http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Central America Caribbean , Costa Rica , Alajuela , Arenal en-us Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:50:38 +0000 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:50:38 +0000 Hi from La FortunaAfter another long trip by bus I arrived here. Now Irsquom tired and it's raining.I cannot see the Arenal volcano but it's there somewhere.La Fortuna The luck is a nice town. Pretty small and organized. There is a lot of places to go around and grab a coffee or a milk shake batido.In the afternoon I went to the Arenal Volcano with group tour till the view point and wersq http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-453371.html Hallo allemaalOndertussen heb ik weer een aantal plaatsen aangedaan en weer heel wat kiekjes geschoten dus heb ik weer het een en ander om te schrijven. Ik zal het proberen kort te houden per plaats.Helaas kan ik niet van alles een foto tonen aangezien ik een beetje lomp ben geweest tijdens het wissen van overtollige fotos. Net voodat ik ging slapen wilde ik nog een paar fotos deleten helaa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-443678.html I'm starting the blog with some pictures from last years trip to Costa Rica http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-437048.html Yesterday was Day 2 in Costa Rica. Volcano Lodge the hotel where we stayed is a wonderful place. The hotel is almost empty due the green season but the staff is super friendly and service is excellent. Yesterday was our time for horseback riding in the morning and zip line canopy adventure in the afternoon. We rode up to the waterfalls on horseback while the rain came down up on us heavily. The http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-434576.html Today was our first day of the week long vacation in Costa Rica. We arrived in San Jose yesterday and stayed in a hotel just outside the city. Today morning we were picked by the tour operators prebooked from our hotel for a day long visit to Arenal volcano and surrounding areas. The drive from San Jose to Arenal is about 34hrs long and on the way we passed through Grecia Sarchi Naranjo and http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-434166.html Buenos Dias Chicas and SeoirsWell I joined my group in a really posh hotel in San Jose last week. Everyone seems really cool there are 15 of us. There are 3 Scots 2 Londonish 3 Californians 2 Canadians an Aussi a Dutch a guy from Liverpool and a guy from Birmingham. Everyone seems to be getting on really well apart from one really annoying guy called Peter one of the Canadians so from http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-415215.html de retour de Monteverde... La fortuna volcan ArenalBuenas diason est de bonne heure ce matin car nous avons une journee de bus a faire. Attention Maggie pas deau avant le depart...hier on a eu une journee completement folle. Nous sommes alles visite apres 2 heures de marche la cascade de La fortuna. On vous explique la Fortuna est le village ou se trouve le splendide volcan Arenal en ac http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-406864.html 23rd May 2009 ARRIVAL IN FORTUNAWe were so pleased to finally arrive in Fortuna after another 2 bus journeys. There had been far too much time spent on buses over the last few days. We arrived at around 5pm and it seemed like a nice little town upon 1st impressions. As we got off the bus a lady stopped us and asked if we were looking for somewhere to stay that was cheap and close to the town. W http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-402865.html I honestly don't understand how she does it... the bartender doesn't speak English and Aimee doesn't speak Spanish yet the two have become quite good friends haha It's quite amazing Today was a pretty busy day We started off doing our ATV tour. It was quite cloudy this morning and so Aimee and I decided to do the Farm ATV Tour instead of the waterfall one. The way the guide made it soun http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-391876.html La Fortuna had apparently been a sleepy farming community until a rather spectacular eruption of its nearby volcano in 1968. Since then regular minor volcanic activity had drawn the tourists and catalysed the arrival of souvenir shops restaurants cafes hotels and spas to service the predominantly American visitors. La Fortuna was really the first clear sign on our trip that the impacts of the f http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-367414.html We left the hotel at 8am set off for La Fortuna near volcan Arenal. When we arrived we checked into our hotel. Then Pip Debra Paul myself did the whitewater rafting on Rio Toro. This took 2 hours went through 45 sets of rapids. The river was grade 4 a bit high there were lots of sshaped bends with massive boulders for walls. We flipped over I was caught in a vortex I could no http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-366644.html Gepakt en gezakt al om half 8 de kamer uit.Opgepikt door Jose vriendelijke kerel die ons via hangende bruggen door het Nationaal Park van Arenal gaat gidsen. Blijkbaar is er tussen het nat en droog seizoen nog een overgangsperiode met ' crazy weather' onverwacht en mogelijk veel regen zoals vandaag het geval was. Maar zelfs in de regen is het hier eingelijk best nog aangenaam warm.Op pad door d http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-360888.html HolaGreetings and an early Happy New Year Although there were some major bumps in the travel adventures of Wendy Wanderer and her Companion Chris thanks mom including a canceled flight we were able to arrive in Costa Rica as scheduled. Miraculously We spent the first two days in San Jose which is nothing special although the warm sunny weather was welcomed after the horrid weather http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-358666.html We rented a car and drove to the Arenal Volcano. Mark did the zipline tour while Piper and I did the nature walk. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-354205.html Why would one endure the 8 minute trip up a windy steep and slightly terrifying road sandwiched between a pack of cows I'll tell you why. When you get a chance to experience one of Earth's natural wonders in perfect vision untouched in all its glory literally a few miles from where you are standing it's worth the hellish trek up a road to see it.When we had first planned our trip to Costa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-349805.html Costa Rica...lush green and very humid Its a country very used to tourists and knows how to charge them. In most countries you pay to enter a national park and then enjoy it but in some national parks here they seem to charge for each walk waterfall and toucan sighting ok an exaggeration but only slightly. Nevertheless we are really enjoying spending time in this beautiful country. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-345166.html Alright so it seems like the short blurbs are a hit so let's keep it going Given the topic of driving in the last post I had to save one post specifically for a great tale from our trip. As I had mentioned our buddy Steve was kind enough to drive for a portion of our trip. When we finally got to the Arenal area after about a 4 hour drive we were greeted by a steep 8 minute drive up a windy n http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-344205.html Damn..it's been a while since I've updated this but between work the social life and of course traveling I've been busy people. I did notice a trend on this time off though in that if I provide much shorter entries with big humor you all love it. So that's what I'll give you. Today I'd like to focus on a topic that ran rampid through our time in Costa Rica. Driving.When we decided to take http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-339801.html HolaWeve made it into Costa Rica via a few days in Nicaragua and an overnight stay in supposedly scarey San Salvador which thankfully wasnt so scarey and are chilling for a little while in the cloud forests at Monte VerdeAlls well here despite Adams ice trauma.Well be heading down to the Costa Rican Caribbean coast tomorrow from where well pop down to Panama.Its one month down alrea http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-329865.html Wow what a sightWe still have the car and we are heading for the Volcano. we will stop on the way and see the tourist place Santa Ellena this is a place where the animals have left because too many people have cleaned up and sanitised for lack of a better word. the Zip line here is the only thing worth comming for but we enjoyed the one we did so we gave this a miss and just went on a big Sky wa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Costa-Rica/Alajuela/Arenal/blog-328235.html