[WLVRYN]

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Costa Rica can be great if you stick to the west coast. The east coast has more than it's share of gang activity, and San Jose is a cesspool.

The nicest part of the entire country is the Manuel Antonio National Park region in the southwest. Between the town of Quepos and the park is a small but nice motel called El Mono Azul. It is run by an American woman who used to teach at Berkley, but she had hippy tendencies......so, she built a motel in the jungle. The Pizza (?) is the best I've ever eaten.
Anyway, it's a short walk to the beach and National Forest or a short bus ride to Quepos (Casinos, Drugs).
White water rafting outfit is right across the street. You can see all of the wildlife in the national forest, about a mile away.

Oh, and don't leave your bags unattended. The locals won't take anything, but the monkeys will.

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I'd echo all of this, except the hotel part - we stayed at a nice resort that I'm blanking on the name right now. We did a jungle cruise in the mangrove jungle, and it was pretty cool. All sorts of wildlife, including monkeys that come onto the boat and eat bananas from your hand. We also did a zipline tour in the rainforest which was fun too. Quepos is nice, but its a helluva long drive from San Jose. On the way down there is a bridge (I dont know exactly where it is), and under that bridge there are a bunch of gators/crocs (I never know which is which). People stand on the bridge and throw meat down to the g/c's and they go nuts. A couple of them are like 15+ feet long.