Costa Rica - La Fortuna and Monteverde (Including the Arenal Volcano)

On Wednesday, April 17, we gathered our luggage to check out of our Jaco hotel, Docelunas. It was hard to leave this quaint hotel (including our new dog friend, Coqui) behind, but we had a new hotel reservation in La Fortuna awaiting us. 

With a three and a half hour drive ahead of us (which we knew would probably take an hour or two longer), we chose to have breakfast, get gas, and set out early. It was a good thing we did. Our trip started out on a main highway but transitioned to a curvy, narrow road (Route 702 to San Ramon). While the road is known to have pretty mountainous views, it literally zigzags up and up and up through residential communities--boasting one blind curve, after another, after another. I literally white-knuckled the two-hour drive up the entire mountain, for I was worried not only about the steepness but also about the narrow roads where, on a blind curve, I could have easily collided head-on with another driver coming down the same road! Local drivers, used to the road conditions, were impatient with my cautious driving, and yet, with the road's narrowness and steepness combined, there was simply nowhere for me to turn off to let them go...  Thus, their tailgating made me all the more nervous as they pushed me to drive around cliffs quicker than I wanted.

As we reached the road's summit, there was one lone building on a cliff that read "Un Cafecito" (a little coffee). This was the highway's turning point because now all the upward, curvy driving (constantly pushing the gas pedal) would turn to downward, curvy driving (pressing the brake pedal). I was tempted to stop, thinking how much this "Un Cafecito" sign would be welcome to traveling visitors, who, like me, were both anxious and exhausted after the first part of the drive. Nonetheless, I didn't want to postpone the inevitable. We were on our way to La Fortuna, and there was no turning back now. Coffee would certainly make me more awake, but I couldn't imagine being more jittery than I already was... My husband snored in the backseat while my son listened to his headphones, admiring the views, completely unaware of my inner torment. Sure, I could have asked my husband to drive, but relinquishing control would have made me all the more worried...

Eventually, Route 702 led to other highways and thankfully, to more level terrain as we passed by other towns and cities. (At one point, a car lost a wheel right in front of us, but thankfully the highway was wide enough for us to move into another lane.)

When we finally reached our destination, Hotel Los Lagos Spa and Resort, I was tempted to get out and kiss the ground. Happy to be there was an understatement. I was ecstatic about ending our road trip, so we could finally get to our room, eat, and relax!

Looking back at our experience, I am grateful we chose to stay at both Docelunas and Hotel Los Lagos. Whereas Docelunas gave us the experience of staying at a local, "boutique" hotel, Hotel Los Lagos was a resort with multiple pools (and pool slides), little shops, and dozens of hot springs! During our four-night stay, we made sure to try out all their amenities. Their natural hot springs, with their continuous flow of hot water and minerals, came directly from the rainforest--heated by the Arenal Volcano.  As hubby and I spent one night trying out all of them, we quickly noticed that each had different temperatures ranging from steaming hot (think of a cooked lobster) to moderately warm. Also, some were made to imitate hot tubs with jets, while others were calm baths. 

Did I mention that some of the hot springs felt private and secluded? It "almost" felt like a second honeymoon on evenings when Lewie decided he'd rather stay in the hotel.

On our last day at Hotel Los Lagos, we made it a point to go to its Arenal Volcano Observatory. Following the signs to the summit, we spiraled around to the top and saw that a wedding ceremony had just concluded. (What luck!) We waited for the wedding party to leave and then had a wonderful opportunity to take pictures at this breathtaking location. During this time, I saw two beautiful hummingbirds and Daddy took pictures of a noisy howler monkey. (I wish we were all wearing something better than bathing suits and pajamas!) 

Do you see the bride and groom? I couldn't resist snapping one pic.

While the resort itself was one of the best parts of La Fortuna, I would be remiss to say that we didn't have other interesting side excursions.

Tubing in Rio Celeste

On our first day in the La Fortuna region, we headed to el Parque Nacional Volcan Tenorio (Volcano Tenorio National Park) to see the beautiful Rio Celeste (light blue river). After seeing pictures of el Rio Celeste in my travel book and on the website, I was obsessed with getting a glimpse of this place up close and personal. (The color is unique as the volcano and certain minerals in the water create just the right condition--as long as it's not during the country's rainy season.)  The hiking trail to the Rio Celeste waterfall is the most famous attraction in this park, but once I read the hike was moderate with approximately 200 steep steps leading to the waterfall, I knew the excursion wouldn't work for Daddy Lew and his bad knees. Then, I saw a tubing excursion via Viator, and bingo--what better way to experience the river (with good or bad knees) than to float along its current!

