2pm at La Fortuna. It was a great day and rougher so more adventurous than the tubing. Also less painful! I did prefer the tubing though but I think that's because everyone from my group came. They allowed me to use my Go Pro but were very concerned that it might fall off the helmet. Fortunately one of the instructors had some rope and tied it on for me. The tour guide from Arenal Rafting also said that glasses were not allowed unless they had rope to secure them in place. Because I'm as blind as Velma I then had to purchase something to keep them on my face, something which I didn't find was required during my trip (my glasses stayed on OK zip lining, for instance!). The photos were an extra $40 but the family I rafted with bought them and I edited some videos in return so it worked out really well!




Day 10/20

Areas: La Fortuna to Monteverde
Hotel: Hotel Los Jardines
Spend: £1.78 pasty. £1.92 bread. £7.40 dinner. £3.84 cocktail = £14.94
Animals seen: litter frog, egret, kingfisher, hummingbirds, common dink frog

Today we had another bus and boat combo. We set off at 8am to get a 40 min drive then a 40 min boat trip across Lake Arenal. We arrived at our hotel at around 11:30am (via a stop at Restaurant El Trapiche) for 2h of downtime before meeting up again to head to the cloud forest for a walk at Curi-Cancha Reserve (3.6km). Unfortunately, there was actually no cloud in the cloud forest today! The walk also included a short suspension bridge walk and a visit to the Monteverdi Hummingbird Gallery. The gallery was another real highlight of the trip for me. It was just a small area with some bird feeders with nectar in but you were absolutely surrounded by hummingbirds left, right and centre. I've never experienced anything like that. They zoomed so close to you. It was incredible.



Day 11/20

  • Area: Monteverde
  • Hotel: Hotel Los Jardines
  • Spend: £35.88 hanging bridges, £45.05 zipline, £3.94 zipline photos, £1.35 pasty, £3.90 gift, £2.36 poster, £1.60 bookmark = £94.06
  • Animals seen: orange-kneed tarantula, northern emerald toucanet, central american agouti, white-nosed coati, toucan

This morning we had a hanging bridges tour (3.4km) 8-10am (7am pick up), followed by a zip lining experience at 11am, both with the same company, 100% Aventura. I didn't enjoy the bridges so much and would maybe considering dropping this for financial reasons. But I think I didn't enjoy it so much because we had no cloud in the cloud forest again. We did see a lot of mammals though, although they could also be seen around our hotel in Monteverde. I really enjoyed the ziplining. It was incredible to be in the superman pose, gliding above the canopies of the rainforest. If you're a thrill seeker I really recommend! 

We had the afternoon free so we wandered around Monteverde and then hiked the hill back to the accommodation. I really enjoyed having some free time in Monteverde . It was a very small town but it was nice to be able to walk from the hotel and have a mooch in all the shops and supermarkets.




Day 12/20

  • Areas: Monteverde to Manual Antonio
  • Hotel: El Faro Beach Hotel
  • Spend: 45p crisps. £16.40 dinner = £16.85
  • Animals seen: iguana, american crocodile

We were picked up at 8:30am to start the long 5h journey from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio. En route, we had a stop at Servicentro JSM in El Roble for some snacks and one at Crocodile Bridge to view all the american crocodile circling the water below the bridge. On arriving, we were all wowed by the view from our hotel. It was nice to have the afternoon off after so much adrenaline and travel recently to chill in the hotel or by the pool or at the beach.



Day 13/20

  • Area: Manual Antonio
  • Hotel: El Faro Beach Hotel
  • Spend: £0 (oh my gosh!)
  • Animals seen: two-toed sloth, central american agouti, three-toed sloth, hummingbird, howler monkey, capuchin monkey, brown basilisk, pelicans, crabs, iguana
Today we had a walk (departing 8:30am) at Manual Antonio National Park (2.6km). It was a pretty walk with lots of monkeys and wildlife but also, for the first time since our trip began, lots of other people too- it almost felt weird being around so many others! The park also contained a beach (although once you entered you couldn't leave). It was a beach of dreams and it was lovely to float around in the warm waters, although I later developed the sunburn to nightmares! One of my favourite parts of the trip was at this beach. Some tourists lying on the beach had some monkeys come and try and steal their things. Full on war broke out with plenty of screaming and a monkey bopped a guy on the head. It was hilarious! The monkeys were so close to us and so cheeky- I loved them! We didn't end up heading back to the hotel until 1pm then spent the afternoon chilling, until the group met for a dinner cooked by a local family in the evening.



