Top Takeaways - Numero Uno

After spending five days in Costa Rica we have definitely learned quite a bit. Below are some of the highlights (and lowlights) from our trip so far.

Taking in the view.

1. Costa Rica is beautiful; San Jose is not. While we really liked the hostel we stayed in and enjoyed some very good meals, we didn't feel like there was a lot to see in the city. If you are planning a trip to Costa Rica, we would recommend spending no more than a day here - there is just so much better sightseeing outside of the city.

2. Weather in Costa Rica is completely unpredictable (at least during green season). Bring rain gear and don't be afraid to get a little wet.

3. Speaking Spanish is helpful, but not required. So far, we have gotten along perfectly fine with "gracias, por favor, bueno and si."

4. Lodging is very affordable. All of our accommodations so far cost less than $60 / night and we were more than comfortable.

5. Serious bugspray is essential. Enough said.

6. Bus rides will be difficult for anyone who gets carsick (but the views are great). While the drive to La Fortuna was only 3 hours, the roads are windy and the ride is bumpy.

7. People are kind. Everyone we have spoken to has been very friendly and super helpful.

8. If you aren't a sound sleeper, bring ear plugs. The rain woke us up each night at La Fortuna - very heavy downpours for short periods of time. Also, hotel walls are thin and random animals make surprise appearances (i.e., roosters at 5am!).

9. Remember you are in the rainforest. Wi-Fi and electricity can be unreliable and people often adopt the "pura vida" mentality (which means you might be late) but who cares? You're in the rainforest!

10. Costa Rican "typico" food is generally fairly simple (rice, beans, veggies, protein) but hot sauce ties everything together. "Chile" is a red hot sauce served everywhere and it is DELICIOUS. Put it on everything.

Peak: Canopy zipline tour

Pit: San Jose sightseeing

Next Stop: Uvita

Zipline Canopy Tour!

Sarah and I began Sunday with breakfast at our hotel again, which ended up being a lifesaver as we didn't return to get lunch until after 4pm! After breakfast we packed our bag and suited up for our day-long adventure: a zipline canopy tour, rappelling and horseback riding. It was raining off-and-on-again and our shuttle was late, but we were both too excited to really care. Once we got to the Go Adventure office, we suited up and took another bus to the zipline course.

Ready to go (once we put our helmets on)!

Move over, horses, zipliners coming through.

I wish they’d had helmets that we could’ve attached the GoPro to, but sadly we had to settle for some photos and videos at the end of each of the 14 ziplines we went across. The views of the jungle as we flew through the air were amazing - quite an out of body experience.

We made it!

One thing we noticed a lot in the jungle was all the ants marching, gathering leaves for their colony. It was pretty cool to see so many tiny creatures carrying leaves 4 or 5 times their size, all toward one coordinated goal.

Ants marching.

The colony entrance.

After we finished the zipline course, we rappelled down a 150 foot cliff. Pretty intimidating, but we felt a little better knowing there was an extra safety line to make sure we didn't fall.

For some unknown reason, Sarah volunteered to go first...out of everyone in our group. Here she is right before going over the edge!

The trip down was not as scary as I thought it would be - you end up focusing so much on where to plant your feet, that you never really look down to see just how high up you are. In some ways, it was scarier to watch the rest of our group do it once I was already on the ground.

The final part of our adventure was horseback riding. It was about a mile from the end of the zipline course back to the Go Adventure office. Our horseback guides gave very detailed instructions in Spanish and about two sentences of instructions in English. We both just let our horses go with the flow and we ended up just fine (though it was a little unnerving when the guide started yelling and the horses all started running…a little heads up would've been nice!).

My horse looks well-behaved here, but he spent most of the time trying to eat leaves and head-butt other horses.

Next stop: food. At this point it was more of an early dinner than late lunch. We ate at Novillito's, a steakhouse in between our hotel and downtown La Fortuna. It was very well reviewed on TripAdvisor (which has already served us very well with hotels and meals) and it lived up to our expectations. After our hearty meal, we walked home (about a mile), took a shower and crashed. Tomorrow we head back to San Jose before leaving for the Pacific coast on Tuesday.

Volcán y Fútbol

Saturday morning Alex and I started the day with a homemade breakfast at our hotel. For just USD$6 we had juice, coffee, a full plate of fresh fruit and an entrée of our choice: omelette con todo y chile was our favorite. Breakfast dishes are also almost always served with rice, beans and fried plantains (like the majority of Tican meals). Most impressive to me was that my husband - lover of vegetables and hater of fruit - was willing to eat some of the fresh mango and banana we were served.

How can you say no to that?

After finishing a leisurely breakfast and packing our backpack for the day we caught a cab from our hotel to Arenal Volcano National Park. Visitors are not allowed to hike the volcano as it is still active but there are a handful of trails throughout the park. We selected a hike expected to take a little over 2 hours and set off to explore.

Me in front of Lake Arenal before we left for our hike.

View of the volcano from "ground level."

The first half of the hike was moderately difficult, weaving in and out of the jungle with some pretty steep climbs. The guides had suggested we bring walking sticks, which felt a bit strange but proved to be a great balancing aid. The hot temperatures and humidity made for a fairly sweaty hike, but the views and scenery were totally worth it.

View from the highest overlook on the trail.

Lake Arenal from the overlook.