In the beginning, finding the tubing location proved difficult. We followed the directions, which took us to the company location but not to the river rafting. In broken English, they gave us directions to the river, which had us drive down a cow path. (Once again, I was worried about damaging our rental vehicle.) When the terrain got just too rocky, we turned around and stopped at a house (the only house for miles) with the hope they could show us where to go. When we spoke to the resident, we were in luck; he unchained his driveway and told us to drive down to the river. Again, I felt a little nervous. Were we really in the right spot, or was this the perfect remote area for them to rob us at gunpoint? (Maybe, I've watched too many horror movies.) Once we saw a pavilion (and an outhouse), we could all breathe a sigh of relief. We had made it after all!

Our tour guide, a local who spent his days tubing down the river as a kid, helped us put on our lifevests and helmets, and then told us we would be holding onto each other's tubes like a chain. He spoke little English and not wearing a lifevest or helmet himself, ignored his own advice. The color of the water, just like the pictures, was magnificent, and we welcomed its coolness in the blazing sun. However, the rafting was a little more adventurous than expected. At times, the current would move us quickly over rocks, and he'd remind us to pick up our butts. It was funny, but we continually worried about scraping our legs, bumping heads with each other, or getting stuck on rocks, which happened a few times. Any time we were stuck, our fearless guide would jump off his tube, dive into the water, and shake us until we came loose. At one point, my pinky finger got in the way, and somehow, I tore a piece of skin. My son and I gasped at my bloody hand; however, after cleaning it afterward, I was relieved to learn the stinging injury was just a small piece of missing skin. Crisis averted.

My husband had set up the GoPro for this excursion, and one day, I hope to play it back. I still think we did more laughing on the river than we did worrying.

Bike Arenal to El Castillo

Early in my vacation planning, I had decided biking to the Arenal Volcano was a "must-do" on our trip. However, as the trip go closer, and my husband's knees got worse, I regretted making the non-refundable purchase. "Just go without me," Daddy Lew insisted. Not wanting to lose more money, I agreed to leave him at the hotel. This would just be a special day for Lewie and me. 

The Bike Arenal Company met us at our hotel, and picked the two of us up in their van. After a forty-minute drive, we were at our destination. Our two guides prepared our bikes and helmets for us, and off we went for a half-day bike tour so see the Costa Rican countryside and Lake Arenal (with the volcano in the background).

The trip, advertised for beginner to intermediate riders, was not easy for us. I had a hard time biking up "the small slopes" and after a good-faith effort, I quit after 3/4 of the trip was over. Lewie, on the other hand, was a trooper. He stuck with it, and just as I was about to congratulate him on making it until the end, his bike hit a pothole, and (as he describes it because I didn't see the accident from the van), he flipped over the handlebars and bloodied up his knees. UGH! It was definitely a story for Lewie to share with his father and even his friends when he returned home. Of course, after he had a spontaneous lung collapse a day after our trip, I still wonder if this accident was much worse than originally thought. Did the bike accident cause it? The hospital didn't think so...

The Big AMA Canopy Tour and the Sloth Excursion

On our final day in Costa Rica, Hubby and Lewie went on a 12-cable zipline excursion (the Big AMA Canopy Tour) while I treated myself to a sloth trip sponsored by our Los Lagos hotel. Not being a huge fan of heights, I opted out of the ziplining, but I was told it was a "must-do" adventure in Costa Rica, so I signed the boys up. Even further, silly me thought the ziplining would be easier for my husband's knees. How hard could it be ziplining from platform to platform, I thought. As it turned out, it could be very hard. When the boys returned, my husband could barely walk from having to climb to various platforms, and Lewie's arms hurt from having to slow himself down on the zipline. (Evidently, they give you gloves and teach you how to grab the rope to control your speed.) They said the views were amazing, but unfortunately, the views were overshadowed by the strenuous activity, which exhausted and injured both of them.

My sloth trip, on the other hand, was just what the doctor ordered. I wanted an opportunity to see more of these adorable creatures, and the hotel took us to a privately owned wildlife refuge where we could do more animal gazing in the rainforest. I saw lizards and toucans, more sloths, of course, and monkeys. (When a plane flew above us, the monkeys went wild--evidently, they don't like planes AT ALL. I giggled at their howling, feeling for a moment like I might be part of  the Planet of the Apes. The trail also had two hanging bridges! I loved being suspended in the air while seeing the jungle beneath me. Surprisingly, the bridges didn't make me fearful--perhas because I could walk and explore at my own pace.

