Boston To Costa Rica: $330

Here’s a pleasantly low fare between Boston and San Jose, Costa Rica: $330. I’d even call it astonishing if I hadn’t seen a fare of $275 just a couple of months ago.

That’s round-trip, with all taxes and fees included, by the way.

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Costa Rica Tops In Sustainable Happiness

Doña Margarita is 81 years old. She makes the best tortillas on Earth.

The people of Costa Rica live the longest, happiest, most ecologically sustainable lives on the planet, according to the Happy Planet Index formulated by a British research group, CNN reports.

The index doesn’t rank the happiest places on Earth, exactly. It combines the self-reported life satisfaction of a nation’s population with its ecological footprint and life expectancy to rate “the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens.”

I’ve been to Costa Rica many times, starting in the early 1990s, when my parents served in the Peace Corps there.  And I’m not surprised it came out on top. (The Dominican Republic came in second, and Latin America scored well, generally.)

(See my Costa Rica photo gallery.)

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New Photo Galleries: Turkey & Costa Rica

I recently posted photo galleries from Turkey and Costa Rica. Have a look:

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Rio Celeste, Costa Rica

Photo: Volcano Tenorio, Costa Rica

My niece, Allie Leblanc, snapped this photo from the window of our rented SUV as we drove along a dirt road to the Tenorio Volcano National Park in northern Costa Rica.

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Retiring To Costa Rica vs. Living There

Shortly after I arrived for an extended visit to Costa Rica I ran across a story from USA Today about foreigners buying retirement homes in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica.

As I traveled around Guanacaste with my parents, we saw some of the luxury beach compounds being marketed to foreigners, mainly Americans. The billboards advertising them are in English, and even modest properties being sold by local families have signs that say “for sale” instead of “se vende.”

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The Wonders Of Arenal Volcano

In the wee hours of this morning, my parents and I sat on a bench at the Hotel Linda Vista, high up on a ridge in El Castillo de La Fortuna, Costa Rica, and watched lava flow from the volcano Arenal.

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Costa Rica Modernizes, And Its People Benefit

Thirty years ago there was no passable road to the town of Bijagua de Upala in northern Costa Rica. Twenty years ago there were no public telephones. Ten years ago there was no Internet access.

Today there are at least two Internet cafe along a paved road with street lights. People drive past chatting on their cell phones. (My friend Andres answered his while we were horseback riding.) A string of windmills whirls away up on the ridges leading into town. There are several small hotels and cabinas, and a pizzeria.

It would be fashionable of me to decry the modernization of Bijagua, but I won’t.

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On Hot Water And Gratitude

One of the great, unremarkable pleasures of my daily life is a steaming hot shower. It just doesn’t occur to me even to feel grateful for it.

But most people on this planet do without running hot water. So you might think I could handle a cold shower for a few days, especially when visiting in a tropical climate.

But I can’t. And that’s why I’m grateful for the suicide shower.

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Hospitality, Costa Rican Style

A few days ago we bumped our way up a steep, rock-strewn road in a four-wheel-drive SUV, 10 miles up the side of a mountain to the Tenorio Volcano National Park in northern Costa Rica.

As we approached the ranger, my mother threw up her hands, “Wilber!”

“Doña Mary!” he said.

This is what it’s like to travel around Costa Rica with my parents, who served in the country as Peace Corps volunteers almost 20 years ago. The very fortunate entourage of Doña Mary and Don Jerry get free lodging in a beautiful cabin, lavish homemade meals, guide service, horseback rides. Whatever we want.

Estan en su casa, they tell us, and they mean it.

Best Tortillas Ever

I guess most people come to Costa Rica for the beaches and the rain forest, which are very nice indeed. But I’m here for Doña Margarita’s tortillas, las mejores del mundo.