Once we got into Costa Rica we headed for the car rental place- According to Google Maps we had about 1½ hour drive to our hotel in La Fortuna... that would be a lie (Damn you Google Maps for failing me!) it was really about 3½ hour drive on reaallllly narrow roads in the middle of the night... with fog. We had called ahead to the hotel and so they had given our room key to the security guy, Gabriel, and we were able to just crash and check in the next day.
We stayed in a beautiful little town and this was the view from our room every morning:
The town was super small and just had a lot of little shops, places to eat and the town centered around the church. I have to admit, it was the least creepy rendition of Jesus I have ever seen.
(I mean that in the least blasphemous way possible)
Since La Fortuna sits at the base of the Arenal Volcano, I wanted to go hiking ASAP, so we hooked up with the cutest little trail guy and headed into the rainforest.
Volcan Arenal
The shrine made from seashells to keep the town safe from more eruptions
The land is so fertile that the broken tree branches that they stick in the ground to make 'fences' will start growing leaves and turn into live trees again, it's crazy
During the hike it started raining pretty hard, like it did everyday, so we chilled in a cave for about 20 minutes while our tour guide Franklin, yelled and laughed at all the hikers running from the forest trying to find shelter.
He showed us all kind of cool things on the trail, the different plants like Anise, wild pepper and the Mimosa plant, Mondo took a video of it... It hides its leaves from predators to show the spikes underneath
We were so lazy, sleeping in, walking around town, eating and just hanging out- no real plans, just tried to keep it pretty low key. We had seen the signs for the 'Fortuna Cataratas' and heard it was a pretty hike so we headed out in the rental car to find them.
Not the most flattering picture, but that was our trusty Yaris and the crap roads that Costa Rica has... largely unpaved and full of pot holes.
Imagine walking in the rainforest.... and walking and walking and then all of a sudden you reach a clearing and this is what you see:
Amazing, then you follow various signs in lots of different languages that lead you down the rocky, jagged, steep as sh*t stairs of death to the most beautiful, refreshing waterfall I have ever seen.
Smiling my pretty smile as I tried not to slide down the wet rocks on the trail
Another trail and some more steps led you away from the waterfall to another little spring, not as pretty though so we went back up to the falls and I swam like a little kid.
Hiking up was not nearly as 'easy' as walking down and I would have paid someone to put me in a carrier to save my calves/glutes the trek back up to the car, it was just so beautiful though, I couldn't even whine about my sore muscles. Every night I would try to catch the little geckos that creeped around our room... They are much more wily than you give them credit for.
