I peer at the waxy, rigid, yellow flower, which looks like a beehive on a stick. “What on earth is that?” I exclaim. My son, Ben, quickly Googles the image. “A maraca plant, a member of the ginger family,” he tells me. Now he comes to mention it, the shape could pass for that percussion instrument.

Gasping at strange-looking flora and fauna is something that will become a norm for me, my husband Neil, and my sons Ben and Freddie, during our travels around Costa Rica.

Its name, meaning “rich coast”, speaks of the natural wealth of this small Central American country (a fifth of the size of the UK) that cradles five percent of the earth’s biodiversity, home to several types of tropical rain forest, including mangrove.

While walking around Lake Angostura, we marvel at the maraca plant some more, then at postman butterflies (black with bright orange patches), until a Montezuma oropendola — an eye-catching bird with long yellow tail feathers — flies by.

But our biggest whoop of excitement comes when witnessing a black-mandibled toucan stealing food from the beak of a smaller bird.

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Toucan (Photo: Unsplash)

The lake is right next to the gardens of our first hotel, Casa Turire, in the central highlands, a two-hour drive from the capital, San José. Its idyllic countryside location feels like the perfect place to adjust to the time difference — Costa Rica is seven hours behind GMT — and is built in plantation-style, with huge rooms set around a central courtyard and a gourmet restaurant.

Our plans in this region had been for a thrilling white-water raft adventure on the nearby Pacuare River, but recent heavy rains have made the river levels dangerously high. So we hike and bike, accepting that nature here can be as unpredictable as it is wonderful.

We breakfast Costa-Rican style, on rice and beans, fried plantain, and grilled salty local Turrialba cheese, made with cow’s milk, then cycle to the nearest one-horse village, past fields of sugarcane.

Just a few miles away is the Nortico cacao farm, that enjoys a symbiotic relationship with its environment. “Everything we grow has a use,” the owner, Aldo, tells me. “I plant hardwood trees such as kapok so that my young daughters can build with them in years to come.

Banana plants to provide food for us and shelter for the cacao plants. And we make natural insecticides too.”

Aldo points out the perfect tiny triangular nest of hummingbirds woven from leaves and flowers hanging on the cacao plants.

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Hummingbird (Photo: Costa Rica Tourism Board)

“Any pollinator is welcome here,” he tells me. Lessons in sustainability are followed by lessons in chocolate making. We grind the cacao beans to a paste before adding flavourings such as brown sugar, salt, cardamon and coconut, then roll the mixture to produce truffle-like treats.

Three hours by road delivers us to the Caribbean coast, where banana plantations owned by world-famous grower Chiquita line the road. (The banana is the biggest natural export after pineapples.) Our next stop is the eco-lodge Tortuga, named after the green sea turtles and leatherhead turtles that come to nest on this stetch of coastline.

If Casa Turire felt isolated, here we are well and truly cast away, the only option being to explore is by boat. At sunrise, armed with binoculars, we join the group tour, our fingers crossed for a sight of a sloth snoozing in a tree or a shy manatee.

However, it’s the birds that prove to be the most breath-taking, with the keel-billed toucan, with its rainbow bill, regularly swooping in to steal the show.

Private tours can be arranged with a guide, and we opt to go deeper into the national park by kayak to explore smaller tributaries only wide enough for these slender crafts. We glide through black reflective water, whose colour comes from tannin leaked by the vegetation.

Here, it’s just my sons’ happy laughter, the call of a yellow-crested night heron, and the splash from a disappearing otter which break the peace.

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Tortuguero (Photo: Pixabay)

Arriving at the point where the tributary meets the sea, we’re met by Lolo, a mutt of indistinguishable breed. With kayaks moored, we follow Lolo along the beach to the home of her local family which is expecting us for afternoon tea. Katherine and her husband make a living by making cheese and cooking for passing visitors.

We feast on mango slices roasted with cloves, traditional breads such as pan casero stuffed with a pumpkin paste, and vanilla rice pudding. In the outside kitchen, where chickens wander through, we’re given a lesson in making tortillas.

In this beach-side casa, surrounded by gazing cattle and fruit trees, their life seems to encapsulate a favourite local saying: pura vida, meaning pure life.

Costa Rica boasts six active volcanoes (along with 61 extinct) but by far its most striking is Volcan Arenal. For unbeatable views and the chance for a dip in mineral rich volcanic waters, we stay at The Springs, which also gives us the chance to try tubing — a gentler version of rafting, floating on large rubber rings carried by gentle class one rapids — and to follow trails past old lava flows in the National Volcano Park.

Now the Nicoya Peninsula beckons, located on the untamed Pacific Coast where lush jungle meets the sea. Santa Teresa, a one-strip town, owes its popularity to world-class surf, and is becoming a favourite with those looking to get away from it all. Celebrities such as Lady Gaga have homes here.

It would be tempting to spend your time swinging in a hammock at the charming beachside boutique hotel of Nantipa (and we do for the most part), but this region has its own natural delights to explore.

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Surf boards in Santa Teresa (Photo: Kate Wickers)

We head to the less-visited Curu Reserve, where a route on our map leads us through the mangrove forest. Hundreds of bright red land crabs scurry into their burrows on sensing our footfall.

At low tide, the mangrove’s long leggy roots are sunk into the sand, and we cross over small streams on rickety wooden bridges where signs warn of crocodiles. In the end, we only encounter one sleepy caiman, a small cousin of the alligator.

An iguana, mid-transformation from bright green to greyish brown camouflage, sits stock still on a branch. Howler monkeys bellow, crashing noisily through the branches to send down a confetti of leaves.

Further into the forest, we spy curious white-faced capuchin monkeys, still and watchful, and Freddie spots a coati — a small bear-like mammal with a long nose and striped tail — digging for crabs.

At the sheltered bay, from which small pleasure crafts set sail to the tiny island of Tortuga, we take the chance of a safe, surf-free swim, then sip mandarin juice and watch the brown pelicans swoop for fish, gulping back their catch whole. Flocks of green parakeets all chatter at once, hidden amongst the leaves of the eucalyptus tree.

Another day, we head to the tip of the peninsula to see the rare blue-footed bobbies on the windswept, ocean-front Cabo Blanco Reserve. Back at Nantipa, we dine barefoot on the sands and watch the surfers out to sea, battling the steady onslaught of tumbling waves that send a white mist to a sky where black vultures circle.

Our final destination is Finca Rosa Blanca: a working coffee farm and hotel with a unique décor, influenced by Spanish artist and architect Antoni Gaudi. Our suite has a muralled bathroom with a rainforest theme and a winding wooden staircase to a master bedroom with 360-degree views of the countryside and on to San José.

“I’ll make you the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had,” is the promise at the end of a tour of the coffee plantation. We let the smoky aroma fill our nostrils; as rich and strong, I think to myself, as the country that has produced it.

Getting There

A 14-night Family Adventure in Costa Rica itinerary costs from £6,675 per person including flights from Luxtripper, which creates bespoke family holiday itineraries.

Save 10% exclusively for Jewish Chronicle readers by quoting COSTAJC. Book by 31 Oct, 2022

Double rooms at Casa Turire cost from around £110, including breakfast.

For more information go to visitcostarica.com

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