First off, Costa Rica is an inspiring country. Past leaders showed a tremendous amount of foresight, from abolishing the army in 1948 and redirecting that money into education, to protecting their rainforests and other natural resources for one of the best eco-tourism situations in the world. They derive a high percentage of their power from geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind sources. Even their coffee--when growers realized they couldn't compete on a quantity level with Columbia and Brazil, they concentrated on growing gourmet coffee, planting shade trees on their coffee farms so the coffee beans grow bigger and juicier.
We hiked in rain, dry, and humid forests, spying on howler, white-faced, and spider monkeys. We took a river tour and spotted crocodiles, green and black iguanas, and a laundry list of birds. (My favorite was the greenback heron, which catches insects and uses them as bait to catch fish--nature's fly fisher.)
I had several opportunities to fish while in Costa Rica. I brought down a four-piece fly rod and fished from a kayak in the large bay behind our hotel. I used a sit-on-top yellow two-person ocean kayak. I had a hard time chasing down the Pacific bonito that blitzed frequently in the bay, but twice found myself in on the action. It's breathtaking to be in the middle of a froth, little tunas boiling all around. I also had some encounters with jack crevalle and little green jacks, which remind me of blue runners.
I took one bottom fishing trip, where we anchored off a reef and dropped bait down for grouper, snapper, and triggerfish. And finally, I took one offshore trip, where we trolled for wahoo. Didn't get one of those, but hooked into more bonito, a dolphin (mahi), and a spunky little yellowfin tuna quickly became sushi.
