After our little adventure in Panama City and a near-miss of the flight to Costa Rica, we arrived in San Jose in the late hours of the night. As we landed, our manual driver, aka Omar, became really sick due to lack of sleep from finishing up his work prior to the trip. Once we had our luggage, we made our way to the car rental agencies and asked about prices and car conditions. Eventually we settled on a rental company and they drove us to their offices to get the paper work done.
Some of the people advised us not to drive at night to La Fortuna since we did not know the roads or the language. However, being head strong about our schedule, we rented an automatic transmission 4WD and a GPS system and proceeded to drive to La Fortuna. Pointers on car rental: never rent older model cars. We learned this the hard way, however the car served us well through our trip in Costa Rica.
The late night drive was pretty interesting since we ran into at least one major road closure which diverted us into windy roads through forest looking areas. I drove us from San Jose to La Fortuna and I must say I became a much more confident driver after this trip. We arrived so late in La Fortuna that the hotel gates had been closed and locked up. We had to honk to get the guards to open the doors and let us in. We collapsed into our beds soon after our checkin so we could be ready for an activity filled day.
The next morning, after filling up on complimentary breakfast, we got ready for hiking. We made our way to the La Fortuna falls. After buying our tickets, we hiked down a winding trail that led us to the most breathtaking site I had seen in a long time. After the hike down over rocks and trees, we came upon this tall water fall that emptied into a small lake.
The waterfall was beautiful and looked amazing. After catching our breath, we sat down on the rocks in front of the lake and enjoyed the view for a bit. Eventually we decided to take a dip in the lake since we had our swimming trunks with us. The water was quite cold but definitely refreshing. After taking a dip in the water for a bit, we got out and hiked a bit more and found a second spot where the water was calmer and warmer than the lake under the waterfall.
After we had our fill of swimming, we dried ourselves off in the sun and headed back up the trail. As we made our way back up, we realized there was a trail that went farther up than where we had initially entered. We decided to go up that way and we eventually came upon a lookout that gave an amazing view of the whole valley including the waterfall below. I was totally amazed by the view and I could have stayed there forever. As we were taking in the view, we heard some noises and looked around the valley. What we found intrigued us quite a bit. Far above the waterfalls and going across the valley were lines that people were ziplining on from one side of the valley to the other. We realized how much fun it would be to do that and we vowed to give it a try the first chance we would get.
After returning from the falls, we went to eat at a nearby restaurant. Our first real taste of Costa Rican food and we were definitely not disappointed. We had some amazing dishes and delicious tasting fresh fruit juices. I guess after a long hike, everything tasted that much better. We went back to the hotel after lunch and relaxed for a bit.
Eventually we decided that we needed to use our time wisely and we headed back out to do some more sight seeing. It had already become dark but we were determined to be productive. We had heard of a lookout that was across from the volcano in La Fortuna, Arenal Volcano. The guy at the entrance must have thought we were crazy but he still sold us the entry tickets and lent us an extra flash light as well.
We hiked along the trail that he explained to us and came across this hanging bridge that felt like it will collapse under our weight. After crossing the bridge we made our way to the supposed lookout but everything was completely dark. We did finally make it there but due to the darkness and inactivity at the volcano, we could not see anything. However, the trip was not a total failure since we knew what we wanted to do the next morning. But for now, we had to call it a night and head back to our hotel.
Here are some pictures from our First Day in Costa Rica:
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