Reservations cancelled

Trip Start Jun 24, 2008
1
8
11
Trip End Jul 22, 2008


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Where I stayed
Arenal Backpacker's Resort (& Hotel Dorothy's)
(La Fortuna hotels)

Flag of Costa Rica  ,
Thursday, July 10, 2008

Our travels from Tortuguero to La Fortuna went quite smoothly. We paid the extra bit of money to get a minivan to take us into town from the boat rather than public transit. We saved ourselves a lot of time. Unfortunately we arrived to some bad news... our reservations (that Karen and Brandi made the day before) had been given away. It sounds like in the small print of the website there's some information that says if you aren't there by 4pm they have the right to give you reservation away - and it's a popular place!

The receptionist gave us a suggestion that she assured us of being "clean" and it was for a good price - $10 ea. Again, the unfortunate part was that reference was WRONG! The place was small, room was cramped, the shower didn't have a shower curtain, the toilet was gross and there was some liquid on the seat, and get this... THE DOOR DIDN'T LOCK! It had a lock on it, yes, but if you turned the handle and pushed, it opened right up! Poor Karen - this pushed her over the edge...and she's the one who always keeps her cool!  We'd just come from an overpriced crap-hole and now had to stay in another one! The upside was there was free internet and breakfast included - and it turned out to be only $8 each.

We made a phone call and created a new reservation at the Arenal Backpackers resort. Tomorrow things would be better.

And they were! Next morning after a good breakfast, and we headed to our resort... First thing we did was get all our dirty clothes (which means pretty much everything we brought) and sent it to the laundry. That left us in our bathing suits having to sit by a nice pool for the day. Oh darn...

After that we met some nice people and headed to a *free* hot springs (ie: hanging out in the river that is a hotspring!) and then to watch some lava flow out of the active volcano, Arenal. A little anti-climactic, but still pretty cool to see.

Next day: White water rafting! Brandi's first time, she loved it! It was the best thing we've done so far :-) Very nice guides, we survived class 3 and 4 rapids, had a fresh fruit break, and were greeted by the oddest welcoming crew one could imagine at the end. Howler monkeys, a couple horses and a couple dogs. Very cool. The guides also offered us beer at the end! pura vida!

We ended the day with a not so great meal, but happy to have survived the flood of rain that fell in the afternoon. We're off to Monteverde tomorrow!
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