Costa Rica, Day 2

Day 2: We woke up at 6:30, which sounds early for a vacation until you consider that we fell asleep at 8 or so. Also, when the sun rises, it’s pretty much ‘go time’. We went to the hotel restaurant for the free morning breakfast. It was the same every day, but we liked it: fruits, tropical juices, sausages, pancakes, queso (a particular, soft type that is a costa rica staple), chicken and potato stuff and...rice and beans. Rice and beans is *the* food down here. We had it at a lot of different places. It does make a pretty good staple food.

We sat around for a while, and Jess got nervous that something might have been wrong with our first reservation, Sky Tram/Sky Tour. They were about 15 or so minutes late, but they did show up eventually, and after picking us up, along with a few other tourists, we drove off west to our first Costa Rican adventure.

Sky Tram/Sky Tour is a two-part tour. The first part was a tram ride up the side of a mountain covered in rainforest. We saw a lot of cool stuff from the tram. There were a couple of howler monkeys off in the distance, though we saw more of them later, and lots of interesting plants and trees. We even got to see a sloth REALLY close up, with her baby, too. That was a definite highlight. At the top of the ride, we got to take a quick break and check out the other side of the volcano.

Arenal volcano is one of the most iconic sights in Costa Rica. It was dormant until the 1970’s or so, when it erupted and grew massively tall. It’s still erupting, and there wasn’t a day that went by that Jess and I didn’t see steam pouring off the top of the conical mountain. We’d get to see it glow at night, sometimes, too. Very pretty. From where the tour was, we could see the side with the most activity. You’d occasionally see snakes of steam running down the mountain. That was the lava.

So...zip lining. For those of you that have never heard of this, here’s how it works. You string up some steel cable between points, hook yourself up to a harness, strap yourself to a safety line and a wheel, and slide down the cable. This one was definitely exciting. At times we were 200 meters up in the air, and some of the cables went for nearly half-a-mile. And you would *fly* down those things at some serious speeds, too. Very exciting, very fun, and a blast to do. My favorite was the last one, over a half a mile long, and in the middle, the ground comes back up so you’re zipping through the trees. Very pretty.

We went into town for lunch, intending to eat at the burger king, but were lured next door by the smell of smoky BBQ. It was just a simple restaurant, but they made really good food. I had the ‘typical lunch’. Chicken, riceandbeans, veggies, potatoes, and a really good fried plantain. I think they candy those things there.

For the afternoon, we planned to go by La Fortuna waterfall, stopping at a hammock shop on the way. The hammock shop wasn’t there anymore, but the waterfall sure was. It took us about 10 minutes on an unpaved, bumpy road, but evidently that’s par for the course around a lot of places in Costa Rica.

One short, but steep hike down, and we were at the waterfall. They advised us that the water was safe for swimming, but not to swim *under* the waterfall. Check out the video, you’ll see why. It’s a serious waterfall. You’d really have to work at it, though, to swim underneath it. There’s so much water flowing down that it constantly pushes you to shore. Very pretty, though, and the water, while nippy, was good for a swim. Jess swam around behind the waterfall, her first attempt at terrifying me while in a foreign country. She seems to enjoy doing that.

We also took a little dip in the river beneath the falls. There were a bunch of little, tiny fishes that Jess thought would try and nip at her newly-painted toenails. The hike out was short, but tough. Very vertical, though the path had been well carved.

Also, on a side note, my new river shoes are really good. Keens, if you’re curious.

We decided to go to one of the places recommended by the book for dinner. Luigi’s pizza. Evidently they’re supposed to do good pizza, but let me tell you, that pizza was TERRIBLE. And if you know me, you know I’m not picky about my food, but something about that pizza was just intolerable. I couldn’t finish it. Yuck. Pizza, even. How do you screw that up?

Mooooovie.



-N