As an accomplished watercolourist and seasoned traveller, Valerie Grigg Devis is no stranger to adventure. Her sketchbooks are filled with vivid landscapes from Thailand to Europe, but her recent journey to Costa Rica offered something rare: a canvas alive with colour, biodiversity and raw natural beauty.
Valerie saw Costa Rica as the kind of destination that demanded more than just a fleeting visit – so our 15-day Costa Rica Coastal Secrets trip was an ideal choice for deeper exploration.
When searching for a tour operator in Costa Rica, Valerie was looking for skilled local guides who understood the rhythm of the country and could deliver an authentic experience.
“I saw very high ratings for Exodus,” Valerie said. “You have a lot of trip offerings in Costa Rica, which told me that your guides knew the ground and that your itineraries had good coverage. Based on my prior experience, I knew all of that was very important. I felt this itinerary gave you a true appreciation of Costa Rica’s geological and ecological diversity. After a trip like this, you can truly say, ‘I’ve been there’.”
For Valerie, who was travelling with her brother, Jeff—a man who seldom took holidays—the choice of tour operators mattered. She needed experts who could balance adventure with ease, and logistics with seamless care. “My brother had a great time and that was the most rewarding part for me personally.”
From the get-go, Valerie was impressed with our expert local guide, Eric. “I don’t know how many guides you work with in Costa Rica, but Eric was a man of extreme talent. He was your man – if you were interested in anything and wanted to know more, he was just remarkable.”
“I am a gardener, and I love being in nature and soaking up all the vitality. I have been in jungles before, travelling to places like Thailand and so forth, but Costa Rica was different. The intensity of the jungle was incredible. And I’m glad Exodus took us to several parts on this itinerary because Tortuguero is one area, but the Pacific side is totally different. I really appreciated the amount of time we got to spend in nature – I mean the idea that you can just watch a band of coatimundis prancing down the beach, trying to open coconuts. You’re not in a zoo; you’re in their environment now – and you have to respect that.”
She continued, “There were some pretty exotic specimens out there. I’m not a naturalist, so I didn’t know enough about the environment to identify some of what I was seeing, but I think I was just fascinated by how many layers a living rainforest has – and how it sustains different ecosystems. It’s just one of our planet’s incredible natural resources. I wish more people would learn to appreciate that. Just because you don’t have a jungle in your country doesn’t mean that the jungle doesn’t matter – they’re the living, breathing lungs of our planet.”
Valerie noted, “Anything we didn’t know, Eric would jump in and identify different plants, animals and everything like that along the way. He knew every bird, let me tell you. We even had a joke on our trip which ended up in our group WhatsApp name being changed to, “Too Many Birds 🐦 ”. This was because Eric told us that there was one lady on a previous trip of his who complained that he identified too many birds. We’re all baffled thinking, ‘Why is this a bad thing? This is your guide!’ He guides birding groups sometimes who are searching for specific birdlife – so he has to be prepared to spot them all! We all thought that it was so ridiculous that it just instantly became the group nickname. It was a running joke throughout the whole trip too – that extended to ‘oh there are too many beers’, ‘too many tourists’ too many this and that.”
It wasn’t just birds that captivated Eric’s attention. His passion for photography and wildlife often spilt over into his free time.
“There was a morning down in Cahuita, where it was technically his time off. The group was supposed to have a free half a day or something, and he could have gone anywhere he wanted to, yet he chose to join the group and take us on a hike in the national park. He was a keen photographer too – never without his camera. He captured this spectacular shot of an anteater clawing into a termite mound. He really exemplified somebody who’s extremely proud about his country and the nature in it.”
Valerie’s encounters with wildlife were extraordinary too. She recalled, “I loved the anteaters we saw by the pool, and I really liked the agoutis too, just because they were so cute – they looked like characters straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.”
But the trip wasn’t all calm observations; there were moments of real adventure as well. When Valerie visited Corcovado National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, the group faced a river crossing beneath a sign warning of crocodiles, followed by news of a recent puma sighting in the area.
“At this point, the rain starts drenching us and then we come to this crossing. Laying on the wooden walkway is a fer-de-lance – considered one of the most venomous snakes in the country!” Luckily, the guides responded with calm expertise, carefully marking the area to protect both travellers and wildlife. “They were extremely well trained. They don’t go, ‘Oh, let’s poke the snake and get some photos.’ No, they safely marked it with some pulp branches and immediately diverted us.”
Valerie joked, “Admittedly at this point, I was thinking, what are we even doing here in this crazy place? But our incredible guides stepped in and amused us with stories until we reached the beach. When we arrived, it was like night and day – the weather cleared up, the sun appeared, we heard birdsong and saw a band of playful coatimundis running across the sand. This was just a classic example of how this is not your environment, you know – it was a real adventure.”
