April 24th, 2010 - Amusement Park Costa Rican Style
I wanted to take my son for one last blast before his school break was over and I took him to Parque de Diversiones, the Tico version of an amusement park. I thought it was going to be as ordinary as the other so called amusement parks of Costa Rica which can be compared with normal fairs with a few rides in a little park. But when I went there, I was truly amazed and very impressed. I went with a friend of mine whose son is 1 year old and mine is 5.
We got there at 9am thinking that we will be able to come back before lunch but to say the least, we couldn’t! A great thing is that the park has a very interesting payment system that can never be found in western countries but works great for countries like Costa Rica where there are so many kids but not as much money.
The entrance fee has three options:
1. $10 for all the rides for the whole day. I bought this one, not sure about it though, turned out excellent later on.
2. Next one is pay-per-ride ranging from $2 to $5 depending on the ride. Most of them are $2.
3. The last one is free! It’s for the people who don’t want to go up in any rides and want to spend the time walking or sitting around.
My decision to take the first option got fully paid off. Most of the park was for kids of my son’s age and even the one year old got to spend a great time. However the main area, which is called Plaza de Tio Conejo and it has rides for adults in a kiddy version. The entrance fee for these is free.
There are two train rides in the park. The first one takes you around the entire park. The second one, however, didn’t make much sense to me as it took you around showing scenery of something that resembled a land fill. I have a strong belief that this train was done a long time ago before the park took off and grew and for some reason, they didn’t shut it down. However, there is a little animal farm and petting zoo near the old train road so you don’t completely waste your time.
A very strange aspect of this park is that it park has a beautiful place called Pueblo Antiguo which has a little central park of its own, a church and other colonial styled houses where you can get married. I can’t imagine a wedding taking place in front of so many people but it is still an attractive place to get married in.
I haven’t been in an amusement park in America for quite a while but I don’t recall them having branded rides. There are advertisement billboards with all the rides and maybe this is how they gather money for the park.
Marina K. Villatoro, lives in Central America - Costa Rica and Guatemala for the past decade. She has traveled all over these areas with her family and now she loves to organize vacations to Costa Rica and Guatemala. Contact her for advice and to plan your perfect trip!
