Downtown Puerto Viejo, Dec 19, 2009. Photo by drewdomkus.

The Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels surveyed hotels around the country and the Caribbean hotels surveyed had a 100% occupancy rate. Other beach areas also reported very strong occupancy numbers although San Jose results were less positive.

Here at Puerto Viejo Satellite, the year also ended very strong with more visitors to the site than ever before: December ended with a record 15,735 different visitors coming to the website (32% over last Dec) and over 34,000 page views (37% over last Dec)!  That indicates a lot of potential visitors researching the area for the future vacation planning.  Of the visitors about 40% surfed the site from the United States, 10% from Canada, 26% from within Costa Rica and the remainder from the rest of the world.

The site also hit a new high ranking on the Alexa web tracking service; steadily rising through the rankings to break through into the world’s top 500,000 websites and is currently ranked 455,390. This is substantially higher traffic than any of the other Puerto Viejo area websites.

Why are these numbers significant?  Vacations always start with research and planning.  Bigger numbers can indicate more people are looking to plan their vacation on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica.  An informal survey shows that much of Puerto Viejo’s popularity has come at the expense of the traditional Pacific vacation crowd.  Despite decreased travelers overall due to economic slowdown, there continues to be a growing interest in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica.

We attribute this to our great community of users who over the year have left 100’s of comments on listings and on news articles and have helped us keep all our information current. There are now 204 places listed on the map: hotels, restaurants, stores, services, tours and more.  The site has also had a lot of new features added over the last year to keep up with the growing interest in the area and make one comprehensive place where visitors can find out everything they need to know about Puerto Viejo.

Here’s to a prosperous and safe 2010 for residents and visitors alike!

With it are expected to come some 20,000 visitors, 5,000 all the way from Europe.  Those visitors have reserved local hotels rooms from Limon to Manzanillo and are expected to spend an estimated $25,000,000 while in the area. The estimates are based on the amount of economic impact that the race had on Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 2007.

The race finished in Salvador de Bahia from its inception in 1993 to its last occurrence in 2007. The Costa Rican government is using these economic impacts to justify the investments they made to lure the race to Limon.

The biannual race is huge in Europe, considered one of the major sporting events of the year so will also bring lots of media attention and reporters to the area.

Transat route from La Havre France to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

More: La Nación: Regata dejará más de $25 millones en el país

Sitting at Chocorart looking out at magnificent rainforest I sipped my freshly made hot chocolate and sighed with pleasure… Chocolate and Humans were made for each other.

It’s the smell isn’t it, or is it the taste or the velvety feel of chocolate melting on your tongue? Ah, but it’s all of that and more. Our love affair with chocolate is an ongoing global passion … we give it as gifts, use it to express love or friendship and associate it with luxury. It’s indulgent, delicious, uplifting…chocolate makes you smile.

A tour around Chocorart in Playa Chiquita is a pleasure trip for the senses culminating in a wonderfully aromatic tasting session!

Following owner Marcos along woodland paths it wasn’t only the coloured cacao pods that caught our attention, but also the beauty of the surrounding forest, alive with butterflies and birds.

As we tasted the fruits of a cacao pod and chewed on a sliver of sugar cane there was a subtle aroma of chocolate wafting from cacao beans drying in the sun.

Meanwhile at the rancho Claudia had been busy….and on arrival we were presented with the purest hot chocolate I’ve ever had. Delicious, smooth and strong, it was a taste-bud sensation. As we listened to a little about the history of chocolate, Marcos crushed the beans and a heady perfume of chocolate filled the air.

No wonder the Aztecs considered chocolate as precious food for the Gods, using it in religious ceremonies and also in trade. And did you know that Costa Rica was the last country in the world to use cacao beans as currency? My mind drifts with the mouth-watering possibility of paying in chocolate…

Originally from Switzerland (also synonymous in my mind with chocolate) Marcos & Claudia are mines of information on ‘chocolatey facts’, having been farming their cacao plantation and creating organic chocolate here in Costa Rica for the past 15 years.

