Activity Summary
Thursday 25th May - Day 266 (continued)
Flight to Costa Rica & San Jose
Drive to Poas Volcano National park
La Paz Waterfall Gardens
Friday 26th May - Day 267
Poas Volcano
Travel to La Fortuna
‘Free’ swim in El Choyin hot spring river
Saturday 27th May - Day 268
Arenal volcano lava trail - Mirador El Silencio
Sunday 28th May - Day 269
Drive to Tamarindo
Rio Celeste trail in Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio
Summary
Poas
Poas was a surprising success in our Costa Rica trip. We (mainly Luke) had wanted to summit some volcanoes off the back of the success of Acatenango but had found that most in Costa Rica were either off limits or were super easy to get up. Poas was leading the charge in the super easy category but the views of the crater were pretty epic.
As the area is at a decent altitude, the climate was great (moving to the hot and humid La Fortuna really made us appreciate the cool temperature) and as a first experience driving around Costa Rica it was pretty good.
The area isn’t on many tourist blogs so we took this as a creative win.
La Fortuna
Our experience of La Fortuna is mixed really. The area is littered with very expensive hotels that have utilised the El Choyin thermal river as a comic for their hot spring pools and as such attracts the more affluent American tourist. Prices therefore go hand in hand with this and as such limits what we were willing to do.
La Fortuna itself isn’t great so we didn’t spend much time exploring here.
The river itself can be accessed on the cheap (free if you risk not paying the scammers) and the views of Arenal from La Fortuna and the many viewpoints around the volcano are pretty nice. The silencio trail seemed to be the cheapest and gave us great views of the lava fields and volcano so we definitely got the most out of our time here and wouldn’t want to spend longer.
Transport
Costa Rica (excluding Puerto Viejo)
We had spoken to a fair few people who had travelled up through Central America and had mentioned that Costa Rica was not a cheap country to travel around. The shuttles between places would take a long time and also cost a lot of dollar.
Steve and Lee had already done a fair amount more research than us and we’re getting a hire car. So we absolutely just straight up copied their plan (shout out to you guys) and with the ease of booking.com got a medium sized Suzuki Ciaz sedan that we named Rico.
It was seemingly the best decision cost wise and definitely for ease and freedom of movement. On a redo we would however go for a 4wd - these Costa Rican roads are out to kill cars with potholes, gravel roads, fissures the length of the road, fiords and beaches that Google will happily take you along unless researched. It certainly has tested Luke’s driving ability in a whole new way.
Nicola has enjoyed being a passenger princess again.
Accommodation
Poas - Poas Volcano Rooms
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £12
In hindsight it wasn’t a great place to stay. The room was so small we had to keep our big bags in the car and it got really cold in the night without a proper blanket or duvet. The kitchen was only a microwave which at the time was kind of a luxury having come from the US, but we would later find kitchens for the same price or less everywhere we stayed going forward.
It was however the cheapest in the area and did provide decent off street parking so there was little choice elsewhere really and it was fine for 1 night.
La Fortuna - SantaFe Hostel
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £12
Ignoring Nicola’s struggle in finding the place, which started the Hostel relationship on the back foot, it was an alright place. The kitchen and hostel in general was an absolute furnace during the day and remained pretty warm in the evening. Our room was very similar where the double fan setup only really worked to cool us down properly when sleeping.
But we had a private room & bathroom. Nicola was comfy in her double bottom bunk while Luke’s single up top was made infinitely easier to ascend because of the double below.
Parking was simple as a hotel opposite had clearly gone busy during covid so we were advised to just simply use this space and no one would question it.
Diary
[Continued]
The flight was pretty short, just under 2 hours, which was helpful as the guy Luke was sitting next to had some stanky ass breath and naturally had fallen asleep for the most part leaning his direction. Not overly pleasant. We also had a bit of annoyance trying to find overhead storage for our small day bags as every inch of free space was taken by suitcases.
Once we landed we got to border security who asked us absolutely zero questions and required no proof of onward travel (we had been warned this was a prerequisite) so it was through to bag collection and we were able to exchange our Quetzals for Costa Rican fun coupons.