When it came to the group dynamic, Valerie was quick to say, “As an American traveller, I encourage other Americans to travel in the company of fellow world citizens. As it turns out, British travellers were the majority in our group of 14 – and we enjoyed their company immensely, which was important for me, as my brother is generally a quiet person who has never been on a group trip before. They were friendly, fun, interesting, humorous and adaptable. They welcomed Jeff and I to join them for walks into town, restaurants and local sightseeing. As a native Californian, I patiently explained that tacos and burritos are properly eaten with hands, not forks and knives: I was gratified with some success in this matter. During our drenching hike in the rainforest, the Brits kept a stiff upper lip, and I was grateful for the lack of complaint – after all, this is a ‘rain-forest’ right?”
“The accommodations ranged from four-star to two-star, but I wasn’t looking for upscale resorts. I liked the fact that Exodus was kind of reaching out to local businesses in the southern coast, you know, people that had these small cottages and sleepy hammocks – it was the cutest little place.”
She continued, “In Tortuguero and the Savegre Valley, we were treated to a four-star resort with fantastic wine lists and linen tablecloths, and for some people, that’s all they want. But that also means they’re not going to go to remote places like Cahuita because there is no four-star resort there… and honestly, I hope there never will be! I liked that there were different levels of accommodation, and you just kind of adjusted to that as you went along on the trip.”
For Valerie, Costa Rica was an artist’s paradise. When asked what inspired her to get into watercolour painting, Valerie explained, “Oh I’ve been watercolour painting since high school, and taking little sketchbooks on my travels through Spain, Morocco quickly became the norm.”
She continued, “I believe painting makes you slow down and appreciate travel more. As travellers, we’re always hopping onto the next thing and then the next thing. And this makes you stop and focus and say, well, what is it about this area that really speaks to me? What is so unique about this experience that I’m having? For me, it creates this sense of a deeper appreciation and connection to the place I’m in. It’s not just click, click with a camera and then I’m gone.”
“My method is, I first do a line drawing, usually in pencil, and then I will either paint over it or I might continue with the more cartoonish style. I actually paint in insoluble ink very carefully and then repaint over that. So, it’s like three layers by the time I’m done. My travel paintings are usually tiny, but they’re pretty detailed.”
Valerie elaborated, “My first impulse to unpack my paints came shortly after our boat arrived at the Evergreen Resort in Tortuguero. I was delighted to see several agoutis wandering along the forest floor. The resort was spaciously laid out, allowing us to stroll the raised walkways among the huts in the forest. It was a remarkable atmosphere with an abundance of life, including blue morpho butterflies, iguana lizards and an active troupe of capuchin monkeys dashing across the rooftops and through the trees. Near the swimming pool, I spotted an amazing lobster claw plant with a display of colours simply too beautiful to resist taking up my brush! I painted to the sound of the chirps, rustlings and calls of the living landscape all around me.”
“As the days passed, I realised how much of the quality of our trip depended on both our guide and our bus driver. In appreciation, I decided to create a painting for each of them. Eric, our guide, is an absolutely amazing wildlife spotter and a professional photographer to boot. His portrait shows him camera in hand, focusing on a small frog while other subjects wait patiently for his attention. For our driver, I painted the curving mountain road he navigated into the Savegre Valley. It’s a remote area and his driving made us feel safe, in spite of the imposing drop-offs! For humour, I added a big sloth on the roof, since we noticed his fondness for wildlife.”
Valerie’s painting quickly became a familiar sight to her fellow travellers, sketching and painting even on the move, whether on the bus or out on the boat. Some remarked on her incredibly steady hand, watching curiously as her work came to life. Before long, she was sharing finished pieces with the group via WhatsApp, something she had hesitated to do at first.
“I was a bit reluctant, as you know, I’m not here to promote myself or anything. But they started getting interested and so I got more comfortable being part of the entertainment. You’ve got Eric, you’ve got all of these fantastic wildlife tours and optional activities, and you’ve got me – the resident artist. It’s an adventure after all, so why not?”
“I think on my next trip, I’ll just be more forward about it, and maybe even bring along a larger format. If people want to watch me paint that’s fine with me! I have my 25th wedding anniversary this year. We got married in Italy, and for our honeymoon, we cycled 1,000 miles from Florence to Paris. This time to celebrate we’re biking and barging from Bruges to Paris, and who knows… I may bring my watercolour kit along for the ride!”
If this has left you feeling inspired, take a look at Valerie Grigg Devis’ beautiful artwork, or find out what’s in her travelling watercolour kit so you can follow in her footsteps on your next adventure with us.
Interested in visiting Costa Rica? Find out more details about our Costa Rica Coastal Secrets trip here.
Photos courtesy of Jeff Grigg
