Costa Rica whale watching season 2015 starts in September

To kick off the 2015 whale-watching season in Costa Rica, the Festival of Whales & Dolphins starts in September at Uvita Beach in southern Costa Rica. This year’s 2015 Festival of Whales & Dolphins will be held even longer than last year – over three weekends: Sept. 4 to 6, Sept. 12 and 13, and Sept. 19 and 20.

The 7^th annual festival marks the peak of the annual migration of southern Pacific Humpback Whales to the Ballena National Marine Park in Costa Rica. The Festival of Whales & Dolphins will hold whale-watching tours, a beach run and walk on Sept. 5, biking events, sand-sculpture contests, photography exhibits, concerts, environmental workshops, crafts and food sales throughout all three weekends.

Less than an hour north of the Ballena National Marine Park, Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living eco-community is offering a special promotion during Costa Rica whale watching season 2015. Stay two nights at the Costa Rica sustainable community, with full breakfast included, and receive a whale-watching tour for two persons with transportation from Portasol to the Ballena National Marine Park. The tour also includes snorkeling and a visit to the Ventanas sea caves.

Costa Rica provides an important sanctuary for endangered humpback whales to breed and give birth. Southern Pacific humpback whales swim north from Antarctica as far as Costa Rica to the warm tropical waters of Golfo Dulce and the southern Pacific coast from August to October. Then later from December to April, northern Pacific humpback whales swim thousands of miles from Alaska to the shallow coastal waters of the Ballena National Marine Park in southern Costa Rica.

 

The Ballena (“whale”) National Marine Park covers 272 acres (110 hectares) of land and 13,280 acres (5,375 hectares) of ocean. It was created in 1989 as the first marine park in Latin America, and is a vital refuge for marine life, including pilot whales, false orca whales, sea turtles, and Pacific Spotted, Common and Bottlenose dolphins. The Ballena National Marine Park is famous for its sandbar isthmus formed perfectly into the shape of a large whale’s tail.

Biologists consider the protected area of the national park a perfect spot between the northern and southern hemispheres for marine life because it is located in what is known as the Costa Rica Thermal Convection Dome. This large “bubble” of shallow, oxygen-rich warm water layered over the top of colder water with less oxygen creates an ideal habitat for marine life.

 

About Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living 

Looking to invest in real estate in Costa Rica or enjoy a Costa Rica vacation rental for your holiday? Visit the unique eco-development of Portasol Rainforest & Ocean View Living that appears in the new Hollywood movie “After Words”, with Marcia Gay Harden and Oscar Jaenada, that was filmed in Costa Rica.

Set on 1,335 acres of pure wildlife-rich rainforest on Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast, Portasol’s location is ideal – between Manuel Antonio National Park and the Ballena National Marine Park. Portasol is close to uncrowded tropical beaches and top whitewater rafting rivers. Offering Costa Rica property for sale and unique Costa Rica vacation rentals, Portasol is a perfect place to stay while you explore the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica.

Article by Shannon Farley

A little more about Atenas town´s history: Mules, Oxcarts and the train, how were they related?

Costa Rica has a lot to share and you, a lot to discover from this small country. Its history contains many important facts, lots of which are not so well known. This is the case of how mules, oxcarts, and trains, through time helped to create an important route for the future development and growth of the country, all happening here in Atenas, Costa Rica.

Let´s go back in time to give you a little stroke of what was the situation in Costa Rica in colonial times.

It was the year 1640 and the only way to get around the countries in Central America, was through a well known road, if you can call it a road, named “Camino Real” the Royal Road. These paths and trails left San José and continued its way down to a narrow bridge that crossed the Rio Grande River in Atenas, making all the way to Guatemala.  During the XIX century, the coffee export expansion started to increase and became Costa Rica´s most important export product, which led coffee growers to put a lot more interest in the building of a new road uniting the Central Valley with the port of Puntarenas, where coffee was sent to Europe through the Cabo de Hornos in South America. The road was then built in 1843, replacing mules for oxcarts and oxen giving it the commonly name of “Camino de Carretas” (Oxcart Road). 

This road became very important for Atenas since it was the reason for its development and growth as many “sesteos” or boarding houses sprang up along the way to accommodate the boyeros (ox cart drivers) as well as stables where the oxen and horses could rest. Nights filled with music from guitars, accordions, and the typical marimbas surrounded the environment either serenading lovers or setting up the stage for an unforgettable “bailongo” (tradicional dancing party) , while the smell of fresh poured coffee and other typical foods such as tamales and tortillas captivated  the oxcart drivers or “boyeros”, who sometimes traveled along with their families, to spend the night in town.

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The road grew very much in traffic but remained narrow in many sections causing accidents and fights and it was necessary to start setting up a set rules and fines in order to organize the oxcart movement.  Some of them restarted travelling right after the “bailongo”, where they had drunk more “Guaro de Caña” (sugar cane moonshine) than they could handle and jumped in their oxcarts and let, literally, that their good old friends, the oxen, drive them since they knew the way home by heart. This gave birth to the Costa Rican saying “montarse en la carreta” (jump on the wagon) referring to somebody who is drunk.

The road lost its importance on July 1910 when a new railway service started, loosing against progress and new technology. The camino de carretas made some of the towns along the way, including our lovely town of Atenas, become a distant memory in the heart of the people of Costa Rica.

But Atenas did not want to disappear. It  continued its way to grow back and be recognized for its importance as a coffee growing region filled with majestic landscapes and one of the best climates in the world, and since the railroad passed through the heart of the town it allowed visitors from the capital city to continue enjoying this lovely town.

 Nowadays, the train doesn´t work anymore and the only thing remaining which stays intact is a vast group of sweet memories from those good old railroad times, which are carefully and perfectly stored at the Atenas Railway Museum located at the same old railway station. This museum has been opened to the public since September of 2001 and receives visitors on Sundays and holidays from 9am to 6pm.

The museum shows samples of photographs, tools, and objects used during those old railroad times. It is a very nice way to come close with this piece of Costa Rica´s history and for the visitor a unique opportunity to go back in time and understand how everything combined to build what is today your very own Atenas!

Looking to move to Atenas Costa Rica? Try Atenas Real Estate. Reliable realtors Dennis Easters and Gerardo Gonzalez-Porras of Pure Life Development of Atenas offer the best Atenas homes for sale and Atenas real estate.
Article by Gabriela Serrano