At the arrivals street exit there were a host of people shouting taxi, pushing car rentals for local companies and others holding up signs. Our car rental company, Jumbo Cars, was nowhere to be seen but fortunately a guy from another company asked us, called Jumbo on our behalf and got them to arrive 10 minutes later. Really nice of the guy and we totally were judging the guy based on his face tats and our automatic assumption everyone wants something. Our prejudice was well and truly wrong in this case and we very much apologise.
Jumbo was a short shuttle ride away from the airport so it was pretty easy to get to and removed some of the potential initial stress when leaving the airport. We were introduced to Rico, our white Suzuki Ciaz sedan with 70,000km on the clock and the car looked like it had gone through quite a few battles with the Costa Rican roads. We squared away our concerns about the dents, scrapes and bumps and started our road trip.
It was lunchtime so purely for ease we found the nearest mcds and had our second binge of the day. Safe to say we would not be craving it anytime soon but it did allow us to go to the nearby Bank Nacional which allows free cash withdrawals in Costa Rica. Hot tip.
The drive around the northside of San Jose near to the airport and where maccers was was not an overly pleasant experience but it wasn’t terrible. It didn’t take long to get out of the hustle and bustle and then the roads became single track country lanes with some serious incline. It took a fair amount of foot to the floor to get up but it was pretty chill with minimal people around and the road quality was all gravy so all in all a pretty decent warm up to Costa Rican driving.
Our afternoon activity was at La Paz Waterfall Gardens, a sort of mini rescue centre / zoo for rehabilitated indigenous animals with a decent walking track through the lush green forest and some waterfalls. Once parked up (having a car for free roaming activities again is such a delight) we paid the £40pp fee, cried a little at how expensive it was and started our walk through. We had been forewarned that Costa Rica was expensive but we would go on to find that absolutely nothing is free and all decent walks will cost something, much to our annoyance.
The animal areas were pretty cool. Luke got his first experience of:
Toucans - beautiful colours, great beaks and noisy as
Sloths - although they were curled up in a ball so it wasn’t a great viewing
Agouti - a giant rodent type animal that Nicola wrongly called a Capybara. We still have no idea what it was but the Capybara song made a regular feature for the rest of the day
Jaguars - man these are some terrifying big cats
Hummingbirds - the hummingbird area was the best part of the gardens in Luke’s opinion, the hanging feeders and arched plants attracting a number of hovering birds that were just beautiful and so graceful. It was so good Luke forced a second visit
Butterfly observatory
There were also plenty of other animals and plants that we had a nice time perusing.
Initially we were told we didn’t have time to do the Rio La Paz & Fern Trail but they weren’t particularly long walks and clearly we hadn’t spent as much time looking at the animals as normal so we did this next. The moss covered floors with thick jungle around us and the flowing river beside us was great as we well and truly fell back into a happy traveller state, especially Nicola who didn’t enjoy Guatemala.
The walk ended at the trout lake and what appeared to be all the fancy hotel accomodation richer tourists could make use of. Little beyond our price range.
We revisited some of the animal faves before making our way to the main waterfall trails. In total there are 4 waterfalls and the track down plus viewpoints were very enjoyable:
Templo
Maria Blanca
Encantada & Escondida - the first viewpoint was more or less underneath Encantada falls which was pretty fun
La Paz - despite the gardens namesake, was probably the least entertaining waterfall
The backdrop of the cloud forest plus waterfall with nobody around us was perfect. Despite the cost it was a very enjoyable afternoon and for us, well worth it.
At the end of the trail we were picked up by the free shuttle and dropped off back at our car. On leaving we handed back the parking card, less tip and Nicola believed the attendant was scowling. Seems we’ve returned to the US where tip life is all, and we will continue to overlook this if we have paid a lot for activities because it’s stupid.
We were staying nearby to the Poas Volcano as we would be going the next day. It wasn’t too far a drive and we stopped at a local supermarket on the way knowing we would have a microwave to make some food. Not a great selection available.
