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Published: January 28th 2020
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We flew from San Francisco to Houston, had a three hour layover then onto Libera, Costa Rica. We rented a car from Enterprise. One of the smartest moves we made was to rent a GPS. I asked how much they cost, the answer $12.00 per day, I said no thanks the cost was to high. Enterprise then said they would rent it for $8 per day, SOLD. I also paid extra for a AAA type service. I had read about people having their tires punctured and when local show up to help they rob you . I want to have a service just in case we ran into trouble.
Our first stop was La Fortuna the town in the shadow of Arenal Volcano. The GPS gave us directions like turn right at the road or turn left at the unpaved road. Some of the roads have numbers like 180 but none of the signs give the number. It rained and was dark on our way to La Fortuna. I don’t think we would have found it without the GPS. Costa Rica does not give street names to all of their streets so it can be hard to find an address.
We booked an Airbnb in La Fortuna and the owner sent us a video he filmed showing how to find the unit if you start at the bus station. It was helpful since the GPS can find towns or large parks but not addresses. The volcano is in the classic cone shape of a volcano. It is one of the most active volcanos in the world. You can see steam vents on or around the volcano every day. The clouds cover the top part of the volcano most of the time and every day we were there. Our Airbnb was just a few blocks from downtown which we liked. We could walk to the grocery store and restaurants. If you want to stay in a fancy hotel they are all located on the road to the volcano and near the hot springs. Of course the hot springs are near the volcano. Since the rain forest is also near the volcano it rained at least half or more of every day. Thank goodness we brought rain jacket. We only booked three nights here but when I come back I will stay longer. There are loads of tour operators in town that
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One of the hot pools, we had it to ourselves. can take you on hikes to water falls; zip lines; ATV rides; visits to rain forests to view birds, sloths and visits to the hot springs. So if you come by bus there is no trouble getting to whatever activity you want to partake in.
There are many hot springs in the area. We choose to visit Ecotemales because they limit the number of visitors to 100 persons per day. Ecotemales is not attached to a hotel so you have fewer visitors and they do not have slides that attract children. The entrance fee was $40 which includes parking, a towel and a locker to keep your valuables. We paid $70 instead of $40 to get lunch. The lunch was steak, beans, rice, salad, tortillas and desert. You can also buy hamburgers, salad and other items at the bar. The place is so clean, the water and the grounds.. The grounds are beautiful and has a very peaceful feel. The natural springs are different temperatures 97 to 105 degrees and the cold pools are 80 to 83 degrees. We spent the whole day here going into the different pools, having a beer and eating lunch. They provide lots of
lounge chairs so bring a book to read in your down time. I usually get itchy bumps when I am in a hot tub but the natural springs did not cause me any problems.
The next day we visited Mistico Hanging Bridges Park. We asked people we met at the hot spring what their favorite activity was and Mistico was the favorite. Mistico is near the dam of Arenal Lake. Arenal Lake is huge, I know because we had to drive around the entire lake to get to La Fortuna. You should make a reservation to come here. We did not because the internet stopped working the night before. We were lucky there was an opening in the tour in English. We paid $21 dollars for entrance fee and a two hour tour. We got a senior discount. you can walk unescorted in the park but without a guide to point out the hard to find animals you will miss a lot. We had a group of Americans, 8 of us and we enjoyed talking with them about politics and travel. Our guide was great the tour was about 2 1/2 hours long and we saw frogs; birds; holler monkey; bats; snakes and a sloth. The park is beautiful and has hanging bridges. It rained the entire time so we left our camera and phone in the car (no pictures).
At the Airbnb our landlord’s mother brought us breakfast every day. It was a typical Costa Rican breakfast of scrambled eggs, beans, rice, handmade corn tortillas and fried plantains. Our landlords sister-in-law provides a one hour message for $40. She brought a very professional message table into our room. Both Mark and I had a message.
So it was only a short visit to La Fortuna, we came for the volcano but we loved the hot springs and rain forest. Costa Rica is environmental, we noticed the recycle bins at the airport. At a restaurant instead of plastic straws they had reusable metal straws just like the ones I carry in my purse. At Mistico a person asked for a map, they were told to take a picture of the map because they do not want to waste paper. The people are friendly and the paved roads are in good shape. So far we like Costa Rica we only came for the warm weather and had no plans but there is plenty to do here. Our next and last stop is Playa Flamingo a three plus hour drive.
Adios
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