Boyfriend and I left for Costa Rica on Friday, February 29th after taking off a little early from work. We arrived in San Jose late in the evening and spent one night at the cutest bed and breakfast called Posada el Quijote in Escazu overlooking the city of San Jose. Although the bed itself was a tragic square piece of queen-size concrete pretending to be a mattress, the views from the common areas of the house as well as the breakfast were fantastic. We only spent one night there, so I won't dwell too much on the bed. The next day we got up and took the Interbus Shuttle from San Jose to La Fortuna.
The drive to La Fortuna was approximately 3 hours including a stop at the Cloud Forest Cafe midway for photo ops, snacks, and potty breaks. We had two older ladies from the Kansas ride the shuttle with us along with two girls in their late-20's or early-30's who spoke very loud Spanish to each other the ENTIRE way. Boyfriend kept looking at me with that look that only our telepathic minds could read from one another - "Will she ever stop long enough to take a breath?" I suppose it is better than a baby screeching at the top of its lungs the entire way, but my basic Spanish caught enough of the conversation that I think I know just about everything about the one girl who wouldn't stop talking, her boyfriend, her friend that liked a guy that use to date their other friend but the other friend would be upset if they started dating, and cooking a particular dish that the other girl's mom use to make but not as good - Jeez! It really made me wonder if it was worth the $50 difference to have just scheduled a private car to take us rather than the shuttle van. Oh, well...
Once we arrived to La Fortuna, we finally got settled in the place that was to be home for 4 nights - Hotel el Silencio del Campo. This place ranked #1 for La Fortuna according to Tripadvisor.com which is where I get all my insider travel info. The place was beautiful! The grounds were nicely manicured and colorful and our little cabina/bungalow was very cute. They are building a new 2,000 room hotel right next door so it takes a lot away from the very rustic village feel of the hotel we were at, but I suppose you can't stop progress. Tourism is obviouusly booming in Costa Rica that someone would invest in such a large and modern construction amidst all the nature-esque hotels in the area. La Fortuna brings in the most tourists as it is the town at the base of the Arenal Volcano. This volcano is the second most active volcano in the world right after Kilauea in Hawaii. It's amazing to see it constantly billowing smoke, seeing mushroom clouds of black smoke pop out occassionally, and to see rocks repeatedly sliding down the volcano itself from all the activity.
Boyfriend and I did some pretty amazing things while we were there. I've always said one of my biggest dreams was to zipline through the Costa Rican rainforest. I finally can scratch that off my list! Boyfriend has a major fear of heights, but he got over that by the time he latched on to the cable for his third zipline. We did the Sky Trek and could easily say we would do it again in a heartbeat! We did eight lines as high as 60 stories in the air and one being almost half a mile long. We had to be going at speeds of about 40 mph. It was so exhilarating!!! We were lucky enough to have one of the zipline guides take my digital camera with him on the zipline so that you could get a first-hand view of what our experience was like on a video clip. Check it out!
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
We also did a safari by canoe. That I wasn't as much of a fan, but it was interesting to see the wildlife along the San Carlos River - birds, lizards, monkeys, sloths, and baby crocodiles. Unfortunately, our canoe capsized after hitting a fallen tree that I not only waterlogged my camera, but Boyfriend lost his flip flops. The tour guide had to fish us out of the river and try to salvage our dry bag containing our belongings. Not to mention that the canoe actually flipped and smashed onto Boyfriend's foot. It took over two weeks before the bruising finally went away. Poor Boyfriend! Leave it to us to turn a leisure canoe ride into an action-packed adventure down the river. We shall not be riding in a canoe...EVER...after that.
Our last big adventure was rappeling. OMG! This was one of the most exciting adventures I've ever done in my life. We hiked through the rain forest, jumping into holes filled with running spring water, sliding down rocks, and rappelling off of 5 platforms. Two of which were massive drops. The first drop alone was about 24 stories tall.
Here is a picture of Boyfriend doing the first rappell. If the things I made him do on this trip didn't cure his fear of heights, I don't know what will!
Here is a very bad/dark picture of me rappeling next to a waterfall. Sadly, the lighting is really bad once you are deep into the rainforest. By the end, we were soaking wet and exhausted. Before we left, they fed us a delicious homecooked Costa Rican meal of black beans, rice, something that resembles chicken and dumplings, fresh salsa, chips, and fruit. Yum! By the time we got back to the hotel, we had a couple of cocktails and passed out from exhaustion.
Another interesting thing I should touch upon are the hot springs. They are amazing. We went to a place called Baldi Hot Springs on our first night in La Fortuna. I like to call it Club Baldi only because it would blast all kinds of techno music and they even remixed a Stevie Nicks song...whu?!?! Regardless, it was very cool. There were about 16 pools at this place all heated naturally at various temperatures by the volcano. Some of the pools were over 110 degrees farenheit. You definitely couldn't stay in those too long. We went in the evening when it was cool and breezy and got a bit overheated in some of the pools, so I can't even imagine what it would be like to go during a sunny day...and drinking at that. That's just a recipe for a disaster! I wouldn't suggest Baldi for older adults looking for something quiet and relaxing. It is definitely a 20- and 30-something party crowd. There are other Hot Spring places to choose from but Baldi was walking distance from our hotel. Luckily, our hotel had their own hot spring pool in the back so we ended up utilizing that one the rest of the time we were there...and we didn't have to pay admission.
Here are the rest of the picture from Costa Rica.
So that's that for the Costa Rica update. In addition to my trip and work, we've officially entered Birthday Season among our close friends. UGH! Not UGH because I hate it, but just because it's more to plan for. Grove just celebrated his birthday and Curly just hit the big 3-0. Blondie will be hosting her 30th on a party boat in Austin next weekend. I really need to speak to Doc about what he wants this year as well as that my birthday is next month as well. Did I mention there are two out of town weddings next month? Lord help me exercise my time management skills to the full extent. Otherwise, I might be locked in a padded room by May from all the stress.
1 comment:
Your trips always look AMAZING! Costa Rica looks like it was beautiful, I don't know if I could have done the zip-line thing, looks awesome and scary all at the same time. Glad y'all had a good time.
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