Pura Vida Hotel & Restaurant La Fortuna

... final leg to La Fortuna.<br><br>It was already clear that Arenal Volcano (one of the most active volcanoes in the Western hemisphere according to the RG and the reason why everyone goes to La Fortuna) had decided to hide itself under a duvet of cloud. Marginally annoying but luckily the town does boast another attraction - natural hot springs.<br><br>After we ...

... br>Upon arrival we spent about 4 hours rafting down the river with a short break for lunch, they advertise it as class 3/4 but I thought it was pretty tame and would have liked some bigger rapids (something to nock me out of the boat atleast).<br>It was really nice though and a fun day so I would definatly reccommend it to someone else.<br><br>Now I am in Puerto Viejo and just relaxing waiting for some swell so that Salsa Brava starts breaking.<br>

... from the roadside for that, all the beach towns have been taken over by US expats and did i mention already everything is totally overpriced....<br><br>So we just spent our time getting a rest and drinking a few beers on our balcony as we couldnt afford to have them in bars....<br><br>Time to move out of Costa Rica... maybe i will return some day when i have loads of dollars or maybe not....<br>

... br>Anyway, the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan border is the most unorganised I have seen yet. No one points you in the right direction. Once we eventually cleared customs on both sides we found out there were no buses to Monteverde and decided to try to get to La Fortuna as we all wanted to go there anyway.<br>Anyway, what a sh*t day, no one told us any correct information, we caught three buses which was annoying as a direct bus left the border about 10 minutes after we ...

... Arenal....the drive through windy roads through misty plantation land. Very picturesque. The van dropped us at Lake Arenal where we caught a boat across the lake. Supposed to be really picturesque but impossible to see anything as the cloud was so low...actually cold (and obviously wet) as well! Then into another minivan to Santa Elena along a windy muddy, steep and rutted road. There were a number of times when we had to reverse to get a run up.....pretty hairy some of it when you ...

This place was great! We arrived in the early afternoon and found our way to the hotel. We immediately checked out the tours so we could get signed up for the next day. There are so many different tours that they offer here, but we chose to go on a nature hike the next morning and to do the canopy tour in the cloud forests of Monteverde in the afternoon. We booked our tours then decided to visit the butterfly garden and frog ponds later ...

... light of lava flowing from the volcano is most visible. But the thick cloudsand fog basically prevented us from seeing anything. Anyways, despite the rain, our second half of the trip to Baldi Hot Springs was well worth it. The resort heats the water by the volcanic heat and placed them in various pools complete with massage, whirlpool,waterfall and sauna. The pools come in different temperature from 100F to 110F. The ...

... really easy for people like us with not much time. I highly reccomend it. we checked in - and not a minute too late as it was full by dinner - and went in search of food. We passed a few expensive looking places, and found a nice spanish restaurant. We sat, breathed, and ordered fondue (ah the french). Next we had massive burritos and nicole and i downed some local beer and everyone felt relieved. It was a long day, but it was pretty easy and we were all together. Team Money, day one.

We started the morning in San Carlos, Nicaragua to arrive in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Maybe it is because we both come from island nations, but even after travelling for years around Europe we are still amazed that it is so easy to walk or bus across an international border - no fuss, nothing. Our border crossing involved a simple stamp out of Nicaragua where the immigration officials were fascinated to see us eating banana sandwiches...don´t think ...