Alex and I in front of Lake Arenal at the overlook spot.

Alex in the bamboo forest along the trail.

After about two hours of hiking we made it back to our starting point and found that our cab driver was patiently waiting to take us back to the hotel. We debated cleaning up before heading into town, but figured the 1.5 mile walk would undo any benefit gained from a shower (I am also preparing for the 5 straight days of not showering during our Machu Picchu climb). So we headed directly to a crowded restaurant / bar called Lava Lounge to watch the Ticos in the World Cup quarterfinals.

Lava Lounge. These tables did not have a view of the TV.

After more than a few "typico" meals, we were pretty happy to discover that Lava Lounge had a very diverse menu - my eyes went immediately to the giant chicken nachos, which we washed down with multiple Imperials. Another surprise on the menu was a BBC - we are so used to only ordering these while in Montauk at Cyril's that we didn't realize the drink was globally recognized!

Can't go wrong with BBCs and nachos.

We had a great time watching the game and cheering along with the local crowd, even through the Tico's were dealt a devastating 4-3 loss in the final shootout. We ended the evening with a walk back to our hotel, some time in the pool and sandwiches in our hotel room before going to bed early (it gets dark here at 6pm and light at 5am so our schedules have pretty much resembled the early bird special crowd).

Change of Scenery

Today we woke up early, re-packed our backpacks and took a shuttle bus to La Fortuna. The bus company we used, Gray Line, was great - very professional and friendly. Turned out we were the only ones going to La Fortuna today so we had a big van all to ourselves. Made it a more comfortable ride and there wasn't anyone to judge our reactions during the drive: one minute we would be clinging to the seat because we were about to take a hairpin turn at 60 km/hr, the next we were "ooh-ing" and "ahh-ing" at the scenery. We had a pit-stop half way and the view speaks for itself...we're not in the city anymore!

Rolling hills and low-hanging clouds for days.

When we got to our hotel, Roca Negra, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were basically already in the jungle, albeit a jungle with a great swimming pool.

Driveway to our hotel (off the main road).

Walkway to our room.

Cooling off in the pool.

After getting settled, we were off to grab a bite to eat. We hadn't eaten anything at this point, so we were pretty hungry. Fortunately, Delicatessen was right across the street from our hotel - there we got a few much needed sandwiches. Next we headed into town (about a mile and a half) to walk around and explore the area. On the way, we saw a few other hotels and many, many cows.

View from Delicatessen of the hotel next door.

Very colorful villas at another hotel down the road.

We probably saw more cows than people on the walk into town.

Downtown La Fortuna is nice - it's not very big, but there are many tourist-friendly cafes and restaurants. There were also a lot of helpful and friendly locals. Many offered assistance even though we weren't booking any of our tours in the area through them. The main square in town is a well-manicured park with a fountain; however, the best view in the park is looking back at the volcano.

Iglesia Católica y Volcán Arenal.

After we'd seen the town (not that hard to see it all given that it's so small), we walked back to our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We wanted to try something truly local so we went to a "soda" for dinner. Sodas, as they are known here, are essentially family-run restaurants where you eat directly in their home. Soda de Los Flores was close to our hotel, so we went there. The food was great, and like most Costa Rican food, very simple: protein, rice, beans, plantains. I had the steak, Sarah had the chicken. Along with our fruit smoothies and an empanada to start, we were quickly full for only 10,000 Colones (around $18). Tomorrow we explore the volcano; Sarah is already tired of my Dante's Peak jokes...

Limoncello at Last!

As aspiring foodies, Alex and I wanted to track down a few local places known for both their cuisine and affordable prices. After spotting Limoncello on Tripadvisor, which was noted as the 8th best restaurant in San Jose (and 0.4 miles from our hostel), we were determined to head there for dinner. The address translated to "behind the movie theatre" so we struggled to find the actual location without an address on our first day, but today we finally found it - and we are so glad we did!

I am wearing the nicest outfit I packed so expect to see it multiple times.

Let me just say that the reviews on Tripadvisor are spot on. For the cost of a sitdown lunch in NYC we had a bottle of wine, basket of homemade rolls, massive antipasti platter and two pasta entrees - mine consisted of a spicy tomato sauce with clams, mussels, calamari and shrimp; Alex's ravioli was stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella. Eventually we need to stop eating like we are on vacation for a year! While we had a pretty hard time locating Limoncello, we would highly recommend it to anyone passing through San Jose.

Earlier in the day, we started with free breakfast at our hostel - they actually asked us what we wanted and then prepared it! We spent the next few hours walking around San Jose before the daily rainclouds moved in.

A cathedral in central San Jose.

Inside the cathedral.

Near the courthouse and decked out in full-on backpacking gear. So far the nicest areas we have seen are located around government buildings.

Government offices in the center of town (and Alex's shoulder).

After exploring the city a bit more we made our way a few miles west to Parque La Sabana. It's hard to compare to Central Park in Manhattan, but it was a welcome respite from the often gritty streets of San Jose and the trees were really beautiful.

"Rainbow trees" according to Sarah.

Museo de Arte Costrricense.

The trees are huge.

By the time we made it back to our hostel it was time for a nap before leaving to track down our dinner spot. Tomorrow we leave for La Fortuna for 3 days and are looking forward to exploring the volcano.