Day 14./20

  • Area: Manual Antonio
  • Hotel: El Faro Beach Hotel
  • Spend: $65 kayaking, $10.13 dinner = £59.15
  • Animals seen: deer, iguana, crabs, white egret, common hawk, racoon

Today we had some time of until 11am, which is when we departed for some kayaking for the morning with William's Mangrove Tours. We had a fun little paddle around but it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. There wasn't so much paddling (3.5km) and we stopped a lot to talk about things like the environment, climate change and politics but these are things our amazing Intrepid guide Raffa had already spoken to us about. It was actually one of the activities I was most looking forward to on the trip so I think that made me a little disappointed. It was still a nice day though but I wouldn't book it again. It did include a lunch which was a nice add.



Day 15/20

  • Areas: Manual Antonio to San José
  • Hotel: Rincón del Valle Hotel
  • Spend: £1.88 beer, £3.25 lunch, £19.75 dinner, $5 travel to dinner, $20 tip  = £44.52

We had the morning free because we didn't head off until midday so I headed to the beach for a cold beer on the sand, which was delightful! When we were all packed up we headed for our final Intrepid stint of travel, back to San José. We went via El Jardín Restaurante & Souvenirs for some last minute souvenirs. On arrival at our hotel we had an hour free before being whisked off for our last meal all together (sad!). It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone and I could definitely spot a few tears in a few eyes! 




Day 16/20

  • Areas: San José to Playas del Coco
  • Hotel: Hotel Villa del Sol £30.52 (including a voucher I had)
  • Spend: £2.74 Uber to bus station, 5200 San Jose to Liberia bus, 1000 Liberia to Coco bus = £11.85

So breakfast was had, many many goodbyes were said and it was time to have a solo adventure once more! As an avid diver I had Googled the best diving in Costa Rica and Coco came out as one of- if not the- best. To make it even more of an adventure (and to save on them dollar dollar bills yoo!), I took public transport, which was hella cheap and hella long.

I took an uber from my hotel to Pulmitan de Liberia bus station (just make sure you walk directly past the people trying to get you to buy tickets outside - there is an official counter inside the station). All the direct buses for 2pm to Playas del Coco had sold out (this was at 10:45am!) so there was only the 4pm direct left. But there were buses to Liberia so I took the 11am and planned to change and buy a new ticket at Liberia. Just a heads up, the bus station doesn't have WiFi, the bus had no air con and the seats had no seatbelts (but it was going to get worse than this!)! The bus had a stop at the services at 1:45pm at El Gran Parqueo, where everyone had to get off the bus for a 15 minutes break. I arrived at Pulmitan de Liberia Transporte at a few minutes to 4, enough time to catch the 4pm to Playa del Coco. I really recommend the direct buses San Jose to Coco though - there was no luggage storage on the Liberia to Coco bus so it was bags on laps (this was difficult because I have a gigantic rucksack). Gigantic rucksack was also not helpful during the 30 minute walk from the bus stop to my hotel. I definitely should have gone for a hotel near town, although it was beautiful! Since I set off at 10:30am and had arrived at 6pm (just as the sun was setting) I gave myself the evening off! Public transport is long but is 100% doable, even if your Spanish sucks!



