Down the Rabbit Hole: Tuesday, February 22nd

Morning came pretty quickly but we managed to get up surprisingly easily at 6:30am as we threw the last few straggling items into our suitcases. Emma was on time for our 7am breakfast date, we were running a little late of course. We had decided nothing would keep us quite as full as an enormous breakfast at Café Carolas before we hit the road to La Fortuna. Getting there was perhaps our least favorite walk down our dirt road as we had to drag all of our luggage with us – not a pretty sight and the first reminder of many that day that we had massively over packed.

Carolas was super delicious, just like the first time we had it. We ate piece after piece of fresh baked German bread with homemade jams, scrambled eggs, cheese, & meat. And we got to enjoy Carolas delicious coffee one last time - Starbucks will never do the trick quite like Carolas. Once we were sufficiently stuffed and 9am (our bus pick up time) was minutes away, Carola bossed us, and her very obliging husband Victor, around and made us put all of our luggage in her awesome super old red LandRover insisting that she would drive us to the bus stop. She was also driving a young German girl down, who we presumed to be her daughter. Thank God we didn’t have to drag our luggage down the rest of the dirt road - We were so grateful to Carola, the crazy German mother we have never had. We stood with Carola and her German daughter, whose name we can’t remember and who turned out not to be her daughter at all, we don't think, until the Interbus pulled up. Two guys hoisted our bags onto the top of the roof and tied them on. In the U.S. this wouldn’t be so scary but in Costa Rica everyone drives as if they have a passenger in labor. Breaking before a sharp turn is a totally foreign concept to them so you constantly find yourself thrown out of your seat as you whizz along the poorly paved roads weaving around mountains, lakes, etc. We both made a silent wish that our luggage would make it to our destination. We had hoped to sit together and fall fast asleep but for some reason a tall scary Russian man who smelled like he had just run with the bulls in Pamplona had decided to occupy the only 2 seats that were together and rudely said he would not move soo Jenny sat next to him. This was not our favorite bus journey and we were in for a bumpy, hot, smelly, crowded journey. After about 2 ½ hours we got off to switch to another bus to take us to La Fortuna where we would stay for the night. This bus was much better, a smaller shuttle for just the 2 of us! Our driver Jonathan got us there in no time but is very lucky that Jenny didn’t throw up all over his shuttle considering he drove like a total nutzo. Before dropping us off at our hostel, his absurd driving was quickly forgotten when we pulled over to show us a natural hot spring- or river, really. He waited as we took our sneakers off and walked through. It was really hot- we knew right then this was going to be a cool experience. So all in all it had been a 2 ½ hr drive with Jonathan, which we should have spent napping but we accidentally spent chatting. The drive was beautiful and from pretty far away we could catch glimpses of our final destination: the Arenal volcano. Almost all of Costa Rica is grass, trees, rainforests, and natural bodies of water. 40% of land here is protected for wildlife conservation. It is so amazing to drive for so long on a single road seeing virtually nothing manmade. The structures that are manmade are humble and more often than not roofed with palms.

We arrived at our hostel, Arenal Backpackers Resort, appropriately named as it was unbelievably nice with a pool, a grassy area with palm trees and hammocks, a restaurant and a wifi lobby. We were given the option to book a bed in a dorm or a tent, and obviously we picked tent. That’s right, we said tent -this is an adventure after all. Our tent was pretty much nicer than our apartment in Samara, we loved it except for the fact it was practically an oven inside, until night when we would learn it can also serve as a freezer. By not we were very used to our 2 temperature choices: sweaty or shivering.

No sooner had we put our bags in a tent and split a delicious chocolate chip cookie for lunch than we were back on a bus! Time for the most cost effective and action packed tour we could find. Our timing was working out perfectly, quite unusual for an unplanned travel day. Also on our tour were 2 crazy young French girls without a care in the world except themselves – they spoke French to each other, English to us, and Spanish to the Tico tour guide William; Debbie the German…her name was actually Sondra but Debbie would have been more appropriate for this total downer who didn’t seem impressed by anything we were doing and had been traveling the world by herself for a few months already; a quiet but sweet couple from Dayton who had met on Match.com 3 months prior and were now traveling in Costa Rica together for the one week that they were able to get off work.

