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Published: October 20th 2006
Holy dooley have we seen some pretty nature stuff since we last wrote! I know that Costa Rica is famous for it and all. Well, let me tell you that they come by that fame honestly. But, before we could arrive in Costa Rica and see all that neat nature stuff, we had some serious journeying ahead of us. If you remember, we last posted from Isla Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Well, the next morning we started out bright and early, (we’re talking sunrise, folks) in hopes of arriving in Fortuna, Costa Rica, the hub for those wanting to take a closer look at the very active Volcan Arenal, before nightfall.
Getting between the island and the volcano requires various forms of transportation as you might guess, and our day went a little something like this: ferry to mainland, taxi to the Panamerican Highway to flag down bus, school bus to the border, the maze of border formalities on foot to the Costa Rican side, then a bus to Liberia, another bus to Canas (where we missed the last bus to Fortuna by a mere eight minutes—doh!), and then finally a bus to Tilaran instead, a tiny
little village which was as close as we could get to the volcano without actually seeing it. I’m tired just remembering it again.
Our disappointment from not making it to Fortuna quickly abated when we noticed just how beautiful Tilaran was. We found a steal of a room with hot showers, free coffee, and satellite TV with a gorgeous view of three other volcanoes and the many windmills dotting the hilltops of the surrounding gorgeous green pastureland. Being that we had spent most of the day on our bums, cramped in public transportation, and because the place was just so darn cute, we decided to take a little stroll around the countryside before the sun went down. We were hoping to climb up to a cross on a hill overlooking the town for more stunning views but couldn’t track down the start of the trail that lead there. So instead, we just kept following this dirt road not really sure where we were going.
Along the way we met a friendly old guy who invited us to visit his tilapia farm. Who knew that folks grew fish? This guy was easily 80 years old and still climbing down
trails and taking on “little” projects like starting fish farms. We liked him. So off we went to visit his four beautiful ponds teeming with fish nestled in a little valley on his very own piece of paradise. Once at the ponds, we learned that he feeds the fish every day, which means walking the two or so kilometers uphill to town to buy a couple of kilos of fish pellets, hauling the food back down to the ponds, and then hurling it handful by handful into the ponds where the hungry little fishies jump and fight to get themselves a nibble. It looked like so much fun, we decided to help. I think our friend enjoyed the company, and as dull as feeding fish might sound, we had a blast.
And snuggling up in our cozy little hotel room later with a dinner of cheese and crackers and wine and cable TV was pretty good too. Sometimes missing buses ain’t such a bad thing after all.
The next morning, we caught the early bus to Fortuna. It was such a gorgeous journey, admiring all the pretty flowers and waterfalls and ecolodges as the bus winded its way
around Lake Arenal. Lots of foreigners have moved into this part of Costa Rica which is evident from the signs advertising German bakeries and Swiss chalets and Italian restaurants. As we finally neared Fortuna, we caught our first glimpses of massive Volcan Arenal, which looks a whole lot like a gigantic anthill due to its constant spewing of lava and ash. (We’d get better glimpses of the lava once night came.)
Fortuna reminded me of any outdoor adventure town pretty much anywhere in the world. Lots of tour companies and restaurants and hotels and souvenir stands and none of them looked particularly appealing. We decided to stay in a smaller locally owned place which a tout who pounced on us as we got off the bus promised to have good beds, cable TV (again!!), and gorgeous views of the volcano from our balcony. He was right on all accounts and at $12, we were duly satisfied.
The downside of the place was the owner who was also darn pushy as she tried to convince us to sign up for a volcano tour through her. After perusing some of the other pushy tour companies in town who all offer
the same trips, it turned out that we had found the best deal without ever leaving our lovely balcony.
The tour consisted of a short hike through the rain forest to some lava fields from when Arenal really let it rip a few years ago. We were supposed to see some neat nature and stuff during the hike, but it was raining pretty hard, and we had the grumpiest, weeniest, bunch of folks on our tour that downright sprinted to the lava fields, complained about the crappy views, and sprinted back to the van and out of the rain. Waaaaahh! Sometimes tourists can be a real pain in the butt. We did see some monkeys from the van at least. Oh and a pretty gnarly looking spider on the trail too.
It was just starting to get dark when we arrived back at the van, so we traveled back around the volcano in order to catch glimpses of red hot lava spurting into the air. It had gotten a little cloudy, making the views of the lava kinda underwhelming, and again our tour group moaned and complained and laid into the poor guide (despite the fact that he
explained at the beginning that he had absolutely no control over the weather).
So we were off to the last stop of the tour, Baldi Hot Springs, a luxurious resort with more than 20 different pools of different temperatures among gorgeous tropical gardens climbing up the base of Volcan Arenal. Some pools had wet bars, some had water falls, and some even had slides. But the best pools were the ones with built-in lounge chairs from which we could lay back and admire the spectacular sight of glowing red lava tumbling down the side of the volcano. (The weather had cleared up nicely.) Sometimes life is very, very good (despite what the grumpy tourists think).