Day 17/20

  • Area: Playas del Coco
  • Hotel: Hotel Villa del Sol £30.52 (including a voucher I had)
  • Spend: $165 dive cost, $20 nitrox use (two cylinders), $30 kit hire = £168.84
  • Animals seen: pacific giant manta rays, octopus, humpback whales, moray eels, puffer fish, box fish, black tip shark, green turtle

I walked to the Rocket Frog Dive Shop for 7:30am (unfortunately breakfast at my hotel started at 7:30am so I missed that!) for the two dives I was most excited for- the Bat Islands or Isla Murciélago. This diving location  is located 30 miles off shore from Playas del Coco so was 1h boat trip one way just to get there. The boat was very small with lots of divers and cylinders falling down on the trip. It was not the most comfortable trip! Or actually the most comfortable dive- conditions were for advanced divers only with a great deal of drift. For dive 1 we went to Big Scare and dive 2 was at the Black Rock. We were hoping to see bull sharks but had no luck in that department, although we did see a black tipped shark. We did have a lot of luck elsewhere though- three giant manta rays! They were beautiful and made the trip totally worth it! We were also incredibly lucky to see two juvenile humpback whales during the surface interval, who journeyed with us for a little time. They alone would also have made the trip worthwhile! And then later we just saw the head of a turtle surfacing- to me it looked like a coconut!

I thought the day of diving was really good, even though it was a little chaotic to start. The engine of the boat actually broke on the way back so we had to limp back and it took a very long time. I think it was around 3pm by the time I got back to the hotel (still, plenty of time to watch the sunset at the becah). I think next time I would ditch the nitrox to save money. I had heard it was possible to do three dives if you had nitrox so that's why I got it, but found out that we were only be doing two so that was a bit of a shame. 




Day 18/20

  • Area: Playas del Coco
  • Hotel: Hotel Villa del Sol £30.52 (including a voucher I had)
  • Spend: $85 dive cost, $20 nitrox, $30 kit hire, £18.62 gifts, $4 gift = £127.78
  • Animals seen: black tipped sharks, moray eels, box fish, puffer fish, cornet fish, dolphins

Today it was dive day 2/2, this time some local diving. This time we set off in a very big boat with plenty of space. It was also nice to see good dive briefings and safety talks etc. It was only 30 minutes to the first dive site, Viridor and maybe 10 minutes to the second site, Argentina Point. During dive 1 we saw maybe 5 black tipped sharks, which was really cool (although my Go Pro was playing up, annoyingly- fixed itself for dive 2 where there weren't sharks though!). On both dives we saw moray eels, box fish, puffer fish and lots of shoals of fish. There were lots of cornet fish, which there weren't any of at Bat Islands. I saw three spotted eagle rays which looked tiny compared to the rays the day before! And I'm sure I spotted a scorpion fish but they're so well camouflaged I'm not 100%.

Overall it was a great day of diving. I even saw two pods of dolphins on the surface on the way back. Sure we didn't see as much as the day before but it was a comfortable dive, we still saw a lot, visibility was great, conditions were not at all advanced, it was lovely! Also, once back at the dive shop we all had a (free!) Rocket Frog branded beer while chatting about the day of diving. It was a lovely way to round of the dive. And to round off the day I spent the afternoon slowing walking back to the hotel, walking through all the souvenir shops of Coco and walking via the beach to savour the view some more. I headed to the beach to watch the sunset, as was my norm at Coco!



Day 19/20

Areas: Playas del Coco to San José 
Hotel: Hotel el Descaneo £17
Spend: 900 bus Coco to Liberia, 1550 ice cream, 5210 bus Liberia to San Jose = £11.29

Today I had the long public bus journey back to San José so I would be all ready for my morning flight. I happened to walk in to downtown Coco just as the 10am bus arrived so managed to catch that. This was very fortunate because from the people I spoke to getting back to San José was a little trickier than the way from San José had been. The local bus station in Coco was shut down so you have to stand at bus stops at the side of the road. There are no direct buses Coco to San José (from what I was told) and I was told they depart every 30 minutes or 1h. I was also warned they don't always stop for you e.g. if the bus is full they will just drive straight passed! So very fortunate indeed!

