La Fortuna, Costa Rica

2009-03-31

We were planning on driving to see the La Paz waterfalls and La Marina Zoologica, but when we tried to turn off to the road to Vara Blanca, we were waved to stop. The road was closed. We assumed that it was damaged like many of the other roads in the area during the earthquake. We came up with Plan B to drive through Grecia, Sachi, Zarcero and Ciudad Quesada. We started driving back towards San Jose in the hopes that we would eventually see signs for Grecia. After a half an hour, we thought we missed the turn off, but then suddenly signs appeared.  Grecia is a small town of 14,000 people and was founded in 1864. The highlight of the town is a red brick church with twin spires. We saw the church, but were not that impressed to stop to take a photo. We did stop to get cash at the HSBC and filled up the car with petrol as well as got some snacks for lunch. When we stopped to fill up the car, we realised we were not headed towards Sarchi. We headed back into town and found a few signs, but then got turned around and lost again. We finally stopped and asked a few people on the side of the road for directions and they immediately helped us get back in the right direction. We took a right turn before the lights at the end of the church and then saw more signs to Sarchi. We were back on course.  Sarchi is the country’s foremost craft center for wooden furniture, leather rocking chairs, and hand painted oxcarts, decorated with signature floral motifs and geometric designs. We stopped briefly to take photos of Igelsia de Sarchi, which is pink and turquoise church in the center of town. There was a huge hand painted oxcart just outside it as well. The road wound around and up with Ian stopping several times to let trucks go around the corners. We reached the town of Zacero, which is at an elevation of 5,600 feet, and had some nice views over the valley. There was an impressive set of topiaries called Parque Francisco Alvardo in front of a church. Since 1960, Don Evangelisto Blanco has been transforming the park into various forms. We drove through Cuidad Quesada and Ian was soon treated to straight roads again. We arrived in La Fortuna and drove through the town to The Volcano Lodge. We checked into room 308 and had a short drive there around the hotel grounds. The hotel had beautiful manicured lawns, tropical plants and flowers everywhere. Each room had a view of Volcano Arenal, but it was raining and overcast when we arrived, so we could not see the top of it. We relaxed that afternoon. As we had only had snacks for lunch, we were in the mood for a big meal and thought steak would be a good idea. A girl at reception recommended El Novillo, which was just down the road. We found it easily as there was a big cow outside it. Lori ordered the garlic beef tenderloin and Ian had the filet mignon. Lori really enjoyed her food, but Ian thought his meat was a bit tough.

Lori sped down the rope soon after him enjoying the views as she went down.