Our tour guide, William, a self-promoting Tico bird enthusiast whose avid excitement over tiny plants and animal prints was very Steve Irwin-esque, took us to Arenal Volcano Lodge for our first stop. We drove for a long while down a super bumpy dirt road, a Costa Rican massage according to William. We got onto the volcano observation deck and the view was unreal! We were unbelievably close to the Arenal volcano, one of the world’s 10 most active volcanoes. It is usually pouring lava 24/7 but had mysteriously stopped 3 months ago. Now the crater was smoking, which we could see through a telescope set up by William. William told us about 100 times about how he had been living in La Fortuna during Arenal’s ferocious 1968 eruption that buried over 5mi² in rocks, lava and ash and killed many people. Arenal volcano has been active ever since and at 5,437 feet in height and it a truly epic sight.

After taking in the view, spotting a mystery animal, and a serious amount of bird watching, much to Kelly’s dismay, we were off and ready for a jungle hike. This was a pretty serious hike and we were deep in the rainforest away from any real trails. We hiked to an amazing waterfall and got to watch as a guy on another tour was taught to climb to the top and jump off of the waterfall – clearly he chose the better tour because William was more concerned by plants that had been used as natural medicine than thrill seeking waterfall jumps. We would have been happy campers hanging out by the waterfall all day – it was unbelievable. On with the hike, which lasted several hours, and over a suspension bridge in the rainforest which was really cool.

We saw plants that were used for bengay, citronella mosquito repellent, natural birth control (a plant that men or women could drink in a tea 3 times daily) and a tree that’s illegal in Nicaragua because people smoke it as a drug that William says is much stronger than weed. We saw every kind of bird in Costa Rica, which was really exciting to William, whose favorite birds were giant wild turkeys and a species whose males build the nest before the females inspects them, leaving the poor sucker if the construction is not good enough. The crazy French girls were clearly more interested in themselves than any kind of tour and they dragged 10 minutes behind the entire time so we kept having to stop and wait for them to catch up. William was clearly infuriated by this but to our secret disappointment he kept his cool. Next we headed back to the observation deck to see yet another amazing sunset. We anxiously waited for dark hoping that the volcano was spewing lava, which it sadly was not (guess you have to be careful what you wish for though!) We hopped back on the bus and were off to our next destination, until William spotted the fourth most poisonous snake in Costa Rica so we piled out and stood dangerously close to it. There is no concern for safety in Costa Rica and from kayaking in the choppy ocean to a far out island, learning to surf, hiking rocky paths down to a waterfall, and standing feet away from venomous animals, we have never seen a single contract or signed anything. It makes you realize how caught up the US is with liability.

William sat next to us and told us about his experience learning to speak English. He was having a conversation with a pretty girl one day who happily engaged him for hours as he practiced his speaking skills. He said he was so grateful for her help that he wanted to say something nice about her pretty smile and dimples. He said to her “thank you for your help, you are a nice girl with a pretty smiles and 2 very nice nipples”….haha apparently not quite when he meant but a compliment nonetheless we suppose.

We arrived at Baldi Hot Spring Resort, the strangest resort/spa/water park/jungle experience we have ever and the most touristy place we have been in Costa Rica. We were met with a HUGE buffet dinner with plenty of carbs, Jen’s dream meal: the deadly beige plate. Then we were set free for 2 ½ hours to run from hot spring to hot spring naturally heated and ranging in temperature from 40 – 135 degrees F. We braved the 116 degree pool but that was about as toasty as we cared to be. We had so much fun running around Baldi like 9-year-olds on a summer day. We realized we were totally carefree and living in the moment – a feeling that we have started to take for granted but is pretty rare in the life of most people. We have every intention of holding onto this wonderful childlike embracing of the present.

We got back to our Hostel after this whirlwind day at around 11pm and found groups of young people hanging out and enjoying the music that was playing by the pool. We were way too exhausted to be social and meet people but this did make us excited for all of the hostel experiences we will have in Europe. We are really looking forward to making connections with people from all over the world who also have the travel bug.