I’ll get things up to speed in the coming week RE everything else bedsides Costa Rica, but for now I figured I’d go straight to the fun times we’ve been having on our central american vacation.
The first leg of our trip took us from SFO to Houston airport and then from Houston to San Jose, Costa Rica. Walking out of the airport was a bit of a shocker, you walk through the double doors and relative quiet and order of the airport into this noisy chaotic scene of men trying to get you to go in their taxi, stay in their hotel or rent a car from them. Big noisy trucks drive by and parking attendants with whistles seem to blow indiscriminately in a vain attempt to get people to park in some type of order. Fortunately we had reserved a car just off the airport site, away from the chaotic scene at the arrival area.
After getting our car and coordinates we plotted our way to our first destination in La Fortuna, near the Arenal Volcano. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive north from the airport. We pulled onto the road and quickly realized that driving here would be an “exciting” experience. Road signs, right of ways, pedestrian crossings all seem to be suggestions rather than a matter of fact. You drive too slow and you’ll get passed even if it’s on a double yellow around a curve with traffic coming the other way. Pedestrians cross wherever they feel like it and cars don’t usually yield so keep you’re head on a swivel if you’re crossing the street. Somehow it all works, everyone seems to get where they are going in one piece. I only passed a semi once across a double yellow on a curve uphill. He was going about 2 mph and I was in a hurry to get around so I acted like a local and went for it. Probably wouldn’t do it again.
La Fortuna was a beautiful place. We stayed in a great resort area called Silencio Del Campo. It was just out of town and its location made for a quiet, peaceful experience all in the shadow of the great active volcano Arenal. Much of our time was spent relaxing in various hot springs, or trying the local food at restaurants. We also had a great time hiking through the rain forest over hanging bridges through the trees as monkeys and all manner of bird and bug flew around us. We also spent some time hiking down to a big waterfall near La Fortuna were of all things we met a couple from Willows, CA about an hour north of Sacramento. Small world. All in all our time in La Fortuna was very relaxing and very picturesque. The people of the area are laid back and everyone was very helpful.
After a quick three night stay there we headed down to a National Park called Manuel Antonio right on the beach. Here we’ve had a chance to get some beach time in and are looking forward to a nature hike through the national park to see all kinds of animals we’ll probably never see again.
Part 2 will be coming in a couple of days. Until then enjoy the pictures!
The garden in front of our cabin.
Some flower pictures.
One last flower pic.
B looks relaxed in front of our cabin.
Some jungle animal related to the racoon.
A view of the volcano from our cabin.
B on the first hanging bridge.
Me on the first bridge.
Tarantula crossing.
A hanging bridge into the trees.
Beware of the jumping pit vipers.
A jumping pit viper at the end of the tunnel!
A bug and a flower.
A waterfall deep in the jungle.
This tree was ripe for the picking.
In between the roots of a tree.
Some kind of tree viper. We totally walked right by this without seeing it. From a distance it looks like a dead leaf on a tree. Fortunatly a guide was near by and took us back to check it out. I love the eyes on this thing!
A view of the volcano from the hanging bridges observatory.
We were very happy after a fun hike.
Headed down the steep trail to the falls.
Finally at the bottom.
A little waterfall close to the big one.
B strikes a crazy pose.
Self portrait at the waterfall base.
The waterfall from top of the hill after we climbed back up.
On our last day we finally got a view of the whole volcano!
A parting shot of the volcano.
A view of some of the garden area around the property.
The hot springs at Silencio Del Campo. It was very relaxing.
A teaser for the second part of the blog post. This is the view from our hotel.
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