Spending the afternoon meandering, looking for wildlife, and meeting other adventurous people (who have traveled way more than myself) was invigorating. I left having an even greater appreciation for Costa Rica's rich biodiversity and their decision to support massive recycling, clean energy, and conservation initiatives to keep their country wild and beautiful.

When it was time for us to leave the Hotel Los Lagos and fly out of San Jose, I chose to take the long, scenic, and "flat" ride home. I did some research on local highways and we meandered through other parts of the country, namely part of Guancaste and the Northern Pacific, to eventually reach Route 1. There were lots of stops and one-way bridges, but we saw lots more of Lake Arenal and the countryside, including tons of scenic windmills.  The quaint towns, modest school buildings, and long stretches of nothing but forest and fields made me understand why some people move to Costa Rica to get away from it all. Their manifesto--Pura Vida or Pure Life--says it all.

Costa Rica - San Jose, Jaco, and La Isla Tortuga

As mentioned in my previous post, Costa Rica is WILD--not wild as in crazy but wild because of its rich biodiversity.  It's estimated that Costa Rica is home to nearly 500,000 plant and animal species, which means although this tiny country is only 0.03 percent of our planet's landmass, it sustains about 5% of our planet's total wildlife.  

When looking at a map, we can see that Costa Rica, part of Central America, sits at the center of an isthmus, which joins the continents of North and South America.  This part of the world is super diverse because the isthmus has served as a natural migration route for thousands of species between these two continents.  The country boasts 10,000+ types of plants, 900+ types of birds, 9.000+ types of butterflies, 500+ mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, and 300,000+ insects!

After landing in Costa Rica's capital, San Jose, and going through customs, we took a shuttle to the Eurocar rental office.  Immediately, we felt like we flew into a different universe. The roads, cars, streets, traffic, and street signs looked vaguely familiar but with a strange twist. The roads were narrower and bumpier, the drivers were more aggressive, and the stores, particularly the supermarkets, were tiny. At the rental car place, I almost got stuck in the bathroom because the handle was loose and the door sealed itself shut with all the dampness and humidity.  (Oh no! Am I really going to begin this trip by needing someone to break down the door? I thought. My anxiety was already running high because we were in another country where everyone spoke broken English, and I hadn't practiced Spanish in years.)

Without hesitation, I let Lew take over the driving. While the rules of the road were basically the same, driving in the city required a certain confidence--one that I lacked. It was clear that the only way we were going to pull out of the parking lot was if we cut someone off, and that's exactly what Lew did, swerving unapologetically between lanes to first get to a market and then to the highway.  Lewie's first impression of Costa Rica was the market. He followed me into the stuffy building only to discover that the entire store consisted of four narrow aisles, mostly filled with canned goods.  "Do they have chocolate milk?" he asked. There was water, juice, soda, and more soda--no chocolate milk. We left with a few water bottles, a bag of chips, and a generic package of cookies.

After the market stop, our destination was our hotel, Docelunas, in the city of Jaco.  We had to load Waze onto our phones and hope for the best. We were told that while its directions were pretty reliable, the timing was another story.  What "should" take an hour and a half, for example, could easily take two or more hours because of traffic conditions, disabled cars, or accidents. Since most roads and highways were two-lane roads (often without shoulders or breakdown lanes), traffic could easily come to a stop and did.  (In fact, one time we encountered an accident that took up the entire highway. The police officer directed everyone to drive down into a field and follow a little cow path before connecting to the main road again. I cringed at the thought that our rental vehicle might suffer a flat or get damaged while driving into a ditch. At the same time, the large tour bus in front of us looked like it might tip over sideways as it drove down the embankment. I said a silent prayer to myself and closed my eyes. Thankfully, we emerged from the rocky farm field unscathed.)

Hubby took the entire drive to Jaco while I tried to avoid being a backseat driver. I kept looking at my old-school map for reference because I wanted to make sure Waze was directing us to the right location.  What if there was another Docelunas, and it took us to the wrong one?  All travel sites forewarned us that we would want to avoid driving anywhere in Costa Rica after dusk, so getting to the hotel during the day was essential.

