Tica Bus Pickup in Liberia, Costa Rica

Pulmitan Station in Liberia, Costa Rica

As we wrote previously, we were surprised how simple it was to buy our Tica Bus tickets online. The next step of course was using them.

In communication with Tica Bus we confirmed that the location for pickup had changed since the last time we had travelled this route. With the construction of the overpass, the new pickup spot was at the Pulmitan Bus Terminal. The rep from Tica Bus wasn’t able to give me the direction for the terminal but confidently told me that all the taxis know where it’s located. Not being one to leave such an important detail to chance I was able to get a Google map to show the location of the terminal by using the website: http://thebusschedule.com/cr/index.php. We tried to get information about what time the Tica Bus would arrive from the ticket & information booths inside the Pulmitan station, but they weren’t helpful at all and of course spoke no English.

Interior of Pulmitan Terminal

Our tickets were booked on the 6:00 am bus out of San Jose which meant that it arrived in Liberia between 10:00-10:30 am. Our bus pulled right into the terminal, but we know that at times when the bays are full it will pull into the lot across the street from the terminal and load the bus from there. There wasn’t an assistant on the bus for our trip who usually would collect the border fees, which meant that when we arrived at the border the bus driver arranged for a woman to take us to where we had to pay our exit tax. 

There are new ex-ray machines to examine your luggage which modernized the process, but we were still about 1 ½ hours at the border before getting on our way into Nicaragua.

We arrived in Granada about 3 pm and there were taxis at the drop off point to take us to the hotel. Our taxi driver wanted $10.00 US to take us to where we were staying, but we knew that this was way overpriced.  We had checked beforehand and had been told that the fare for the taxi is 10 Córdoba’s per person. Quite often they will charge for your luggage which should still have only cost us 50 cords. We agreed on 60 cords and in no time at all we were settling into our accommodations.

Pulmitan Terminal - Liberia, Costa Rica

Maleku Tours - Liberia, Costa Rica

Tempisque River Boat Tours

When we originally booked our tickets through Air Miles we were scheduled to fly on Sunday, December 11th and transfer to Nicaragua by bus on the following day. However, Air Canada contacted us to inform us that they had cancelled our flight and we had the choice of leaving Halifax on Friday, December 9th or the following week on the 15th. Since we had already booked our Tica Bus tickets we opted to leave sooner, rather than later. With leaving two days earlier it meant that we had time to book a tour and enjoy what Costa Rica has to offer.  We decided on the Palo Verde Jungle Tour.

Iguana

We contacted Maleku Tours for airport pickup and also to take the Palo Verde Jungle Tour. Since we have used them before for transfers to the Riu Guanacaste we were not surprised when they responded quickly to our email request and all our arrangements were in place in no time at all.

Airport pickup went smoothly as they were waiting for us as we exited the airport. We were surprised to have personalized service with Eugenia and chatted all the way to the hotel catching up on what has been happening in the area over the last few years.

The following day Eugenia met us at 7:30 for our day tour to Palo Verde followed by lunch at Rancho Los Coyotes. All arrangements went smoothly. We had exceptional wildlife viewing on the Tempisque River with iguanas, crocodiles and birds galore.

After the boat tour, Eugenia located Howler monkeys for us and stopped for us to take pictures of them. By chance, the location that she stopped the van was along the route that the troupe used to cross the road and we were able to take some amazing shots of a mama howler and her baby.

 

Lunch at Rancho Los Coyotes was delicious and was ready as soon as we arrived. Before we left the Rancho some local artisans showed us how they make pottery - truly beautiful works of art that can be purchased right on site.

If you are in the Liberia area, we highly recommend using Maleku Tours – you will truly receive excellent service. https://www.malekutours.com/