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Published: June 20th 2011
Got up, packed, and hopped on our tour bus. We lucked out because the tour operator said they would carry our luggage to our next hostel. With luggage on board, we headed to Doka coffee plantation.
On the way we were introduced to our guide Ana Luisa. A sweet though fairly ethno-centric lady. Apparently, the guide books do not lie. Costa Ricans are not big fans of Nicaraguans. At the coffee plantation, Luisa went on about how the Nicaraguans handle all the physical labor, because the Costa Ricans were too good for that. On the bright side, the coffee and breakfast was delicioso!
Next stop Volcan Poas! Unfortunately, right as we were approaching the volcano, the clouds started rolling in. The hike to the top was beautiful, but the view was nothing but clouds. A short distance from the Poas crater was a lake that claims to be the most acid lake in ... (I cant remember exactly what she said, but it was impressive). Nonetheless, the view of the lake was wonderful. On the way we were introduced to a type of plant known as the "poor mans umbrella" (for obvious reasons).
Final stop, La Paz! Given
Ana Luisa
This is where she was trash talking Nicaraguans.that the crater was too cloudy to see, La Paz was undoubtedly the best stop on the trip. The La Paz parque area has a butterfly gardens, and aviary (that you could enter), a frog den, and monkey cages. After seeing all the critters (and feeding the monkeys dead butterflies), we walked down to the waterfalls. The first waterfall was pretty impressive, but La Paz was just amazing. The hike was a good distance downhill, but not undoable. And, it was worth it. The pictures dont do it justice. 2 side notes 1) it might seem strange to point this out, but the bathrooms were really cool. The sinks were little waterfalls. And 2) if you stare at a waterfall for a while, then look away, everything moves in a really freaky fashion.
After the tour, we were dropped off at our Hostel, Casa Del Parque. Unfortunately, they had overbooked, so they refered us to another hotel. They claimed it was an upgrade, and in many ways it was... More on this later. The hostel paid for our cab ride to the new place and invited us back for salsa classes. Once the cab showed up, we were whisked
away to Casa Botanica.
When the cab pulled up to Casa Botanica, we werent sure what to think. It was a small looking house with a front gate and bars. The cabby honked and a man, who later introduced himself as Christian, came out to greet us. Turns out, Christian rents out rooms in his house as a sort of bed and breakfast. He takes a lot of overflow from the Hostels in town. He was a super nice guy and knew the area very well as he had lived there his whole life. Plus, turns out his Uncle owns a coffee plantation, so we had fresh coffee waiting for us every morning. Later that evening, we returned to Casa Del Parque for the salsa lessons. It was great fun, and at the end of the lesson, the instructor said that we were the best in the class. True, we were the only two people in the class. But, we take compliments where we can get them. In all, a great day!
Next day started out great, but didnt end so well. We started the day by going to a little organic market / fair that was nearby
Christians house. We went down with two of the other Casa Botanica guests, Patty and Juaquin. At the market, I bought a sweet shirt and we grabbed some tasty food. After the fair, we walked around San Jose. We went to the Teatre de Nacional, the Parque de Nacional, and some markets. Unfortunately, we didnt make it far before the temperature dropped about 25 degrees and it started pouring rain. It was around this time that I started feeling a little ill. Shavonn felt my forehead, and I was running a fairly high fever. We decided to call it quits, so we headed back to Christians and I slept it off while Shavonn spent a little time with our new found friends.
By the next day, my fever had mostly broke, so we decided to, against the advice of almost everyone, rent a car and drive to La Fortuna. Turns out, it was a great idea. We had the car dropped off at Christians and made it most of the way to La Fortuna before our GPS broke. Luckily, the GPS had gotten us through the difficult turns. So, a couple of lucky guesses later, we arrived in La
Poor mans umbrella
ella ella eh eh eh Fortuna. The drive was beautiful and scenic. The roads were all great. Id reommend it to anyone.
Tomorrow, horseback riding and swimming under waterfalls. =) Pura Vida!!!
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Patty
non-member comment
Awesome!
I'm so glad to know you arrived safely. I was really afraid something was going to happen to you both on the road. I should have never doubted your driving skills. :-) I hope the rest of your trip is just as awesome.