- It's a good idea to buy a phone card before you leave the airport. To use it, you dial either "197" or "199" on a payphone, wait for a message and then dial the number. I wasted a lot of time trying to figure this out!

- Puerto Viejo isn't nearly as cool as it sounds in the guidebooks. It's overrun with ex-pats who seem to resent tourists. The beaches are kind of dirty and snorkeling is awful. Punta Uva is supposed to be a lot better. We headed down to Bocas del Toro (Isla Bastimentos) in Panama and found exactly what we were looking for. Beautiful beaches, fewer (and friendlier) tourists, and helpful locals. This is an especially great side trip if you find yourself in Costa Rica during Semana Santa, when hostels are booked and rates double.

- In Isla Bastimentos, we had a great time at Hostel Bastimentos. The rooms are clean, there's a communal TV room, and we met some great people. Don't do the $20 tour of Dolphin Beach, Coral Cay and Red Frog that the taxi drivers will insist on giving you.
Instead, spend one day snorkeling at Zapatillos. The next day, have them drop you off at Red Frog Beach early and hike the trail over to Polo Beach and Playa Larga (note: it's a pretty muddy trail). Pack food and refreshments (they're not available at the beach) and snorkeling equipment. We unfortunately never made it to Playa Larga, and only happened upon Polo Beach accidentally. Polo Beach is seriously one of the most beautiful beaches we'd ever seen - the waves break away from the shore so you can bask in the warm, crystalline waters undisturbed. There are massive coral reefs just off the shore and the water is absolutely transparent. The beach isn't overrun with tourists the way Red Frog is.
You can hire a water taxi person to drop you off at Red Frog and pick you up from Playa Larga or Polo at a designated time (you can't catch a taxi back from Polo).

- If you want to visit an indigenous community, you don't have to take the expensive, pre-packaged tour. Although everyone will tell you it can't be done, it's way nicer (and cheaper) to visit Watsi by yourself. Just take a bus from Puerto Viejo to Bribri. Catch a cab at the Bribri station to Watsi (about $3/1500 colones). There, you can get a tour (possibly from the tribal elder) of the nearby jungle and waterfalls, followed by a tour of the village. All of it will cost you about $15 per person and your money will go directly to the community, and not to a tour operator. You can even rent their room and eat meals with them for very little money. They don't speak English, so some basic Spanish is necessary.

- As a less crowded alternative to Monteverde we went to Los Angeles del Sur. I don't know whether it was comparable to Monteverde, but it's a good option during Semana Santa when everything is packed. However, you need a rental car to do this.
Angel Falls was a lovely B&B, and from there you can drive up to Villa Blanca. Don't take the expensive nature tour at the resort - instead drive to the gate at the top of the winding road and then backtrack about 100 feet. You'll find a national park trail that seems deserted. Take the 4k hike - it's incredible! We were alone with a ton of howler and white faced monkeys, beautiful crested guan and a grison - all in mid-afternoon when wildlife was supposed to be dormant. It's isolated, wild, and beautiful.
From there you can go down the road a little ways to catch the canopy zipline. I think you can even walk the trails at the resort for free, and you can view Arenal from the driveway. Try to get out as early as possible for the hiking, and do the canopy tour in the late afternoon.