At the Poas Volcano Rooms we checked into our box room that had room for a double bed plus half a metre on one side. We managed to fit ourselves in and some decanted items from our bags, which spent the night in the car. It was uber cosy but as we were so high up it was actually pretty cold so this probably worked to our advantage.
Nicola did a great job in creating our pasta dinner in the microwave, much to the amusement and bafflement of our host, and we planned a litte for the next few days.
It was a cold night and we were not provided with enough blankets at all. Nicola had two, Luke had one and all our warmer clothing was in the car so rather than be sensible and resolve our problems, we just shivered and didn’t sleep all that well. Well Luke opted for this approach anyway, Nicola was a tad more comfortable.
The Poas Volcano National park (as with most in Costa Rica) required a permit to visit, this particular NP having a firm entry time. We got tickets for 9am as we had read that the volcano crater is covered in clouds past 10 and would mean we could have a little bit of a lie in. We checked out of our accomodation and drove straight to the National park entrance, giving ourselves plenty of time as the ticket forewarned of not letting anyone in if they arrived 5 minutes late. What we didn’t count on was the 1 entrance desk queue that was insanely inefficient and was processing tourists by the bus load. We were there 30 minutes early and only just made it into the NP before 9am, slightly stressed about the ticket time warning but this clearly wasn’t going to be enforced. Again, we had to pay extra to park outside of the ticket price which we were not happy about.
We got absolutely zero information about what our ticket purchase of our 9am ‘tour’ would involve so once through we followed a car to the wrong car park, realised and then found one closer to the main area. With the strict tour time in mind we again got hella confused about where we needed to be at 9am, whether it was in the NP (as we initially thought) or whether there was going to be a tour we would miss. This led to some panic on our end when we just wandered around aimlessly trying to work out what we had paid for, to be directed by some ambulance staff up the path. We initially thought we had been directed to a group who had a tour guide speaking but when we awkwardly joined the group and looked back, the person repeated her hand directions that indicated we had misunderstood and needed to continue walking down the path.
We had a very quick walk to the viewpoint at the Poas volcano, only to realise there wasn’t any tour and it was simply a time to get into the National Park in order to alleviate congestion pressure on the limited view platform of the crater. The bonus of us legging it to the crater however was there was barely anyone there and we had some great views into the volcano without much disturbance.
We had lucked out a great deal with the cloudless weather and a previous small eruption had cleared out what is usually low lying smoke and fog that completely blocks out the crater lake, yellow sulphur streaks and diverse volcanic rock colouring. It was a nice view, much like Bromo, but given the ticket stress and complete lack of information we didn’t really have a relaxed time here.
After about 30-40 minutes of being at the crater it got seriously busy, to the point where there was no viewing space at all. It was a good time to move on and there was a jungly track that went via an extinct crater turned lake, Laguna Botas, where we had a nice sit before some loudmouth Americans ruined the peace and tranquillity.
It was just really pleasant to be walking through a decent track through the jungle again. We’ve missed the daily walkings away from pollutants and people that Costa Rica (although cost money) now provided.
We browsed the tourist shop a little, baulked at the price of magnets and other gifts (do not require a magnet as we have one already) and then set off to our next stop in La Fortuna.
Once we descended from the highlands of the volcano the nice cool climate well and truly disappeared. After a 2 hour drive we arrived at La Fortuna and stopped off at a terrible supermarket around the corner from our hostel. It was 35 degrees, warm and muggy, made worse by the fact the shop was not self contained so the outside temperature was the shop's inside temperature. Luke hadn’t eaten, the heat, the lack of anything decent in the shop, huge cost of everything and general tiredness made this one of the more fraught grocery experiences. The supermarket even had the audacity to try and sell chocolate bars which were 100% melted mush. Nicola managed to get some decent fresh ingredients for cheaper at a fruteria but we were not impressed.
