La Fortuna, CR

Hopefully I can squeeze several days into one post because the internet here seems to be incredibly slow.

We safely arrived to San Jose on Friday evening, and settled into our hotel for the evening after grabbing a car for the stay. Saturday morning we grabbed some bottled water and a few snacks, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast buffet from the hotel before leaving town. It was all relatively uneventful. Perfecto. 👌🏼

The two hour drive north to La Fortuna was absolutely beautiful. The winding mountain roads through the lush forests were just incredible. And, surprisingly, not entirely terrifying.

After arriving to town and finding our home for the weekend, we went to play at the highly recommended Baldi Hot Sprimgs. We couldn’t pass it up after all our fun digging for the sprimgs in New Zeeland. This, however, was a drastically different, though equally enjoyable experience. Baldi is actually part of a hotel; we decided that it’s almost comparable to Great Wolf Lodge. There are 27 pools layered down the side of the volcano: waterslides, swim up bars, mini waterfalls, sauna, and some cold pools mixed in there for refreshment. We had a great time pool hopping- we hit them all on the way up, then swam our way back down. Unfortunately, we have zero picture proof, but we did have a great time!

We grabbed dinner after, and it was delicious. It’s possible we found the best spot on the first night- both food and margarita.

We kicked off Saturday in an ecogarden. Along with one other Canadian, Jose guided us through his “backyard” to see all sorts of native wildlife. It was incredible. He was very informative and prepared. He had extra binoculars on had for us to borrow.

   

 

   

  

   

Oh, and Ryan ate termites! Apparently, they’re very nutritious and taste like mint. 

 

   

After we finished the tour, his family cooked breakfast for the whole group. It was the usual: rice and beans, eggs and fruit. Delicious! We also learned a bit about how to make traditional Costa Rican coffee in authentic coffee makers. We loved everything and wanted to do every program he offered by the end of the morning. 

Okay.

In the afternoon we went to Don Juan for a coffee and chocolate tour. The tours were very factual, but not much else to them. 

We did chocolates first.  It walked us through the whole process from seed to store. We were able to try the cocoa fruit right from the tree. It’s really slimy in its original form. Also, you have to just suck on it like the monkeys do,  like a hard candy. It’s toxic otherwise. 

The highlight of this tour was attempting to make our own chocolate bar. 

  

They do actually make the chocolate at this location. The coffee however is all in Monteverde because it grows better in  high elevations. We did get to try some of their coffee at the end. It was actually pretty good. I discovered that dark roast is actually pretty tasty. 

We ended the day with mass at St. John Bosco right at the center of La Fortuna. It was totally packed and entirely in Spanish. Also, possible the most humid mass we’re ever attended.