Blogs from La Fortuna, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 2

After breakfast, we headed to the Balsa River for some white-water rafting with Desafio Adventures. Our bus guide, made an impromptu stop at a road side grocery store where we learned about the different tropical fruits of Costa Rica and had our first taste of Coconut Water. Delicious! By the time we reached the Balsa River, our river guides had everything prepared for our white-water rafting excursion. We were provided with a helmet and paddle and after a quick safety demonstration, we were off on our white-water rafting adventure. The Rio Balsa is a class II and class III River that is regulated by daily dam releases. It is perfect for first timers like my sister, Renata. We steered our way pass various rocky rapid and enjoyed a relaxing float down the river. The rapids were ... read more

Today, Renata and I are going canyoning in the Lost Canyon and horseback riding and swimming at La Fortuna Waterfall. I have never been canyoning before nor have I swam in a waterfall. Two first time adventures in one day! Our first excursion of the day was canyoning. A bumpy ride up to the Lost Canyon was rewarded with great views of the countryside. When we reached our final destination, we settled into our safety gear and after a brief safety talk, we headed to the first waterfall. Rappelling down the first waterfall, “the Baby” was a little nerve racking but once I got the hang of it, it was incredible. Renata and I rappelled down four waterfalls, jumped into pools, zipped our way on guided rappels and got soaked by rapids. The scariest part was ... read more

Today, marks the end of Mac-Serve Costa Rica. While the rest of the Mac-Serve Costa Rica group woke up at 4:30am for their early morning flight back to Toronto, Renata and I continued our adventure in Costa Rica. Our next stop: La Fortuna, the adventure capital of Costa Rica. Renata and I decided to take transportation plus tour from San Jose to Arenal, to maximize our time exploring in Costa Rica. Today, we are visiting the Doka Coffee Plantation, Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall Gardens. Our first stop was the Doka Coffee Plantation. The Doka Coffee Plantation had a bigger coffee manufacturing facility than the Don Juan Coffee Plantation we toured in Monteverde. As a result, I was able to understand the coffee manufacturing process a lot better during the Doka Coffee Tour. After coffee ... read more

Saturday Lots of rain last night. The room was quiet, the highest room, far away from the street. The only commotion was a couple of pesky roosters that woke up at 6am! The mountains were all clouded in at that hour, but we hope to get some good photos later. Had breakfast on the balcony, fruit and coffee. We sat and watched the birds. Saw a hummingbird in a close flowering tree, but he was too quick for a photo. We walked to the central park area. It was about 9am, and starting to get very humid. The flowers were gorgeous, and the smell so sweet. Many yellow butterflies were fluttering around. We chased a few more hummingbirds, but they were too fast for us! The best view of the volcano, Volcan Aranel, is from the ... read more