Wednesday 7th August
After eating our pancake breakfast ( dry with nothing on them with nice clumps of salt every now and again) we caught our shuttle to get to la fortuna for around 7.30am. The driver was a bit mad, fast and over taking but they all are outside of England and it doesn't bother me very much at all. It bothers Liam but he worries over everything! All in all it took around 5 and a half hours with a 15 minute toilet and drink stop in the middle. I had a lot of naps on the way due to having a sore head but saw enough to know the views were lovely, you could see green everywhere with the volcano and lake.
The hostel was very basic but it was cheap and all we needed. It had a view of the volcano and only a short walk into the town. The heat was a big problem, no sun but so humid and uncomfortable. We had one fan but doesn't really do much when it's that hot becsuse its just blowing warm air. We relaxed and recuperated from the journey for a couple of ours before having cold showers and heading out for tea. As usual the local food was lovely.
We sat outside for most of the rest of the evening where it was a bit cooler, Liam got us a film called the conjuring which we watched in bed after another cold shower. I was so scared I had to keep the sheets on me despite it being boiling! Not much to say about today of any interest due to the majority being travel and very slow due to the heat.
Thursday 8th August
Somehow this day got missed so I'm writing it on the 27th August fairly late at night so this will not be a very detailed day!
We were up early for breakfast and attempting to find out way to the place we had booked for horse riding. We had been told by the owner just to ask the hostel staff in the morning as they knew where they were and they were only 5 minutes away. The staff said they didn't know so we were on our own trying to find the place 10 minutes before we were due there. Liam used directions on the iPhone but it failed us and we were on a wild goose chase for over half an hour. By the time we got there we were sweating buckets and tired, turns out it was just round the corner from our hostel all along. Luckily they had waited snd seemed in no rush even when we did arrive.
There was an American couple with a Chinese girl of maybe 7 years old who they appeared to have adopted. We were all given our horses and given brief instruction on how to control them then we set off with the guide on his horse and the ranches dog at our heels. We spent perhaps an hour and a half on the horses, mostly trotting and sometimes cantering through fields, down streams, through deep mud and up steep hills. All the while arenal volcano was in sight and it was just a lovely experience if not a bit uncomfortable on the bum and very hot.
We arrived at a hut with a sign that said "horse parking", so we parked our horses which by the way were called memmo and corsilla. We went down a lot of steep stone steps through the jungle canopy, it was so high and you could see the most amazing high waterfalls and miles and miles of green. At the bottom we were well and truly pooped and were glad to strip a layer off and go into the cold water. We weren't that comfortable due to the amount of people there enjoying the water too, so although we stayed and enjoyed sitting on a rock in the middle of the water for 10 minutes or so we decided to move to a quieter spot. We moved further down stream to the bottom of a massive waterfall. You could feel the spray from a long way from it and the water was lapping wildly against all the rocks from the force of the waterfall.
We didn't fancy stripping completely and going into the water just because we didn't have a change of clothes so we were happy climbing on the big rocks and enjoying the feel of the wind and spray. It was just beautiful and made me feel a lot more relaxed being near it.
After 45 minutes or so we made our way back up the steps and were hot and bothered again by the time we were at the top.
Back on the horses again and everybody let out a bit of a groan when they sat because all bums were complaining.
We went back the way we came, my horse and the little girls horse seemed to be friends because as soon as one went quick the other did. Whenever her horse sped up I'd say ooh nooo and away we would go. Liam's horse was a bit lazier and didn't like going very fast. In the field on the way back I heard a few oo's and aa's and knew my horse was galloping properly and was the only one that had done it. The feel was totally different and I just felt so great, it was just smooth and fun and I felt more as though we were gliding through the field rather than bouncing along. Unfortunately it was nothing to do with my skill just the will of the horse! Poor Liam looked like he was going to cry towards the end from his bum hurting but he also had a great time.
I can't really remember what we did for much more of the day, we got back at perhaps 2pm and did nothing in particular. I think it rained a lot that evening so we stayed in on the balcony watching the rain and lightning and jumping at the extremely loud thunder.
Friday 9th August.