The next morning we traveled from Fortuna to Santa Elena and the Monteverde Cloud Forest. We decided to pass on the eight hour bus trip and decided on a much more direct route which involved a shuttle bus to the lake, a boat across the lake, and then another little mini van that bounced along curvy mountain roads. It cost a bit more, but the views were incredible, and it only took about three and a half hours this way. Money well spent.
The sister towns of Monteverde and Santa Elena are chock full of things to do. There are two different cloud forests to hike around in, several different kinds of canopy tours (including one where you zipline around the tops of the trees), orchid, butterfly, frog, snake, and bat attractions, and if all that bores you, you could always rent horses, bikes, or 4x4s. Trouble is with all this good stuff in one place (as well as Costa Rica’s nature reputation), things get a bit pricey. So we had to be more than a little choosy.
The first afternoon, we opted for a visit to the butterflies and frogs because frankly, they’re a lot less creepy than bats and snakes. Or so we thought.
The Butterfly House visit began with a little time in a classroom where we learned all sorts of interesting things about many of the creepy little critters that we’ve been finding in our hotel rooms. (Have I mentioned that on three different occasions now I have been surprised by an overly friendly cockroach climbing on me? Icky!) Anyhow, other than cockroaches we got to take a gander at scarabs, beetles, praying mantises, leaf bugs, stick
insects, and tarantulas. The tour leader was hilarious and full of stories about insect fornication and stuff. I’d share them with you, but this blog is for a mixed audience.
After all the insect sex talk, we got to visit the gardens where we met several different kinds of Costa Rica’s famous butterflies, including the fascinating Blue Morpho which is all ugly and brown and covered with fake eyes to scare away the birds when its wings are closed. When it spreads its wings, however, it’s a totally different story. The inside of its wings are the most stunning turquoise blue, and we all know it’s what is on the inside that counts.
Being a girl and all, I really liked the butterflies. Paul did too, but he’ll never tell. The highlight of the butterfly visit was getting to send off a newly formed butterfly and watch her flap her wings for the very first time. I know it’s hard to believe after such a short time together, but I now can understand empty nest syndrome. Deeply.
And then we were off to the Frogarama or whatever it was called. I don’t know exactly what we were
expecting, being that if the place just had frogs in the wild, we probably wouldn’t have seen jack. But looking at frogs in glass terrariums was a bit of a let down. At least some of the frogs got dressed up for us. Some had on blue jeans, others green jeans, and others still with flashy striped get-ups. The one good thing about going to Froggyland was that we learned where to look for them when we were in the cloud forest the next day.
We’d heard that the chances of seeing wildlife were best if we got to the cloud forest at dawn, so that’s what we planned to do. But somehow, someone at sometime during the night must have switched off the alarm clock, and we missed the peak wildlife viewing hours. But what a fun time we had anyway. The park is absolutely gorgeous especially when the clouds move in and give everything a mysterious hazy glow and the crickets and birds and frogs fill the air with their songs. In between the misty times, we were treated by gorgeous streams of sunlight finding their way through the dense jungle canopy and enticing the butterflies to
come out to play. And thanks to the Butterfly House we could actually know all the different species by name when we spotted them.
Other than butterflies, we also saw some black guans (which look a bit like black turkeys or buzzards), a sapphire blue jewel scarab, and one of the creepiest, nastiest massive beetles with these gargantuan pincher things just waiting for something of someone to get too close.
I had really hoped we might catch a rare glimpse of a quetzal, a gorgeous blue, green and red bird with long tail feathers. The quetzal is an endangered species and one of the most revered birds by many of the ancient civilizations in Central America. They are also very private little birds and don’t like company which meant bad news for us. But it was so much fun hiking through the dense forest, across suspension bridges high above ravines, and up to the top of the continental divide where we could see the Pacific Ocean in the distance that missing out on seeing a quetzal or jaguar or boa didn’t feel so bad at all.
After so much nature and tromping through the mud, Paul and
I were hankering for a little culture. So the next day we took an early bus into San Jose where we had high hopes of doing some shopping, seeing a museum, or catching a movie. Instead we found Nashville South, a bar full of drunken expats with too much time on their hands. The owner looked a lot more like a mob boss than a Southern boy, and he kept putting free beers in front of us to keep us from leaving which sort of messed up our plans for culture and stuff. Even still, it was good fun to be in a modern big city that didn’t have the creepy watch your back vibe that we have felt in so many of the big cities of Central America.
And that’s pretty much it, at least for Costa Rica. We’ve got more to tell from Panama, including some more incredible hiking and nature stuff. And right at this moment, we’re sitting on a bus headed for Panama City where we’re excited to tour the old town and see ships cruise through the canal. But you’ll have to wait a few days to hear about all that.
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Just Jen
The Sheridans
Sounds like a grand adventure
Glad you wrote about the blessing of misfortunes, missed busses turned into days you couldn't have planned any better. We live here now and find our best days are the ones the cosmos arrange for us. Enjoy the rest of your trip in Costa Rica!