Luke parked the car in a semi-sketchy spot outside the hostel and left Nicola to go into the hostel to check in / find some information about where to park. When she couldn’t find the entrance using Google maps she followed the explicit instructions that usually come supporting most Costa Rican accommodation booking. Unfortunately for Nicola these instructions were absolutely useless and she ended up walking around aimlessly and asking people for 15 minutes whilst Luke sat in the air-conned car. Luke managed to find the entrance after reading a good Google review from the car after Nicola was unsuccessful on foot (she'd walked past it but the sign was tiny).
Nicola was not in a good mood and once checked into our hostel room, decided she needed some cold water refresh. On finding out there were no towels available to shower and she had to get dressed and go back to the car she then proceeded to lose her shit, slamming the bathroom door in Luke’s face in her typical frustrated manner. Her not so subtle way of saying she needed space so Luke ran away as fast as he could to the hammock area in the common room and let her be for an hour or two. Travelling isn’t all sunshine and roses (for Nicola anyway).
Once showered, Nicola did emerge a happier and calmer bunny so we could discuss what we wanted to do with the rest of our afternoon. Nicola got some decent tips from the hostel desk and we decided to make use of the El Choyin hot spring river, a spot where countless fancy hotels and spas had set up shop to heat pools and sell the privilege of use for a small fortune. Nicola had been to previously and refound using Google / the hostel, a decent free access point. Of course nothing is free in Costa Rica so we were well aware of the parking scammers that had set up shop who we apparently didn’t need to pay.
We found a spot on the road near the river entrance and one of the many scammers was there to greet us and direct us into a spot. For fear of them keying our rental car we forked out the C5,000 (£7.50) fee for the fear free parking. Absolute rip off.
The river was pretty nice though. It was a little tricky for Luke to manoeuvre in flip flops while Nicola conversely was bossing it in her cool kid sandals. We sat ourselves in an eddy and chilled in the lukewarm waters chatting and watching various people go by.
More annoyingly the parking attendants had all gone by the time we arrived.
Back at the hostel we cooked some veggie soy sauce rice for dinner and then crashed out in our slightly too warm room. The bunk bed with double bed on the bottom was a decent set up (naturally Nicola had bottom bunk) as it allowed Luke to step down from up high a lot easier than normal and gave us space to cope with the heat. The two room fans did help but were not overly effective.
For once having the top bunk seemed to be a benefit. The wall fan had direct airflow to Luke and kept him much cooler than Nicola below, where the tower was less effective and also turned off halfway through the night. Not often Luke gets the luck of the draw.
Both of us were slow to get going but we didn’t have a great deal planned for the day. Plenty of things to do in La Fortuna involving nature, cloud forests etc could be done in Monteverde and Manuel Antonio so we decided to leave a lot of that till later. Here the big appeal for Luke was Arenal volcano, towering in the background of La Fortuna but sadly could not be (legally) climbed due to its volcanic activity. It would have to be a viewpoint walk instead.
The National park entrance fee was $25 which we thought was pretty steep when considering the walking routes were only limited to a few kilometres. We were advised that the Arenal volcano lava trail - Mirador El Silencio was a much better value for money at $10pp and actually offered a better view so we opted for this and it was well worth it.
To get to the grand viewpoint of the 1968 eruption lava fields there were numerous routes through lovely dense green jungle without a single person in sight (seemed most paid to get a shuttle to the top - lame).
We went very slowly through the tracks trying to find as much wildlife as we could and didn’t do too badly for our first attempt without a guide. We saw a fair few animals; toucans, lizards, peacock type birds, spider monkey at a glance, tons of leaf cutter ants, butterflies and a whole variety of insects.
We tried really hard to find sloths but this seemed almost impossible in the thick canopies.
Once we had emerged from the jungle we were greeted with our first views of Volcan Arenal. The side of the volcano facing La Fortuna had permanently been in cloud cover so it was great to see in all its isolated glory.
Following a path back to the jungle led us to a viewpoint of a bit of Lago Arenal.
We had some lunch with a view where the tourist buses dropped off the lazy masses and then had a short hike up to the high viewpoint.
Given the entrance cost and the inability to hike much of the volcano, Luke was a little apprehensive of how good the viewpoint would be but was pleasantly surprised. The lava trails from the volcano eruption in 1968 had deposited a ton of jet black igneous rocks that were epic to look at in isolation but it was made a whole lot cooler by the foliage trying to grow through where it could.
