Arriving, Arenal and a Very Long Hike
I'm back from my lovely vacation in Costa Rica with lots of pictures, stories, and beautiful memories. My first impression of Costa Rica was that the people were extremely accomodating and friendly.
We arrived around 10:30pm on a Thursday night and were met outside the terminal by a very pleasant man holding a sign with my name. I felt like a VIP. They took us to the car rental agency where the friendly staffed filled us in on the details of our rental. We signed and headed out by 11. Our first attempt at driving (with me behind the wheel) was a little scary. Apparently red lights are optional for Costa Rican drivers at night. We put the GPS on to lead us to our hotel and it took us to the wrong hotel. After pulling over and getting my nerves collected, we finally managed to find a McDonald's to ask for directions. It just so happens that a bike messenger was headed in our direction and said we could follow him. It was just a block or so farther and we found our first hotel, Rincon del Valle. It was super cute and extremly cozy.The next morning (after a lovely and free breakfast) we headed out on our first major driving experience to Arenal. Arenal is not really that far away from San Jose but it takes about 4 hours to drive there. A drive that distance in the states would only take 2 hours at the most. It's the quality of the roads that really make it a challenge. We had to take winding and sometimes unpaved roads pretty much the whole way. Thankfully we had pretty decent weather and a 4WD SUV, so it was easy going.
On the way to Arenal, we stopped in Zarcero. A small little blip on the map with an interesting looking church and some topiary gardens. We had hoped to find a public restroom but unfortunately the water had been our for three days in the city so we were out of luck. We got a few pretty pictures of the church and we were on our way.
The roads in Costa Rica weren't as bad as I imagined they would be. For the most part they were paved, and even the ones that weren't paved were pretty tightly packed dirt and easily drivable. We even got to drive through a few clouds.
Our hotel in Arenal was fabulous. It was about 19km from the tourist trap of La Fortuna. At first I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't on the main strip down there... but I grew to appreciate that fact. It was quiet and relaxing at the Tilajari Resort and we loved it.
View from our balcony
That first evening in Arenal, we decided to check out the hot springs. Because Arenal is situated at the base of an active volcano, there are numerous hot springs that you can visit. Before we went I did a little research. Most of them are overpriced and crowded. Some charge almost 100 bucks for a few hours (including dinner). I ran across a great review for Ecotermales, a family-operated hot spring that only allows a max of 100 people on the premises at a time. They space let in about 15-20 each hour so it rarely feels full. For $45 we got admission and a very large dinner. Ecotermales tends to fill up pretty quickly during the high-season, so if you plan on going there definitely book in advance. If they're full there's also Tabacon or Baldi springs - but both have no limit on the number of guests they'll let in. They are more expensive and you won't get that intimate and relaxing feel like we did at Ecotermales.
This is where we had dinner. They served us rice, beans, grilled fish, tortilla, salad and dessert! I almost sunk to the bottom of the hot spring after eating. 
Ecotermales was really one of the most gorgeous and serene places I've ever been. They have a large pool that's divided into different areas depending on the temperature of the water. There's also a couple of bars and you order drinks based on the "honor system" - just let them know how many at the front desk when you leave.
It was a great way to start off our trip. We drank a bit, laughed and toasted to the amazing week we just knew we had ahead of us. I joked around with Tara and Shelly and told them that when I'm feeling stressed and overwhelmed at work I'm going to think of Ecotermales and how incredible it felt to relax like that. For someone who is so tightly wound and stressed all the time... it was absolute heaven.
The next day, we decided to go into La Fortuna pretty early and book a horseback riding excursion. It was a 4 hour trip through the hills around the base of the Arenal Volcano eventually ending with a swim in the La Fortuna waterfall! But first... while we were waiting for the trip to leave we spent some time fooling around in La Fortuna. We found this man with some snakes and I decided that I wanted to play with them. Wow, that sounded wrong. I wanted to play with a man's snake. lol
The snake seemed pretty pleasant at first... and then it started to cozy up to my neck. Then the lovely man decides to inform me that it's a Boa Constrictor. I had to yell at the guy to take the damn thing off of me before it strangled me.
Finally it was time for our horseback riding trip! The first thing I noticed was that our horses were looking a little rough around the edges. Not happy and plump horses like the ones I rode in Jamaica. I kept hoping the poor thing wouldn't collapse with my vacation-plump ass on top of it.
We rode for about an hour and then arrived at a lookout where we could see the La Fortuna waterfall in the distance. It was gorgeous and surreal. Here I was standing in the middle of the cloud forest in Costa Rica. And I had ridden a horse to get there! Who would've thought this city girl could do that!
After spending a few minutes at the lookout it was time to make the hike down to the waterfall and go swimming. When we booked the tour they told us that it was an 100m hike from where we left the horses to the waterfall. LIAR! It was more like a kilometer. Which is close... but you have to factor in that we were literally descending the side of a mountain. The ground was uneven and trecherous. And there was this little hanging bridge that terrified my travel mates. This was the first of many ocassions during this trip where I thanked god for my lack of fear of heights.
We had a little guide dog taking us down the mountain. He was absolutely precious and probably the happiest dog I've ever seen. His name was Dolar and I wanted to steal him and take him home to play with my puppies.
After an exhausting hike down, we made it! Totally worth it. The water was refreshing (COLD!) and beautiful. I jumped right in and cooled off. Another surreal experience. We took some pictures and hopped out to start our hike up the mountain. I discovered that if I ran up the path it made it less painful and quick. Once we reached up top we were honestly ready to get on those horses and call it a day. The guide asked us if we'd like to stop by a Maleku indian village on the way back. Despite our exhaustion, we all agreed that we shouldn't pass it up!
They told us a little bit about their tribe and served us a drink made from fermented corn. It was delicious! They had some handmade crafts and we did a little shopping and hopped back on our horses. By the time we arrived back in La Fortuna, I think we were all ready to collapse from exhaustion.
We called it a night back at the Tilajari and got ready to depart to Monteverde for part 2 of our fabulous adventure. I will get into that in another post... coming soon!
