Common clichés about Costa Rica paint a canvas in tropical hues. The background is of glorious emerald, teeming with colourful wildlife: a rainbow-hued scarlet macaw, electric-blue morpho butterflies the size of saucers, and the iridescent green Holy Grail of neo-tropical birds, the quetzal. The settings are also familiar: sweeping rain forest, rugged mountains, fire-spitting volcanoes, and lonesome beaches stretching along jungle-lined shores.

These familiar impressions are real, and made easier to confirm by the nation’s size. Costa Rica has the advantage of being small enough to explore end to end in a matter of days. A more slothful pace lets you discover the full kaleidoscope of wilderness wonders. The diversity of terrain is remarkable, and the landscape changes as if on a revolving hinge.