We were up and away early again today so we could go and do zip lining in the forest. We were initially a little reluctant to do it due to the one in New Zealand being a bit of a let down but we decided to give it a go with it being a new place. We're so glad we did! We arrived at the place and got our harnesses on and all that, then got into a trailer pulled by a tractor for about 15 minutes up an unpaved road deeper into the forest. On the way Liam started doing a terrified dance and flapping around looking very scared. It turned out he had a massive stick insect in his leg only he thought it was a spider. It really was massive and had the whole trailer in a bit of an uproar for some odd reason ( they can't hurt you!!). A member of staff picked him up and put him on a nearby tree, it must have been about around 20cm long at least, Liam reckons 30, we have a picture so can study it another time.
We had to climb a high sort of power tower and stand on the platform to be shown how to sit and what to do. The scenery was wonderful, green for as far as you could see in every direction. The zip lining was just out of this world, so so so much better than the one we did in New Zealand.
They were soooo high and so long as well, one of them was 1km long and about 100m high in the forest, it was just something wed never come close to experiencing before. The views whilst going across were beautiful, stunning waterfalls with rainbows over them and eagles flying around. It was so sad when it finished I didn't want it to end.
We had a couple of hours at the hotel before the next activity so we had time to shower, again, pack a bag for later and walk around to find some lunch.
We got picked up at 1pm to go to Baldi Hot springs which was included in the package we paid for. It's a luxury resort with 25 hot pools at the foot of the volcano, with waterfalls and bars in the middle of them and all sorts. It was very special and looked rather expensive!
We spent most of the time we had there in the one pool, it had 3 water slides and Liam just couldn't keep away from them. We also went into one of the very hot pools and sat at the bar for a while and walked through really hot waterfalls before it was time to get dried and dressed again.
Our tour guide was called franklin and was making constant jokes, a funny man with good English. We had a 3 hour walking tour with us 2 and another couple where he told us about the area and some facts whilst we hiked up the lava trail from the volcano. The view of the volcano was the best we'd seen since arriving, the cloud cover was practically non existent a lot of the time which was wonderful. You could see all the tracks down the sides where lava had gone down over the years. We also saw a couple of craters where hot rocks that had been ejected from the top had exploded on impact, and other massive boulders that had been spat out. He showed us with a magnet how much iron and metals were in the soil, and drew a great diagram of the volcano and underground happenings for us to understand how it works into the ground with a stick.
We were shown all sorts of plants, told of all their medicinal uses in Costa Rica. He even claims he cured his own kidney stones by drinking about 500ml of olive oil before bed and then 2 glasses of lemon juice early in the morning for the next 3 mornings. He showed us various leaves and flowers, it was all very very interesting and he made it fun as well as informative. The ants around the forest are just amazing as well. They're leaf cutter ants and quite big, they are working in lines for as far as you can see going back and forth carrying bits of leaf into their nest. They even recycle, you see some areas they're coming out of the nest carrying old foliage, dumping it in mounds, and I mean mounds as in our size mounds not ant size mounds, then returning empty handed to get more.
There were lots of little trees around the fences of the farmer fields and much to my disbelief he showed us that they weren't trees planted from seeds but branches chopped off near by trees and just stuck into the ground. The ground is so fertile it begins sprouting its own branches and leaves and growing into a new tree within around 3 months. Amazing!
He told us too many things for me to be bothered to write down or even remember, I just know it was a great 3 hours with lots of laughs, information and amazing views of the volcano. We found out that some scenes from the new will smith film, after earth, were filmed around where we were visiting which was pretty cool!
Unfortunately it's not spouted any lava for about 3 years, before that you could go and watch the red glow at night. It's still active, just resting.
We returned to the hot springs at around 6 and had until 9pm to have a buffet dinner and lounge around ( all included in our tour). We ate more than we needed because it was a buffet and the food was lovely! I had managed to go without chocolate for almost 2 weeks and that was out the window when I saw the chocolate fountain and strawberries.
After eating and chatting for a long while we just walked around viewing all the pools and enjoying the evening, we lounged in some chairs for a wile too but decided we weren't getting in as we had overstayed in the restaurant and couldn't be bothered to rush and get all wet.
A shower when we got back was all we managed before collapsing into bed for a much needed sleep.