As predicted, the hour-forty-minute drive took about an hour longer. Still, we arrived at Hotel Docelunas in plenty of time to get checked in.  The hotel was gated with a tall fence surrounding the entire property.  Once we presented our hotel reservations, we were warmly welcomed and given the keys to our room.  I LOVED this hotel.  It had several long, two-story, motel-like buildings with a beautiful garden-like courtyard.  It also boasted a beautiful pool next to our room, which never got busy. In fact, during our three-night stay, I only saw about five people use it the entire time. My husband and I went out there several times. During the day, we were enchanted by all the beautiful birds, plants (like banana trees), and squirrel monkeys (who, I think, were throwing coconuts down at us).  At night, we had a big frog that came to greet us by the pool waterfall.  He somehow knew not to jump into the pool, but he nonetheless, rested by the poolside as if he were on vacation, too. It truly felt like it was our own hidden oasis.

The hotel's restaurant served delicious American cuisine while we sat on their outdoor patio. There, we were charmed by one of the owner's dogs, Coqui, who pranced over to us each day with her sweet brown eyes. She was such a well-mannered dog, knowing not to beg, jump, or bother any of the guests unless called.  Seeing her run around the courtyard and play all day helped fill the void in my heart, for I was starting to miss our own pup, Bruce, who we left at home.

While staying at Docelunas, we drove to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio one day and then took a boat trip to La Isla Tortuga the next.  When traveling to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, we drove through a darling beach town called Quepos, which had quaint restaurants, art galleries, and souvenier shops in a village-like setting. I marveled at its cuteness, and while we only had time to explore the National Park, I'm glad we did get a chance to have lunch at one of its restaurants. (If I ever go back to Costa Rica, Quepos would be on my list!)

At Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, our guide provided a 1.5 hour tour, stopping along the way to show us any interesting wildlife. It seemed like each time we took a step, there was something new for him to show us. We saw two different types of sloths, three different monkeys (white faced monkeys, howler monkeys, and squirrel monkeys), a Toucan, a Jesus Christ Lizard, several bats, a snake, and a spider. We even saw some white-tailed deer like the ones from home--proof that Costa Rica is a place where animals of North America and South America merge so that animals like deer and iguanas coexist. I LOVED this park and could have easily spent the whole day meandering on its main trail and many side trails.

Can you see the snake eye?

This is a spiny fruit that's called a "monkey comb." Monkeys
actually use it to groom one another.

A sloth...The picture is taken from a telescope.

Fun fact: The cafeteria in the park is surrounded by a fence to keep the white-faced monkeys out. 
They are aggressive and will take food right out of your hand or backpack.

The following day, a tour company picked us up at our hotel, so we could go to la Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). They dropped us off at a swanky beach club and then had us board a boat for a full day of sightseeing, snorkeling, lunch, and swimming. Since Costa Rica is hot and steamy, the boat ride provided a cool reprieve. We sat under a canopy and let the wind hit our faces, all while getting a chance to see dolphins, birds, and cool rock formations. Our guide knew a lot about wildlife, but he also shared interesting historical facts about Costa Rica. For example, the country used to be the number one exporter of coffee in Central America. Now, their economy relies on three main industries: 1) Toursism, 2) Cosmetic Surgery, and 3) Coffee. 

The guide fed us watermelon and pineapple and then helped us get into our masks and flippers for an hour of snorkeling (before arriving to Turtle Island). It was Lewie's first snorkeling experience, and although he wasn't crazy about the flippers, he did enjoy seeing all the beautifully colored fish.  We all swam around a rock formation while the guide spread breadcrumbs to lure the fish up close. I had trouble with my mask continually fogging up and filling up with water until the last ten minutes--UGH! Still, I did enjoy seeing the fish and was secretly hoping to see turtles--there weren't any in that location.

When we arrived on the island, the boat driver and tour guide brought us to a rustic pavilion to eat lunch.  There were beautiful views from every angle--beach, forest, trees, and rocky outcrops.  Rummaging in the forest behind us were deer, wild boars, and iguanas--what a mix!  After lunch, the two Lews relaxed on the beach a bit. Meanwhile, I explored the cute gift shop, which also held the pass to the island bathrooms.  

By the time we were done on the beach, we were tired and grateful we didn't have to drive back that day. We watched the views from the boat and then the van, mostly in silence until we were dropped off again at Docelunas. It was the perfect excursion offering just enough adventure, education, and relaxation rolled up into one.