Their hand rolled chocolate batons, some with ingredients such as orange peel direct from their farm, are on sale in this area and further afield. Whenever I taste them I’m transported back to that fun sunny day that smelt of chocolate.

But before we leave, Claudia and Marcos have a final treat for us…A paste of organic chocolate and brown cane sugar with a slice of banana. It looks like the perfect chocolate mousse and tastes…yes, you guessed it: sublime.

There’s one little problem I should warn you about before you decide to take a Chocorart tour: you may find it very difficult in future to accept anything other than the purest in chocolate perfection. You have been warned: Once Tasted, Never Forgotten.

To take a guided tour of Chocorart:
Telephone: 2750 0075
Tour duration: Approximately 2 hours.
Advice: Wear closed shoes.
Price per person: US$22
Reduced rates for children: please inquire.
Spanish, English, French, Italian and German spoken.
Email: Chocorart@racsa.co.cr

Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com

Gecko Trail Adventures also offers a combination tour which includes a visit to a local indigenous Bri Bri family which grows their own Cacao and demonstrates the process of making chocolate from scratch as they’ve been doing it for generations. You can get details on that tour here.

The prices are only available for tickets booked on their website by Sept 15 for travel completed by Oct 31 and is subject to availability. But there are real tickets for sale on this deal: I did a quick search for a flight between San Jose and Tortuguero in September and sure enough a $15 flight was offered.

Go to www.natureair.com, put in your flight search details and look for the “Locos” fare category.

Remember that these are small prop planes with strict luggage limits of 30 pounds (13.6 kg) per person. If you exceed this, expect to pay more for your excess luggage than you paid for  your ticket!

Angelina Jolie stretched out a delicate hand and gripped mine tightly. I was enchanted. After all it’s not every day that you meet a star. Impressively beautiful but also graceful, her charisma was palpable.

As she wound her tail around my neck and swung upside down I wondered if her namesake has the same ‘star presence’… For the Angelina Jolie I met lives in Playa Chiquita, not Hollywood, but like her namesake, is surrounded by stars – of the Rainforest.

At Jaguar, Rescue Centre for the Protection and Conservation of Wild Fauna of Costa Rica, orphaned, mistreated, injured and confiscated animals are brought to heal and/or grow before being reintroduced where possible, back into their natural habitat in protected areas.

Young smiley sloths with Blanca, the famous ‘Barefoot Vet’

Angelina Jolie and friends are lovingly looked after by the owners of Jaguar, Encar & Sandro who are ably assisted by this coast’s own ‘Barefoot Vet’, Blanca, and enthusiastic volunteers. Encar & Sandro created Jaguar to fulfill a need and it has become their passion and indeed a way of life. Totally committed to conservation and rehabilitation, Encar & Sandro can be found surrounded by an ever changing ‘galaxy of stars’. For a guided visit please telephone 2750 0710 or you can book a tour online through Gecko Trail Adventures which includes transport and other area spots of interest.

Amanda, dreaming up some new seductive moves.

Your donation of minimum US$10 will go in entirety to caring for their stars of the rainforest.

Angelina Jolie may be one of the newer stars, but she shares the stage with an impressive cast. Amanda, a flirtatious kinkajou with an eye for a good looking man, is a permanent resident. With three feet instead of four, she lives at Jaguar and practises her seduction techniques on visiting men.

Hollywood stars often claim that working with children or animals is to sacrifice their share of the limelight and certainly the ‘baby stars’ at Jaguar steal the show.

The baby stars at Jaguar may be adorable but the ‘dangerous’ stars have an appeal all their own. Ever seen a Margay up close? Stunningly beautiful, fantastically feline and deceptively cute, try and resist the temptation to play with them…they’re wilder and stronger than they look!

Eyelash Palm Pitviper

And last, but certainly not least, are the creepy, slithery stars that can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck if you come across one unexpectedly…The Snakes.

