In February I travelled to Costa Rica with Encounter Latin America. It wasn’t my first time — it’s my favourite country — but this time I went with a different goal.
To understand how to show this destination from the inside. Not from a description, but from what it actually feels like to be there.
I went with my boyfriend. He’s the kind of person who always wants to know more. He asks the guide questions, talks to people, wants to understand how everything works. And I, with my camera, ended up capturing exactly that: not the landscapes or the animals, but the moments where a real connection forms with the people who make each experience possible.
That’s what I love to show. And Costa Rica gives you that naturally.
Arenal: when not seeing the volcano is still worth it
It rained the entire way up. Not heavy rain, just that constant drizzle that never stops. It was warm anyway, and that mix of humidity and green does something strange to the smells of the forest: they multiply. Every step smelled stronger than the last. It was relaxing in a way I didn’t expect.
When we reached the top, the volcano wasn’t there. Just a white wall of mist in front of us.
In January there’s a microclimate that makes seeing it a matter of luck. We didn’t have that luck. And still, it was one of the best parts of the trip.
The guide was warm, funny, and incredibly knowledgeable. My boyfriend spent the entire hike talking to him, learning, asking questions. I filmed all of that. Those conversations ended up being far better than any shot of the volcano.
The coffee and chocolate tour was our favourite experience in the whole area. They take you through the entire process, the plantation, and you end up making your own chocolate and your own coffee. You’re right there in the middle of it, hands in, and the quality is incredible. We left with our hands covered in cacao and wanting to go back. Immersive, complete, and nothing about it feels staged.
The cooking class wasn’t quite what we expected. We were hoping for something more local, more like someone’s home. It was organised, a bit set up for tourism. But we shared the table with people from different countries and ate well. For groups or anyone after something more social, it works.
And the hot springs. Impossible not to mention them. After days hiking in the rain, getting into that water was exactly what the body needed.
Arenal is that kind of place where the experience depends much more on what happens along the way than on reaching any specific point. The volcano may or may not be there. Everything else will be.
The night walk: the smell of food before it even started
When we arrived, it was a family’s home. But the garden was so large and so wild that at night it felt like an excursion in itself. Not sure if it was the size or the darkness, but it didn’t feel like a garden at all.
We walked in and you could already smell the food. They were cooking dinner. Something about that made everything feel real before anything had even started.
I’ll be honest: I’m not a big fan of bugs at night. It made me a little nervous. It was drizzling, we walked through the trees with torches, saw spiders and frogs in colours I had never seen before. The colours are incredible, that part got me. But it’s an experience that takes time. You need patience and a willingness to go slow.
The best part came at the end. When the tour finished, they were waiting for us on the terrace with a homemade casado. We had tried others before, but this one was different. You could tell they had cooked it themselves. The terrace was large, well lit, there were other tourists around, but it still felt intimate. Sitting down to eat with them, in their home, after walking through their garden. That’s exactly what I want to show when I create content.
What makes this experience special isn’t the wildlife. It’s being welcomed into someone’s home and leaving feeling like you were actually there.
Santa Teresa: my favourite place
Santa Teresa is my favourite place in Costa Rica. It has a vibe that’s very hard to explain and even harder to capture on video.
The beach is huge and long, with big waves for surfing. There were people but you never felt crowded, the beach is just that vast. By midday the heat gets intense and the best thing to do is find a tree and stay there for a while, with no rush. The restaurants and coffee spots look like they were pulled straight from Pinterest, but without feeling fake. And the sunsets are a ritual: at that hour the whole beach fills with people who stop everything just to watch.
Santa Teresa is more of a place to be than a place to do. The rhythm is slow, the pace is yours, and the days pass without you noticing. For travellers who need to disconnect and actually feel somewhere, this is it.
Manuel Antonio: more Costa Rica
Manuel Antonio feels different to Santa Teresa. More local, more of the country. The restaurants, the beach, the energy, everything has a different tone.
The heat during the day was overwhelming, that heavy humid kind that sits on you. By late afternoon it eased a little.
The tour through the National Park was incredible for the wildlife. There was everything: monkeys, which by that point in the trip had almost become part of the scenery, and others we had never seen before. At one point the guide spotted a highly venomous snake, rare and hard to find, right below where we were standing. No danger, but breathtaking. That kind of moment you don’t find anywhere else.
It got long in the heat, and we would have loved more time on the beach inside the park, which is beautiful and we didn’t manage to explore fully. Manuel Antonio rewards those who plan well: the timing, the pace, how much you try to fit in. Go slow, leave room, and it gives back a lot more than you expect.
What doesn’t fit in a photo
There’s something about Costa Rica that you can’t fully capture.
Pura vida isn’t just a phrase. It’s a way of moving through the world, of connecting with people, of taking your time. You feel it in the guide who explains the ecosystem with genuine passion. In the family who welcomes you with a home cooked meal after a night walk. In the conversation that starts on its own between my boyfriend and someone local.
That’s what I try to show with my content. Not the perfect landscape, but what happens when you let the place take over. And that, Costa Rica gives you without you even having to look for it.
Want to include Costa Rica in your itineraries?
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