11/05/2017

Our first full day in La Fortuna! We had already planned our two days here and jam packed them full of action and adventure, so it was time to get stuck in. With a slightly leisurely start, we were picked up by the Desafio bus (the local action adventure specialists) who grabbed the rest of the adventures from around town and we were off to our first adventure… canyoneering!

 

 

 

I was super keen for this one, as I had not really done anything like this. I can’t really ever having had the chance to abseil down a waterfall before! So we arrived in no time at all at our starting point where we met our three guides (well 2 and a photographer) and were given a briefing on how it would all work. We were going to be heading down some fairly gnarly canyons so safety was paramount! But it was also for folks who had not really done it before so there wasn’t too much to learn.

 

 

With all our gear on, Kate and I, along with our 5 other group mates headed off on the jungle path and in no time at all arrived at our first small waterfall. One by one we were connected on, given some instructions, and down we went!

 

 

 

It was great fun, getting showered with water and leaning back and abseiling down. After the first shorty, we were greeted with a much longer repel that also involved a small bit of ziplining. So much fun.

We continued our downward path with some small hikes inbetween repels. During this point we got to a spot of clambering down some rocks where the only way to keep going was to jump and bomb into a deep small pool. It wasn’t scary at all but crazy that all to this point were knee deep pools and suddenly there was one over 2 meters deep. Without any hesitation, we both did our bombs, coming up gasping for air, with water and sunscreen streaming into our eyes.

 

 

Around this time if we weren’t soaked enough, then we would be. As we approached a small climb down one of our guides was lying prone at the top. I knew straight away that he was stopping the water from streaming down. I assumed it was so our climb was safer down, however when we all got to the bottom we were asked to take a seat. Hhhmmm… I sense shenanigans. We were then given a small warning to hang on, and then the guide got out of the way. BOOM! Huge amounts of water rushed down! The force was crazy, and with me being at the very back, I caught the brunt of it all. With Kate next to me she took it hard as well. So much fun.

 

 

We did our last couple of repels and then it was the hike back to the top. So many stairs! At least a good Costa Rican lunch was waiting for us (rice and beans and plantains of course). A great way to top it off.

 

 

 

 

We all headed back to town and Kate and I decided to hang about in town for an hour before our next activity. There is not too much to La Fortuna. A main street with bars and food places and souvenir shops, with a quaint little church and the volcano looking menacingly down the street. It didn’t take too long to see most of what the town had to offer, which was OK as in no time it was off to our next activity.

 

 

 

Kate knew she was going to be in her element up here in La Fortuna, as it was another chance to do her favourite action activity… zip lining! She was becoming a bit of a veteran and never missed a chance to do it. We knew we would also have a chance in Monteverde, but why not here as well?! For this activity it was just the two of us, so we were whisked away up on to the lower parts of the volcano in amongst the trees.

 

 

We had 3 great guides for this, and after a quick go on a test cable, we went further into the tree tops. The views were stunning looking over the town and forest.

 

 

 

 

What is there to say? It was AMAZING. Some of the runs were some of the longest ones we had done, with one approaching 500 meters. As we sailed from tree top to tree top Kate was beaming the whole time. It is such a great adrenalin rush.

 

 

This company also had a special bonus in the middle, which Kate was not so sure about. The Tarzan swing is a point in which you buckle on to the end of a big cable and yep, you swing out. Kate had reservations but in the end really wasn’t given much choice because in no time at all she was hooked up and pushed out. She was clearly loving the initial swings out (I think they were screams of joy) but then got a bit spinny which wasn’t her thing. Me, I loved it all 🙂

 

 

With another few zip lines were back on solid ground, with a celebratory drink waiting at the end. Good ole’ Imperial seemed to be fuelling much of this trip.

 

 

 

We were then done for a couple of hours and got to chill out at the hotel. For dinner we were off on another G Adventures special visit, this time to a home to do a quick tortilla making class and have a home cooked dinner. Dona Mara was our host and her and the family put on the hospitality. We started with the tortilla making, where we each got it into shape and put it on the wood oven. Kate’s tortilla in particular was picked out as being a winner, so she got first taste of their home brew spirit, which we all got to try. Not bad actually!

 

 

After enjoying the fruits of our labour, we sat down for dinner… yep, rice and beans and plantains, and some tasty chicken and salsa. Speaking of salsa, I am getting addicted to a particular brand of salsa sauce, which is DELICIOUS. It has a bit of a vinegary taste to it, but boy am I sucking this stuff down. Cross your fingers I can get it back home!

 

 

And with a delicious meal, it was time to say farewell to Dona Mara and head back to the hotel for a relatively early night. More action in the morning awaited.

 

10/05/2017

It was time to move on from Tortuguero, and head inland and north. So with a pretty relaxed start to the day it was back into the boat and off to land.

We backtracked quite a bit, heading back much the way we came, taking our boat back to port in the driving rain. Yeah, good luck with the luggage staying dry! But we stayed fairly dry and had a good run back to port and our waiting bus. We had quite a few hours of driving ahead, and so it was on with the headphones to relax as we finally reached paved road and headed on our way toward La Fortuna.

 

 

On the way we stopped by a local co-op Coffee Plantation, which is one sponsored by G Adventures program called Planeterra. They are great in supporting locals that have done it a bit rough (in this case after a major earthquake a few years back) to train members of the community up to be self sufficient and put back into the community. This was a coffee preparation and roasting facility run by locals to make export grade quality coffee. So here we were provided with some lunch and a run through of the coffee process.

 

 

 

I had seen something similar (a much larger scale) in Guatemala, so most of it was familiar. But any chance to support the locals and drink coffee hey? I am enjoying the Costa Rican coffee… not as bold as some others, but very drinkable.

