Central America 2012: La Fortuna

I have been in La Fortuna 2 days now staying at the Hostal Rolopz. I booked this place online as it had great reviews and A/C. Although my room is fine (large but basic) this is really no hostal. It is more like staying with a Costa Rican aunt that you never knew you had. The only frustrating thing about this place is their wifi router is bad. So my smart phone isn't so smart here and I need to use their pc to publish this blog.

Yesterday (Tuesday) I signed up to do the afternoon Hanging Bridge Tour but alas I was the only one that did. So the tour was canceled. As an alternative, I signed up for the Special Volcano Tour. This tour took about 15 people up to the Arenal Observation Lodge. This lodge offers some of the best views of the Arenal Volcano from its observation decks. Unfortunately the weather at that time was very dark as a rain shower was coming so most of the volcano was hidden in the clouds. From the lodge we then took a guided tour through a private part of the rain forest. This trail had three hanging bridges and a waterfall along its path. During the ealk the tour guide gave us a history of the volcano (It just became a volcano in 1968 and it built all its size since then) as well as description of many of the native vegetation. This walk was over 2 hours long.
The tour finished up in the dark at Baldi Hot Springs where we enjoyed a soak in a very rapid warm river of water. This spring is apparently available to the public but there are literally no lights there. So it is surprising that even I, who is not a big water fan, took part!

Today I took part in yet another tour. This one is to Cano Negro (Black Canal). We left town at 7:30 am for about a 2 hour bus trip up towards the Nicaragua border to the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is famous for all of its birds, bats, insects, reptile and caymen. Just in case you aren't familiar with caymem, they closely resemble a short alligator.

Our tour company had a pontoon boat that went slowly down the river with two guides on boards spotting the wildlife. This was all very enjoyable even when the boat broke down when the gas line developed a hole. Obviously, no gas - no go. The crew took this all in stride and fixed the line in about 15 minutes. After the boat ride we all enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch back at the boat dock before the 2 hour ride back to town. All in all, this tour was all done first class and was a bargain at $50.

During this tour I met a couple from Utah who were in Costa Rica setting up an upcoming tour. It seems they have their own tour company for the past 10 years. Although they have done many tours to Mexico, Belize and Honduras, this will be their first venture into Costa Rica. I would love to be in that business...maybe specializing in Asia.

Tonight, I ate at the number one restaurant in town per TripAdvisor. Believe it or not, it is the New York Deli who specializing in Philly Cheesesteaks. (I'm not sure whay as the owner is from NYC and his wife is Costa Rican) Naturally, I had to try the cheesesteak. I ordered it so fast that I didn't read that they use ground beef! Well as disgusting as that sounds, the sandwich actually was very good. I just wouldn't call it a Philly Cheesesteak.

Tomorrow, I decided to upgrade from basis bus as I booked the Interbus service to go to San Jose. Interbus is really a shuttle type service that will take me door to door with the hotel in San Jose. Actually I couldn't get reservations as the San Jose hotels I'm interested had too many hoops to jump through. They require you to download their reservation form and then fax it to them. I went to 5 places here in La Fortuna and I couldn{t find anyone that had a working printer. So I never even had to find a fax!!! Since I am scheduled to get to the hotel tomorrow before noon, I'm hoping reservations won't be necessary.

Once again I noticed that Blogger rotated my pics so they appear to be misaligned!!!!