San José (CR) to Arenal
The plan was to be up early and go exploring San José. It didn't quite go to plan because we slept for 10 hours but it's OK because one of the main attractions in the city, the Mercado Central Market, doesn't get going until 9am anyway. This is odd since apparently Costa Ricans are early risers.
We walk into town (making a false stop at what we thought was the central market but was just a normal market) and realise we'll probably need some physical cash so we aim for an ATM.
We then wander into the market with breakfast and coffee as the only items on the agenda. We've seen that Costa Rica is famous for its Gallo Pinto at any local Soda (casual diner). It consists of rice and black beans mixed together, some tortillas, fried plantain and some cheese and eggs. We're not 100% sure if we've nailed the order due to the language barrier, but it looks pretty close. It was OK, not brilliant, likewise the coffee.
We head onwards into the main part of town where there's a mall of retail. We get the obligatory Starbucks mug, tip a lady shaking the maracas with a cute dog and Jeff buys a shirt - he's packed light to say the least. He also buys a relatively cheap Costa Rica national soccer team shirt.
We know it was rushed, but we think we've seen enough and it's time to start making our way to our next destination. We don't know how reliable the 3 hour 45 minute estimate is going to be to get to Arenal, especially given what the traffic was like last night and with a few stops thrown in. We pack up and ship out.
The first part of the drive is back along the highway past the airport and relatively stress free due to missing the peak 2-hour. After a while the traffic thins out and we are down to 1 lane and gaining elevation.
We stop in a small town, San Ramon at a nice cafe for pannis and flat whites. The coffees were the best of the trip so far, by far. The paninis came with taro chips.
On we go and soon it's feeling very regional - we see a committee of vultures on the side of the road! We can now spot the Arenal Volcano and then we arrive in the town of La Fortuna, which is the town most tourists come to for the volcano and all the other cool tourist things like zip lining, sloth tours, coffee tours, sky bridge walks, white water rafting etc. etc. We duck in for an ice cream and an acai bowl and consult the guide to see if we should do an activity while we're here since our accommodation is another 20 odd minutes down the way.
We decide on the La Fortuna Waterfall and within 10 mins we're there. It costs to go in. We're warned it's 500 steps and takes about 15 mins down and 30 back. It's not that bad and soon enough we're stripping off to go for a dip in the little pools of mini rapids. There are signs saying where to go, the people at the front said it's OK to go in today and there are even lifeguards watching.
We ascend in 7 minutes, but hey who's counting and jump back in the car for the final leg.
We arrive at Arenal Observatory Lodge to a warm welcome as the sun is starting to go down. The lodge is the only one within the Arenal National Park and is on a massive lot of land with a mix of primary (virgin) forest and secondary where they are trying to rejuvenate (more on this tomorrow).
The views of the volcano are stunning. It's as close to an active volcano as we've ever been. Arenal's last major activity was in 2010 and has been resting since. It had a mega eruption in 1968, taking out two towns and another big one in the 90s. The university and the Smithsonian have set up research here due to its proximity and relative safety with the Caliente River acting as a lava barrier (in theory). Guests at this lodge used to actually watch the lava and minor eruptions during their stay in the 90s! We're happy enough to see smoke and gasses coming from the top - that's active enough for us.
The activities and hikes available have us very excited. We book in for tomorrow's 8am guided nature walk on the grounds. There are 11km of maintained hiking trails on the property with a good chance of seeing plenty of birds and maybe some mammals like monkeys.
We park the car and the heavans open up out of nowhere, tropical style. We get to our rooms, change our clothes and brave it in the rain back to reception/restaurant. 2 for 1 happy hour beers and dinner and we have settled in nicely.
The workers here are super friendly and don't mind our horrible Spanish. Some of their English is better than others but we have some good chats.
The rain has stopped after dinner and we have 2 hours to kill before the AFL grand final starts at 1030pm so we jump in the spa and pool for a while. We watch the game until it ends at 130am (suck it, Cats) and call it a massive day.