This was great opportunity for  break before our last leg to La Fortuna. We hit town at about 6pm, and went straight into planning our next few days, as we had two whole full days here to explore. La Fortuna is the centre of action adventure in Costa Rica. It is home to not only forest, but Arenal Volcano, and active one, towers over the town. With a large lake nearby, waterfalls and forest, any action activity you can think of is here. So we had to decide how to fill our two days. Decisions!

Kate and I opted for one of our favourite activities, ziplining, as well as some canyoneering, and hanging bridges, while I planned to get some mountain biking in there as well. Oh yeah.

By this time it dinner time, and with a quick stop to the hotel, it was off to a local pub for dinner and beers. Andreas, our guide, is actually part owner of a pub here, and so he kindly offered some hospitality. Of course he was getting more paying customers, but with the offer of a huge selection of craft beers, who was I to argue. And so it was off for a quiet night of casual dinner and drinks.

 

 

It was a pretty cruisey place, and just what we needed after a long day. My highlight was eating some Jalapeno Poppers (peppers stuffed with cheese and bacon) as well as a local Double IPA that was delicious! Oh, and Adreas even wanted me to bust out some King Gizzard over the soundsystem which I did. Ha… King Gizz, jalapenos, and craft beer in Costa Rica. You can’t make these things up.

 

08/05/2017

Our first proper day in Costa Rica! And it began nice and early with a 6:30am departure from the hotel as we had a fair bit of ground to cover. We had to make our way from San Jose to the Caribbean coast and the island town of Tortuguero, which we were told would take about 7 hrs.

 

 

 

 

Given our previous travels around parts of Central America, we were expecting a slightly arduous bus journey, however it was all quite luxurious (relatively anyway). A short 1.5hr bus got us to a nice breakfast (the first of seemingly many beans and rice combos) and wander in a butterfly garden. Another hour then took us to a small port where we all loaded onto a small boat and into the winding river.

 

 

Just as we were leaving and hitting the road, we quickly pulled over. Kenneth, our guide for the next few days had spotted something. SLOTH! We couldn’t believe that in our first few hours here, we got to see a sloth in the wild. Sure he was a bit high up, but it was super exciting. First mission accomplished in the first day! Hopefully it was the start of many more sightings.

We felt we were going deep into the forest (forest? jungle?) as we wound our way around, keeping an eye out for wildlife. For the entire journey we had been super fortunate to have quite blue skies, making for a fast and pleasant journey. Given we were entering the rainy season, and we were heading into the wettest part of Costa Rica, we felt things were on our side.

 

 

After an hour or so we arrived at the small town of Tortuguero. Tortuguero lies on a small island, nestled between the rivers and the Caribbean Sea. Only home to about 1000 people, it is a quaint town fuelled by tourism, mostly to see the turtles that come at different times of the year to lay eggs on the beach. It is also home as a result to one of the world’s leading turtle research centres. We knew we were in between seasons for the leatherback and green turtles, but fingers crossed we would get a chance to see some either at the tail end or start of their seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With a quick stroll around town, it was onto another boat to get to our home for the next couple of nights, the remote Turtle Beach Lodge. Nestled in the forest with the rivers to its front and Caribbean to its rear, it was nice to be out of complete contact… no wi-fi, no phone, no one except the small number of visitors at the lodge. Ah, that feels good.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a few hours to chill around the lodge, so Kate and I decided to wander along the beach. Sadly there were too many sting rays to swim in the Caribbean, but we wandered a little in to the super warm waters. We spent an hour wandering, watching the crabs scuttling up and down the beach, and arriving at a small lagoon. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool and escaping the heat with a drink in hand. Life was alright.

 

 

A group dinner at the lodge was nice and early, before many of the group jumped aboard a boat again to cruise the canals and see what wildlife could be found. A friendly caiman (alligator) greeted us at the boat and throughout the 2hrs we spotted many sets of glowing eyes in the waters as the caimans came out to start their night of hunting for food.

 

 

 

It was amazing to slowly make our way through the rivers and canals in the darkness, with only the torches of our guides zipping around the trees looking for wildlife. It was a fairly quiet night, with no big animals to be found. But we did find lots of variety of birds and even tiny bats perched on a tree. My favourite were the basilisks that were at first hard to spot on their branches and then stood proudly as we took snaps.

A massive rain downpour (our first of the day!) suggested it was time to head back to the lodge as we perched under our ponchos for the journey back. A little damp from the rain and the humidity, we made it back for a small dry down before hitting the sack before another early morning coming up.

 

07/05/2017

After a week of crazy shenanigans, it was time to leave the Disney bubble and depart the good ole US of A. Being a Sunday morning, we had a super smooth run to the airport, dumping the car and heading to the international check in. We were off to Costa Rica!

Our good run continued with another smooth flight down to San Jose. It was only a quick 3hrs, which was nice after our last travel day, and were greeted by Eric, a G Adventures rep at the airport. With a friendly Costa Rican welcome, we were whisked downtown to our hotel in San Jose.

Sadly, our run of good weather came to an end, as we were greeted with torrential downpours arriving at the hotel. While we could have ventured out into it, we decided to just check in to our room and chill for a few hours before it would be time to meet the rest of our travel crew.

So at 6pm, we had our first tour group meeting. Andreas was to be our guide for the next couple of weeks. As we expect with G Adventures, he was a sweet friendly guy, ready to help and lead us on our adventure. The tour group was a mix of mostly Brits, with a couple of Canadians, a couple of Germans, and even another Melburnian. The age was probably a bit older than expected, but maybe being a National Geographic branded tour, that meant it was aimed a little more at a specific clientele.

We had a relaxing night, having dinner in the hotel and getting to know one another a little, before calling a relatively early night, ready for an early morning of adventure.