Day 3: Canopy Tour and La Fortuna Waterfalls

We woke up early-ish and had breakfast at the resort buffet before getting picked up for our first outing - a canopy tour at Mistico Park.  Our guide Angie and driver Oscar picked us and a few other guests up before driving about 20 minutes back over the lake and up into the hills.  Angie was very knowledgeable (we talked about our favorite soccer players), and Oscar had a great eye - he spotted a sloth in a tree before we left the pick-up route!  The trailhead was packed with people, but the guides did a great job of distributing their groups, so once we got over the first bridge, we weren't jammed up.

Jammed trailhead

Angie (blue hair) discussing a pit viper on the trail.

The tour took us over 16 bridges (4 of them hanging, so they swayed a bit), and showed us all sorts of critters and plants.  The highlights were probably the two pit vipers that we saw (one pictured below).   

Don't look down!

After Angie & Oscar dropped us back at our resort, we did a quick stop at the room to change before headed out to lunch in La Fortuna.  The city is bustling and busy!  We headed to a place called the Rainforest Cafe (no relationship to the American chain tragedy).  H had nachos while S and I each had empanadas.  Thinking they were the sizes that we were used to from our Argentina, Peruvian, and Bolivian friends, we each ordered two, but these empanadas were huge!  9" diameter.  And, instead of being baked, they were fried!  Think corn-dog dough.  They were delicious, but they were not small.

After lunch, we drove to the La Fortuna Waterfall, which is one of the most visited sights in all of Costa Rica.  After you take a 466-step hike down into a canyon (the literature says 400 steps, but S counted...), you're rewarded with a huge waterfall into a blue lagoon that empties into a rushing river.  Usually guests can swim in the lagoon, but b/c the rains have been so heavy, the waterfall was too dangerous to swim in the lagoon.  But, H and I were able to swim in the river.  It had a swift current that was fun to play in, in part b/c the structure of the river meant that the current didn't last long before slowing down at a sand bank.

After the 466 step hike back up (phew!), we headed back to the resort for an hour in pool.  Heated pool, that is.  With a swim-up bar.  That served mango smoothies. Livin' large.

Then a return to the room for showers and siestas before a New Years buffet at the restaurant.  Off to dreamland now - we've got an even earlier day tomorrow!

Day 2: Liberia to La Fortuna

I woke up refreshed after a good night's sleep at the airport hotel, but S, who had shared a bed with a very animated H, didn't sleep well.  When we finally rolled out of bed, we grabbed a breakfast at the hotel buffet (standard western fare, plus Gallo Pinto, some small quesadillas, and tamarind juice) and packed our bags.  Our rental car met us at the hotel, and we began our journey into the jungle with a quick stop at a coffee shop (chai latte for S) and the local WalMart (towels).

Shortly south of Liberia, we stopped at Llanos de Cortez Waterfalls for a real treat.  We paid a small entrance fee and then drove about 1km to get to a small parking lot.  From, we hiked down a 100m trail (pretty steep - it was all steps) until we got to a small sandy beach in front of a beautiful waterfall.  There were lots of folks swimming and sunbathing, and H and had fun swimming almost to the place where the water would crash on our heads.  There was a local lifeguard who blew his whistle if you got too close to the falls or climbed on rocks you weren't supposed to.  

In a rocky overhang we also saw some sleeping bats!

We dried our feet and got back in the car for the three-hour drive to La Fortuna, on the SE corner of Lake Arenal.  Along the way we stopped for lunch at a place with a delicious mango smoothie and some of the best tortillas I've ever tasted:

At one point, all the traffic on the road came to a standstill when about a dozen coatis decided that they had the right of way.

 

We eventually made it to our bungalow at Lomas de Volcan, a lovely place deep in the jungle.  Our bungalow has a back porch that looks out at the volcano!

H and I took a quick swim (her third swim in less than 24 hours!) before cleaning up for dinner.  After dinner, we took night hike with a local naturalist through the jungle on an old cacao plantation.  He was great at finding all sorts of animals, including lots of insects, spiders, and other creepy crawlies.

But the stars of the night were definitely the frogs!  We saw 11 species of frogs and 1 species of toad.  We saw frogs in all cycles of life, from eggs to tagpoles to polywogs to mature frogs to mating frogs.  What a treat!  Our guide was amazing at knowing how to spot them.

After the hike, we went back to the resort to finish unpacking and settle in.  S has her own bed tonight, so hopefully she'll wake up refreshed.  I'm bunking with H.

Costa Rica Day 1: Travel Day

After a long period of family stress due to heightened work, and a shorter holiday period with V's fam in CA for Xmas, we said so long to the O family and packed our bags for a family vacation to Costa Rica.  We started today with a 4.30am wake up in CA, arriving at LAX at 7 ish.  We had enough time for a crappy meal at the Point The Way restaurant in Terminal 6 (never go there!) before boarding our 9am flight to Liberia.

The flight was uneventful - we snacked, watched movies, and dozed.  We landed in Liberia at around 5pm and grabbed a shuttle to the airport hotel for the night.  We're anxious to start our vacation, but driving on inconsistent roads in a foreign country in a rental car at night seemed like a bad idea.  So, we're at this hotel for one night, where we kicked off our trip with cocktails at the poolside restaurant. 

After we ordered, H and I returned to the room so she could change into her swimsuit and I into my flip-flops.  She swam after eating her nachos while S and I found destinations for our drive into the mountains.

We start for reals tomorrow!