If you have flipped through any guidebook on Central America or Costa Rica, you should be able to recite “Dry season lasts from December through April”. The number of well-educated tourists that follow this advice can be proven in the term “High Season”, which was coined by the tourism industry for the influx of tourists that Visit Costa Rica during these months.

If you have lived through the Costa Rican “Wet Season” or its euphemistic equivalent “Green Season”, you would probably condone the marketing and competition for clients that makes Dry Season sound like heaven on Earth.

In dry season, residents can finally rub off the permanent mark left from clenching to their umbrella through daily downpours, the perma-dampness disipates, the emergency change you keep on hand for the inevitable 3-block taxi rides is forgotten and the roads change from rivers and sludge back to potholes and dust.

This does not mean however that every day for five months is identical. In November you can look forward to the 80% chance of rain showers daily forcast to be lightened to 40%. In December, when the rain disappears all together, many parts of the country experience high winds. San Jose might actually be called chilly through December and January, although any neighbor to the north would beg to differ.

By February, things start to get down right HOT. Guanacaste turns into a veritable desert with little to no rainfall and excessive heat. Forest fires become a regular occurance, and a flight over Papagayo into the Liberia International Airport looses all aesthetic appeal as the entire landscape turns a dusty shade of greyish brown.

Only some of the rainforest climates in the south Pacific and Caribbean side tend to escape this excessive dry period, but the heat mixed with humidity can be hard to take, especially when most tours require long legged pants and hiking boots.

By Easter time, the dryness hits its peak throughout the country. Through much of April you will experience the same climate, until toward the end when the rain will return without fail. While the cooling off is highly welcomed, the dry land often cannot take the excessive moisture, and flooding becomes quite common. Remote areas can be completely inaccessible in the rainy season as roads flood and weak bridges give out, leaving whole communities stranded.

So, if you have to choose between the two, I would suggest not taking your chance with nature and following the rest of the U.S. population in making “High Season” a reality. But if you want to get a touch of the green side of things as well, November and December would be the best time to visit Costa Rica.

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Filed under: Travel on January 31st, 2008