Once at Liberia it was easy to catch the next bus to San José, although I did have to wait an hour until midday for the next bus. I spent that hour at McDonald's which was only a block away, had free toilets (you have to pay at the bus station), free WiFi (there's none at the bus station) and air con (again, none at the bus station). I treated myself to a McFlurry (I wanted a milkshake but the machine was broken- a universal McDonald's conundrum!). 

When I arrived in San José at around 5pm I had an early start for my flight so decided to spend the evening chilling in my (frankly horrible!) hotel! I was hoping to mooch around town some more but the rain was torrential and I didn't want a load of soggy belongings for the plane journey home. So instead I packed and hunkered down for the evening. 



Day 20/20

Areas: Playas del Coco to Dan José
Hotel: Hotel el Descaneo
Spend: 2000 airport bus = £2.89

I begrudgingly woke up to my 4am alarm to get ready and walk to the Terminal Tuasa San José - Alajuela to take the local public bus to the airport. I was a bit concerned about wandering around alone in the morning but it was OK. I had a 7:55am flight and got back to London Heathrow a day later at 7:40am, finally arriving to a proper bed to sleep in at 2pm!




Overall

I have had an awesome time in Costa Rica- truly amazing! I loved the country, loved the people (they were very friendly), loved the animals and the care for the environment everywhere. It was staggeringly incredible. 

So what were my highlights
  • Seeing the turtles lay eggs at Tortuguero
  • All of us tubing and laughing together
  • Zip lining in the superman pose above the rainforest canopy
  • Being surrounded in every directions by hummingbirds
  • Seeing monkeys being super cheeky on the beach.

And how about my recommendations
  • It is the same cost here as it is in the UK. The people in my trip were eating out for most meals of the day and I couldn't keep up with this (I couldn't afford to do that in the UK either). So expect it to be super super expensive. Far more than whatever you end up paying for the Intrepid trip itself
  • Pay for your Intrepid trip in the January sale. Others on my trip paid £1100. I paid £1500 and I booked last minute
  • Travel with Intrepid if you don't have time to plan or if you feel uncomfortable alone. It is a great way to see a lot and also make friends in the process
  • If you're going to Costa Rica, ask if Raffa can be your guide. He was amazing!
  • Bring a decent quality dry bag (seconded by a person in my group), sun cream, mosquito repellent, water bottle (not all national parks allow plastic in), a whole giant ton of anti-diarrhoeals and dioralyte (I was sick pretty much from day 3 throughout and this really surprised me because I've been everywhere and been fine. One person in my group recommended bringing a small mountain of Imodium!). Some extras suggested by people in my group: enough pants to wear (clothes don't really dry due to humidity), a good pair of water shoes, rash vest, jungle trousers, two swimming costumes not one
  • The wet season isn't that wet so don't be put off
  • The public transport is totally doable, even solo and without Spanish, and is cheaper than chips!
  • Bring as many USD with you as you can. Pay for things like food on card (any time there isn't an extra charge do it) because pretty much all the activities had discounts for paying in USD cash and/or 13% or higher fees for paying on cards. This will also help you avoid ATM charges. I took out ₡2000 at the airport ATM to pay for the bus (which is colons only) and was charged ₡4000. On a second occasion, I got $60 from an ATM and was charged $69. My card is fee free. Avoid them as much as you can 

How much did it all cost (this is one trip that is really going to make my eyes water)? The total trip cost was £3483.07. I will not be eating in a very long time! And I won't be getting any furniture for my house!
  • Intrepid: £1543.50 (this is including a 10% student discount, which can only be used on full price trips)
  • Flights: £931.85
  • Accommodation beyond Intrepid: £115.17 
  • Other travel: £36.72 (excluding travel to airport in London, which was £22.39)
  • Food: £150.05 (again this is skipping most meals, living on crackers and when eating, choosing the cheapest thing on the menu and drinking water)
  • Gifts and souvenirs: £29.62
  • Activities: £641.27 (£274.72 diving so £366.55 of Intrepid activities)
  • Other: £34.89