Stu and Anna's travels

Next stop was La Fortuna via a jeep / horse / boat transfer. The riding part was supposed to take 3 hours. However our 2 horses seemed to want to race each other the whole way. So an hour and a half (and one very sore butt) later, we had arrived! La Fortuna´s main attraction is Volcan Arenal, a very active little mountain that leveled 2 whole villages when it awoke in 1968. Having already had our close encounters with lava, we decided to pass on the early morning tours and instead walk up its neighboring peak, Cerro Chato. We were told, and the guide books said, that the walk was about 16km round trip. Travel tip: guide books lie, and locals always think something is closer than it really is! That aside the walk was ok, and the crater lake at the top was beautiful. On the way down it started to rain... when we got back to the hostel it started raining again...

It didn´t stop raining for the next 3 days in the whole of Costa Rica. We know this because we spent 2 of them travelling nearly the whole length of the country from La Fortuna to Puerto Jimenez...

Puerto Jimenez in the main village on the Osa Peninsula. The area has large areas of untouched rainforest surrounded by pristine beaches which have some great surf. None of this is great fun to do in the rain. When it finally stopped raining we decided to walk to Playa Preciosa, a 3 km walk we were told - remember the travel tip! It took us an hour and a half to get there, but it was completely worth the effort.

After seeing how amazing the beaches could be we decided to move closer to one. So we headed from Puerto Jimenez across the bay to Zancudo. We stayed at a little hotel called "Coloso Del Mar" which was right on the beach and as it was low season we had it all to ourselves! Zancudo is a 1-street place with a few bars and hotels and one fantastic beach. We basically just chilled out and tried to get a sun tan. The locals are all a bit off the wall, think ex-pats that have been soaked in too much beer and sun. The first night we were there they took us to the biggest social event of that month, an oil-wrestling match in one of the local bars. I won´t try to describe the "event" as some memories are best left forgotten!!

After 3 days lying in the sun, we decided to move on and head into Panama...