My Green Life

Day 5: James decided just driving to La Fortuna was not adventurous enough for us, so instead, we went by horse, boat, and van. We met our caballero who did not speak ANY English. Almost everyone we encountered while in Costa Rica spoke some English, but not our cowboy! So, we acted out enough objects to communicate and started on our trek along the beautiful Arenal Lake. Unfortunately, it rained almost the entire ride so the views were not quite as easy to enjoy. But we made due, and survived until lunchtime where we stopped for pineapple and watermelon while joined by three little pigs from a nearby farm. Then we continued on after lunch until arriving at a very random boat in the middle of nowhere. We hopped on and were shuttled across the lake to meet our shuttle that took us to our Casa Luna Hotel. Then we took siestas, relaxed, and walked about 35 minutes into La Fortuna for dinner at 4:30. We, once again, had delicious casados and headed back to Casa Luna to watch some tv and head to bed early.

Day 6: Dined on omelets and cereal for breakfast at the hotel, then we were picked up by our canoe guide, Marcos, to head out to the river for some wildlife viewing. We had a leisurely float down the Penas Blancas (White Cliffs) River when James did all the work while I got to enjoy the views and take pictures. We saw lots of animals including basilisks (otherwise known as Jesus Christ lizards because they can run on the water), a group of about ten howler monkeys, two crocodiles, and a lot of birds. Of course it rained almost the whole trip until we stopped for some veggies and wraps then headed back to dry off at our hotel. On the way, Marcos stopped suddenly and pulled off to the side of the road. James and I looked quizzically at each other as Marcos was tossing pineapples from a harvested field to our driver as by-passers honked their horns. It was quite entertaining! Then we made one other unexpected stop at a little open air restaurant where Marcos told us to grab our camera. We went to the back and there were about 50 iguanas sunning in the sun. Marcos fed them papaya and cabbage which they devoured with pleasure. Then we headed back to the hotel until our evening at the hot springs. Eco Termales hot springs were naturally heated with about six different pools. We had a very relaxing evening with dinner included.

Day 7: Another beautiful morning on the Penas Blancas River, but this time in a raft where I had to do even less paddling! Another honeymooning couple joined us and the guide as we viewed a sloth (which actually looked more like a termite nest), monkeys, and a poisonous frog (wearing “blue jeans”). We had a snack of fruit after our float then headed to the La Fortuna waterfall after dropping off the other couple. We climbed about 450 stairs to get down to the bottom where the view was amazing. Then we headed back to town for lunch then joined a 2:00 tour to the Arenal Volcano where it was so wet and rainy, we did not get to go too far due to safety concerns. Then we headed to another Hot Springs, Tabacon, which was even nicer than the first and had a delicious Asian buffet for dinner where James tried one of everything. It was a very fun-filled day of adventure!

Day 8: We got to sleep in!! Victor arrived to pick us up at 10:00 for our day of canyoning and rappeling. We arrived, put on our gear, had a very brief lesson on rappeling ourselves down, and started on our first mini rappel. Our guides had a lot of fun with us, splashing us, having us cannonball into small bodies of water, and pose for the photography was we headed down the stream. We had two large rappels of about 200 feet each which were a little scary at first, but once you were descending it was such a rush. We took a short side track to a waterfall, then headed up the hill to lunch before heading back to town for a lazy afternoon and packing for the BEACH…