Maret in Costa Rica 2026

6 months before the trip, I told my parents I don’t want to go. 2 weeks before the trip, I told them that I didn’t want to go. 1 day before the trip, I told them I didn’t want to go. The day I was back from the trip, I told them thank you for sending me. 

My 3 week trip to Costa Rica started on July 1st. This was the longest trip I had ever taken without my parents.

The first destination was San Jose, the main city in Costa Rica. Our trip started off with a bang when our hotel room flooded due to a water problem on the first night of our trip. Though it was annoying to have to switch rooms, I found it very funny that this had happened to us just as we reached. It was almost as if they were saying “Hi welcome to Costa Rica! This is going to be different than what you’re used to.”

Our next destination was Ostional. This was a beach known for being a turtle conservatory where turtles lay their eggs. What it was not known for was having the worst hotel I had ever stayed at. We stayed in cabins in a small town where the shower was cold (a recurring theme on this trip), water wouldn’t come out of it right, and the room was filled with bugs and mosquitos. Thankfully I was able to sleep well in the mosquito net that I packed which was the best piece of luggage I brought with me on this trip. Despite the downside of the hotel, this town was actually very cool as we got to see turtles laying their eggs on the beach at night. This was one of the best parts of this town. I also got some amazing sunset pictures on the beach.

My favorite place on this trip was our third destination, Manuel Antonio. I had gone to Manuel Antonio with my parents on our first trip to Costa Rica but this time was different because we got to take a catamaran ride around the island. We spent the whole morning on a boat, drinking fresh fruit drinks and seeing the sights. Then we parked the boat and got out for snorkeling where we didn’t see a lot of interesting things, just some fish. While the snorkeling was disappointing, swimming in the water made up for it as we got to jump off the top of the boat and go down a slide as well. After the catamaran, we went to Manuel Antonio national park where we saw monkeys, lizards, and some sloths. We also got to swim at one of the best beaches I have ever been to. The sand was super soft and the water was the perfect temperature. I enjoyed 8 minutes of swimming there before the park closed down and they kicked us out. This day was my favorite on the trip with my highlight being the catamaran ride. 

Next came the biggest part of the trip, the homestay. I was with a family who ran a farm and sugar cane making tours for a living. They had one 20 year old daughter, a dog, a cat, and a horse. They were very nice to me, especially the dad who told me lots of stories about Costa Rica and their farm. He would explain to me (in Spanish because he didn’t speak English) about the different fruits and vegetables that they would get on their farm. Also, every day for dinner we would get a fresh drink made with a fruit from their farm. The food was also one of my favorite parts as it tasted super good and it was made fresh every day with products from the village. 

At the village, we did some community service like cleaning the library books and restocking the shelves. We also painted a mural in front of the library. 

While at the homestay, we went on many tours. One of the tours took us through a forest where we walked with local conservationists. While we were walking, we heard branches snapping in the trees and a low growl that sounded like some kind of an animal. We decided to walk faster and never saw what made the noise. We also did gold panning tours and finally, a tour of the sugar cane maker system called a trapiche with my host family. We ate lots of sugar cane products and my host family also sent some home with me as gifts. Our best tour though was when we went to Corcovado national park. To get to the park we left at 4 am and took a one hour bus ride to a dock. From there, we took a 2 hour boat ride to the national park that was only accessible by boat. The boat ride was my favorite part of this adventure because we got to see dolphins on our way to the park. At the park we saw wild pigs, lizards, and spider monkeys. After we finished at the park we had a lot of fun jumping off the dock and swimming around before going back to the village.

Another unique thing that we saw was a Tapir. Tapir is the largest land mammal in Central America and every night, it would visit my host family’s house to eat their bananas. It came so often that we even invited the whole village over to see the tapir and take photos. 

After 10 days of staying with my host family, it was time to say goodbye. Though I was a little sad to leave, I was also excited to go back home soon. After leaving the host family, we went into the highlands where we stayed at a lodge. It was very cold up there and we were super high up. On the drive up we drove through clouds and the altitude was so bad that I even felt like fainting one of the nights there. In the highlands, we took a tour of the land owned by the people in the lodge. During the tour, I ate a spicy flower from their garden and chewed on a numbing leaf we found in the wild. One thing that wasn’t fun however was a three mile hike we did up the mountain. Though we did fun things like climbing inside of huge trees, the altitude made it very hard to breathe and the hike was very difficult.

We finally returned to the city of San Jose where we stayed at a fancy hotel that I think we deserved after the whole trip. However our adventure wasn’t over yet as our flight to DC proceeded to get delayed due to weather and then canceled. Luckily my dad was able to find us a new flight because of all his experience traveling as a consultant. With some teamwork between my dad and the travel team in charge of this trip, they got us on a flight to DC and we reached by 2am. Unfortunately our bags went to a different airport as they didn’t get rerouted with our new flight. After driving to the other DC airport to get the bags we finally reached at 4am and I was happy to be home. 

I now realize that even though I didn’t want to go, by pushing myself out of my comfort zone I gave myself a once in a lifetime experience that I would never forget.

Take a look at the Album I put together - Maret in Costa Rica Photos and Videos