The views over the volcano and the lava trail were great so we just sat there for a while taking it all in.
Once done we descended back to the entrance of the nature trail the other side we hadn’t done, past a pretty stagnant green lake that wasn’t overly appealing and across what appeared to be farmland.
Eventually we got onto a more interesting trail to loop back down but it was fair more undulating than we expected and it absolutely wiped us out, especially being so humid.
Back at the car a firm decision by Nicola was made to carry on the jungle walking in the Bogarin Trail, going full carpe diem with the promise of sloth viewings. When we arrived the £15pp cost put us off and given we wouldn’t have had much time here before it closed we got scared and bailed. Right decision though.
Our afternoon and evening was a lot more relaxing, chilling in the hammocks as Nicola Hamed and Luke planned his most ambitious hike of the gap yah in Chirripo, getting the all important sign off from Nicola to completely redo our Costa Rica plans so he can go be an idiot.
We had leftovers for dinner (day old rice is so much better) and continued doing nothing in the evening.
There were a whole host of ill informed decisions made today which meant we should have gotten up and out of La Fortuna much earlier than we did. We were heading to Tamarindo (also appropriately known as Tamagringo because of all the Western tourists) via the Rio Celeste trail in Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio. A fair drive but nothing Luke hasn’t done before.
What made the journey more complicated was Luke’s desire to travel against the suggestion of Google to do a drive-by of some potential Lake Arenal viewpoints as we would usually do in NZ. In theory this was all hunky dory.
In practice it was pretty horrible. Lake Arenal had little to no viewpoints worth stopping at, most seemingly private land and would incur that lovely tourist tax for doing nothing so we quickly avoided those. The views of lake Arenal along the winding drive were actually pretty nice but it was difficult for Luke to appreciate and also drive.
To get to Rio Celeste we had to take route 143 and despite appearing to be what can only be described as a B road for Costa Rica, turned out to be terrible. It was 20km of rough terrain with savage potholes and not a pleasant experience to drive. We had no choice but to stomach it at this point but we then made the decision our routes would need a lot more planning than simply doing what Luke wanted to.
To get to Rio Celeste we then tried to stay on the main roads as much as possible. This served us well but again had a bit of a sketchy leg that was fortunately quite short before we hit the well paved main road into the National park.
By the time we arrived at Parque Nacional Volcán Tenorio it was 1pm, the trail closed at 2pm and it would be another 3.5 hours to Tamarindo. We didn’t want to be driving much at night so decided we needed to get a shuffle on for this walking trail.
We scoffed some sandwiches in the car and then made our way through the Rio Celeste trail. It was incredibly humid and the whole route to the end viewpoint was pretty much uphill. Nicola tried to keep some decency but it didn’t take long for the jebs to come out with a great big sigh of relief. Almost instantly it seemed like Nicola had more in the tank to tackle the uphill climbs.
The first viewpoint was probably the best, a cascading waterfall of luminescent turquoise water, created by the minerals in the nearby volcano. At this point we will say the glacial meltwater shits all over this place but it was still super pretty.
It was a pretty big ascent up the steps to get back on the trail, many a tourist were struggling.
Some of the other views while on the walk:
The amazing jungle canopy line in the distance
Again, the crazy blue water as part of a slow moving lake
Borbollones - a section where the water is boiling and bubbling, releasing some sweet sweet sulphur smells
Tenideros - the point at which two rivers meet, merging crystal clear water with the turquoise blue volcano water
We completed the trail pretty quickly and were back in the car for 3pm. At $12pp we probably would have liked to have taken more time here but night driving in a foreign country in the rainy season is never fun.
At least the roads to Tamarindo were perfectly paved from here on out and we arrived at our hostel at around 6.30pm, the only drama being Luke’s first experience of a drive in proper Central America rain. It absolutely lashed it down with huge water droplets that completely obliterated all vision he had of the road, Rico’s wipers not even coming close to coping with the downpour. Fortunately it didn’t last too long.
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