Costa Rica at a slow clip
Cruising the Pacific Coast of the Central American country under sail is an exercise in languid relaxation.
I am standing on the edge of a ravine in an incense-scented spa pavilion that’s open to the elements. “Hold the railing, close your eyes, breathe deeply and listen,” says Mauren, the therapist at Amor Arenal rainforest lodge. The sounds intensify; shrieking monkeys, birds whooping and whistling in the canopy, the whisper of the wind, a river rushing below. Mauren massages my knotty shoulders and I feel a strange rush of emotion before going into a deep meditation. When she tells me to open my eyes, it’s as though all my senses have shifted up a gear, the emeralds and greens of the rainforest more brilliant than anything I have ever seen.
My time at Amor is a brief taste of “pura vida”, the catch-all phrase loved by Costa Ricans to express happiness, optimism and a sense of living life to the full – and by the tourist board as a slogan. I’m here to sail the Pacific coast on the tall ship Star Clipper, but two days in the mountains before the cruise show a different face of this lush Eden.
Costa Rica is compact, a bit bigger than Denmark, so getting around by car is easy, apart from the jams of juggernauts and recent mudslides from an excess of rain. That aside, the drives are beautiful. Hydrangeas with flowerheads the size of soccer balls bloom by the roadsides, bromeliads and strangler figs cling to tree trunks and hummingbirds whistle in the trees. It is strawberry season and roadside shacks are piled high.
I hike to the top of Poas, one of the country’s five active volcanoes. Embarrassingly short of breath at the summit at 2697m, I look down into one of the world’s most acidic crater lakes, where sulfurous clouds billow out of fissures in the rock. There is a visit to the Doka Estate, a sustainable coffee plantation owned by the Vargas family since 1940, where I have a go at picking beans.
Swapping cloud forest and highlands for the steamy heat of the coast, I head to the town of Puntarenas, where the four-masted, 110m, 170-passenger Star Clipper waits, ripe with the promise of a week of swashbuckling adventure. The cruise line has returned to Costa Rica after an absence of nine years and I am on one of the first outings. The company’s ethos is to travel under sail as much as possible, minimising fuel consumption. In no time we’ve pushed off the dock, all 88 passengers gathering on deck as the crew unfurls 3365sq m of sail. An orange full moon hangs in the sky as Captain Basica Ante sets a course south, close to the border with Panama, before heading north towards Nicaragua. The ship’s theme song, Conquest of Paradise by Vangelis, booms across the deck.
At Golfito, one of my favourite ports of the week, the air is so humid it feels liquid. Jungly cliffs plunge straight into a turquoise sea. Brown pelicans follow the ship before returning to their nests in the treetops. I join a dolphin-watching expedition, speeding along the forested coastline. We come across a pod of bottlenoses chasing a shoal of needlefish. The fish skitter across the surface while the dolphins work as a team to herd them and then lunge. Between mouthfuls they swim alongside the boat, leaping out of the water in showy formation, five abreast.
Later a storm breaks. Rain falls in sheets, all visibility gone. A small river flows through the alfresco Tropical Bar, the ship’s main gathering place, while thunder rumbles around distant hills. After the deluge we venture out for sail-away, the celebratory moment of departure. The crew in oilskins raises the sails, which release cascades of rainwater as they unfurl. A double rainbow arches across the dark sky. The reward for the rain is a spectacular sunset; clouds glow deep orange, the sea blood-red long after the sun has slipped below the horizon.
Those who travel with Star Clippers, of whom more than 60 per cent are repeat guests, are there for the sailing as much as the destination. So a day at sea is a much-loved part of every itinerary. Some passengers harness up and climb the mast for a bird’s-eye view from the crow’s nest high above the deck. Others join Kirby, the ship’s excellent musician, to sing sea shanties in the bar, fuelled by midmorning bloody marys. The sea, though, is flat and the air heavy. The sails flap in a desultory manner. A passenger says accusingly to the captain: “You said today was going to be a proper sailing day.” Slightly taken aback, he replies: “Yes, but to have proper sailing you must have proper wind.”
After dinner I wander up to the aft deck and gaze into the velvety blackness. The only sound is the gentle swishing of the ship’s wake. I decide to try Mauren’s meditation technique. I hold the railing, close my eyes, take a few deep breaths and listen. Gradually I realise that the splashing of the wake has become louder, accompanied by whooshing sounds. I open my eyes. A pod of dolphins is following the ship, their grey backs reflecting the light of the stars, the water almost luminescent where they jump and land with a splash. They’re an absolute joy to watch.
When the dolphins move on, I wander up to the White Night deck party. Lights in red, blue, white and green are projected on to the sails and people are dancing around the pool. Suddenly a wind whips up, filling the sails, imbuing Lionel Richie’s smoochy Stuck on You with an air of comedy as white dresses billow and the ship heels to one side, causing dancers to canter across the deck. Here is that proper wind for our petulant passenger.
To make the most of a Costa Rica cruise you need to book excursions. The beaches and towns where the ship docks are not destinations in themselves, just gateways to the country’s superb national parks and adventures such as whitewater rafting and ziplining. Bahia Potrero and Bahia Culebra in the north, for example, are dreamy-looking bays of forested headlands, bobbing yachts and sparkling sea, but the sand is fine and grey, so the water is cloudy and there is no snorkelling.
I book a river-rafting trip from Culebra, drifting down the Corobici River in a sturdy dinghy, the drenching from the rapids a welcome relief in the heat. Between rushes of adrenalin as we career over the rapids, the river is blissfully peaceful. Capuchin and howler monkeys watch from the trees. Enormous iguanas with spiny crests and striped tails bask on trees and rocks. Coatis – raccoon-like creatures – forage in a field. Crocodiles more than 2m long bask on the banks.
There is a party vibe on board as people make new friends, with jolly gatherings in the Tropical Bar that seem to go all day. My favourite activity at sea, though, is to clamber over the bowsprit and sink into the trampoline-like nets strung either side, gazing up at the intricate rigging and down at the prow, piercing the greeny-blue water.
One afternoon I stay in the net until the sun burnishes the water in gold and the sky is streaked with tangerine. A solitary sea turtle drifts right underneath me, minding its own business. Pura vida indeed.
In the know
Star Clippers has seven-night sailings in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and Costa Rica and Panama; from £1430 $2616) a person, twin-share. Multiple departures.
Sue Bryant was a guest of Swiss Travel and Star Clippers.
THE TIMES
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