arenal volcano greets us

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.

mmmmm… kafe

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.

sampling some other product

tasty!

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.

local craft beer is delicious!

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.