Venomous and non-venomous, Jaguar’s snakes are reassuringly housed so that you can see them up close without fear. But perhaps after listening to Encar or Sandro you might feel quite differently about the Snaky Stars and applaud their efforts to breed endangered snake species to reintroduce into the wild.

So the next time you’re in the area, give Jaguar centre a ring and visit some of the ‘stars of the rainforest’… you’ll be helping to protect the wildlife of Costa Rica and enchantment is guaranteed.

Amanda enjoys a snack from a volunteer and Sandro	A baby raccoon cuddling up with brothers and sisters
Baby Ginger monkey with cool dude hairdo	Tigrili, the Margay, on the lookout for a game at Jaguar Centre
Gianni the owl at Jaguar Centre	Terciopelo / Fer de Lance at Jaguar Centre

All photos taken at Jaguar Centre and used by kind permission.

1. Cannon Beach, Oregon
2. Tulum, Mexico
3. Placencia, Belize
4. Morro de Sao Paulo, Brazil
5. Negril, Jamaica
6. Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
7. Cape Ann, Massachusetts
8. Huntington Beach, California
9. Outer Banks, North Carolina
10. Destin, Florida

We think we’re #1  but we’ll take the compliment! You can read the article here.

With average $250 a night rates, its also in a price class by itself.

A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World association, they offer a pool, spa, rooms with lighting which can change with your mood, restaurant and bar.

You can make reservations inquiries here.

Pictures, as they say, are worth a thousand words, so here are a few:

Reception and Lobby

Room

Pool

Traffic has grown at a very fast rate ever since the website has launched and the website is bigger and better than ever with:

• More listings than ever
• More features than ever like the recently added restaurant page or the listing detail pages (see this one for example)
• More complete information than ever – additional transport options for example added to the transport page as we find out about them

The area has also benefited from the marketing savvy of the owner one of the newer hotels in town, Banana Azul.  Banana Azul was recently even mentioned on the Today show as a affordable vacation spot in these recessionary times. As more people find Banana Azul, they also discover the whole area as they discover the place that is a good fit for them or visit local restaurants and tour providers.

The growing tour company Gecko Trail Adventures has also contributed. Their Costa Rica tour packages have a strong emphasis on the Caribbean coast and so many people discover this area even if they don’t know Manzanillo from Montezuma.

All in all, we see great things ahead!

With this change, the nightly room tax for a room in Costa Rica will now be 13% instead of 16.39% so for most visitors the savings from the hotel tax should offset the $15 additional paid for their tickets.

The government is also hoping that the new airline tax will be easier to collect and less subject to evasion as well.

The airline ticket tax took effect on April 1st. The hotel tax change was effective as of Friday March 27 but many hotels are just now hearing about the change and making it effective. For those hotels which include taxes in their rates, it will be up to them whether to decrease their rates accordingly or just take a little extra profit.

More: La Nación: Aerolíneas advierten que cobro de $15 más en boletos afectará turismo

Update Apr 4: The new tax rate in this article was initially erroneously reported as 13.39%. It should be 13.00%. The old tax was 16.39% since the 13% sales tax was also applied to the 3% ICT tax.

1. You will need to go at night and you must be properly equipped – for example flashlights will confuse the turtles and they may abort the nesting.. Only special red lights can be used.
2. You must go with a guide. Not only is this the law and is needed for safety given that you are out at night on a remote beach but you are much more likely to see the turtles.
3. You should work with a guide who is supporting conservation efforts.

Beyond that, this is an unforgetable experience, not to be missed!

We recommend the tours with Gecko Trail Adventures.  They hire the guides through ANAI, the local turtle conservation organization, so you are supporting their conservation work.  They also hire reliable local drivers and vehicles who can get you to the Gandoca beach without mishap.  Because much of the cost of this tour is the transportation to the remote starting point, the more people who do this tour, the cheaper it is per person!

You can get more information on this tour and make a booking here.