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2009-04-01

Lori was up early and managed to get a clear view of Volcano Arenal from her room. We had breakfast around 7:30 am and were surprised at how big the buffet was. There were scrambled eggs, black beans and rice, plantains, sausage, fruit, cereal, coffee, tea, fresh fruit juice and toast and a person who made omelets to order. Needless to say, we were spoilt for choice and had a few servings. We decided to try and book onto a canyoning trip that morning. Hugo from Desafio picked us up just after 9:30 am. We stopped at two other hotels to pick up Michelle and Bill from Pennsylvania and another couple from Arizona. We had a short drive and then boarded an opened back truck that took us up into the forest. Diego met us there and explained that he and Hugo would be our guides along the trip and that Danny would be taking photos. We put on our gear; a hard hat and hardness and then had a short hike to where Diego went through the safety briefing. He explained that our safety was considered first on this tour and that having fun was next. He then showed us how to use the ropes to repel down the waterfalls. The first waterfall was not very high and allowed us to get used to leaning back and letting the rope and gravity do its work. The second waterfall was the second highest of the day at 140 feet. Ian went before Lori and did very well given his fear of heights. Lori sped down the rope soon after him enjoying the views as she went down. We went down six more waterfalls and had a few jumps into pools. The last repel was 200 feet and diagonally down. Lori had a great view of the waterfall as she went down, while Ian spun around and could see all the forest surrounding it. At the end of the canyoning, we had to hike out of the canyon up some step stairs. Diego stopped several times to show us various types of vegetation and explained what they could be used for. We had a tasty lunch of crisps, tomatoes and onions, beef stew with carrots and potatoes, and rice and beans waiting for us at the center where we had started. We enjoyed chatting with Michelle and Bill over lunch. They were in Costa Rica for a week and had arrived in La Fortuna the previous day after being in Quepos. As it looked like there were clear views of Volcano Arenal on our way back to the hotel, we decided to go to the Arenal Hanging Bridges and invited Michelle and Bill to come along. We picked them up at 3 pm and went to the park. The view of Volcano Arenal was clear when we arrived and we took some time to take some photos. The Arenal Hanging Bridges trail runs through 620 acres of primary forest and has 14 suspended bridges over ravines. We spent the next two hours slowly walking the two-mile hike in order to try and take in as much wildlife as possible. We managed to see several types of birds, none of which, we know the names for. There was a really loud humming bird along the way and one waterfall. Unfortunately, when we reached the last hanging bridge, the view of Volcano Arenal had clouded over. We saw a female and male turkey guans separately as we were finishing our walk and smelled the beautiful scent of guava. Michelle and Bill wanted to thank us for the lift to the park, so we stopped at the Lost Iguanas hotel. We decided to share some fajitas over drinks as we were all still pretty full from lunch. We had a good time visiting and getting to know Michelle and Bill. After dinner, we dropped Michelle and Bill at their hotel and drove back to ours. We relaxed for awhile and then decided to have dessert at the pool. Lori had Tres Leches, which was very yummy, and Ian had chocolate cake, which was more like chocolate pudding on a cake crust. It was not his favourite dessert.

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2009-04-02

Lori woke up early again, but let Ian get some sleep and enjoyed watching the various birds flutter by in the garden outside their room. She also enjoyed the clear views of Volcano Arenal. Ian woke up a little after 8 am and they went to enjoy another feast for breakfast. As we had been on the go all the day before and the next day we had to drive to Monteverde, we decided to spend the day relaxing by the pool and using the free Wifi connection. Ian decided to update the virus checker and run it and found that we had a virus. The software spent the next several hours scanning the machine and cleaning it up. Needless to say, only Ian’s back ended up relaxing in the sun, while Lori laid out.  They ordered lunch from the pool. Lori had a tuna salad with pineapples and macadamia nuts. She used the lettuce and tortillas it was served with to make wraps. Ian had two little fish sandwiches. Lori got a little too much sun and moved into the shade for the rest of the afternoon to work on travel journal. She was tempted into a pina colada and Ian had a beer as the sun started to set. As it was our last night even though, we decided to go to the Baldi hot springs.  We were hoping to go on a clear night in order to see the lava from the Volcano Arenal, but it was not meant to be. The famous and historical hot springs in town are called Tabacon, but are more than twice the price to go. The spring water is the same in both and both are said to have nice gardens, so we decided to go to the Baldi ones. Upon arriving, we were a bit turned around as there was no map to explain where everything was and the lockers were not provided, so we had a make a trip back to the car to lock away our camera. We walked around to get an idea of what the hot springs entailed and decided to stop at the top pool we found. The Murray ATP Miami tennis game was one, so we eased into the hot water and watched the end of the game. We were glad that there were places to sit out of the hot springs as the water was very warm. After the game finished and Murray won, we walked through the rest of the hot springs pools. The next several sections had a series of hot and cool pools. We could not stay long in the hot pools and had to cool off in the cold ones. The pools did not have lights inside them, which was nice in one regard, but a bit dangerous in another as you could not see the steps. After two hours, we had had our fill of the hot springs and were feeling the heat, so we went back to the hotel. We decided to try the restaurant at the front of the hotel, but when we arrived it looked like they were closing. They said it was fine and we sat down. We did not realise how dehydrated we were and finished a liter and a half of water before ordering our food. Lori had a yummy Mahi Mahi in tomato sauce with olives and Ian had sea bass.

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2009-04-03

As we had a four hour drive to Monteverde, we decided to get up early and get on the road. We had another wonderful breakfast and enjoyed our last custom made omelets. We checked out and were on the road a little after 8 am.