Border Run 2: Chapter 2

The bus ride from the Blue Dream Hotel back up to La Cruz was fine for us but wow was the bus struggling on the steep parts.  This particular bus runs pretty much all day and the driver definitely knew when to down shift.  It's a climb, for sure.  We got lucky yet again and only had a short wait at the terminal before a bus came through to whisk us off to Liberia.  We settled in and enjoyed the ride.  We had a good amount of traveling ahead of us today to get to our next stop, so the down time was nice.  Plus, we were heading into unexplored areas (for us, obvs) so we weren't sure what we might encounter.

Here is a map of the days travels:  Bahía Salinas to La Fortuna.

Soon enough we were in Liberia at the bus terminal and hopped in a cab to get us to the airport so we could pick up our rental wheels.  Being savvy travelers such as we are (ha), we caught the driver trying to scam us.  Travel tip:  before you get in a cab, it's best to negotiate the price first.  We did this, of course, the guy agreeing to 5,000 colones ($10) to take us and our backpacks to the Alamo office at the airport.  When we got there and were getting our bags out of the trunk, he asked for 6,000 colones ($12).  Bex! called him on it and thus he talked his way out of a tip.  I tell ya, nothing gets past my wife - although I am pretty adept at keeping her on her toes.

We did the paperwork and car inspection, then got directions to get us back on the Pan American Highway.  The vehicle we got this time was a Toyota Yaris.  Ah, the Yaris.  Talk about your crappy designs.  Seriously.  All of the important stuff - gas gauge, speedometer, idiot lights, etc. - are located, not in front of the driver, but instead in the middle of the dash.  So instead of glancing straight down to check speed, the driver has to look down and over to the right.  Really, it's no different than the driver checking the radio station or AC settings while driving.  Ridiculous.  Not sure what the point of this design is.  But - the Blazing Blue Pearl (yes, that's a color, apparently) Yaris would be our car for the week, so we made friends with it and only talked about the car when it was out of earshot.

Personally, I think the reason for the center console location of the important dash components must be for this person.

Once we got on the Pan Am we drove south to Cañas.  There was a lot of construction and, man, the road was rough.  We had forgone 4-wheel drive for this trip but joked that it would have been kinda nice - for the highway.  You know the one - the PRIMARY THOROUGHFARE for ALL traffic through Central America.  Yeah, that one.  We finally turned off the main road onto a much better side road through the country.  And beautiful country it is!  Rolling hills, small farms and ranches dot the countryside, lush green pastures.  Green, green green!  We stopped in the little town of Tilaran for lunch.  My travel agent had read about a little family-owned soda (diner) called Soda de Nilo.  Lunch was a casado (a Costa Rican typical lunch plate).  These meals come with a little bit of e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

You thought I was kidding?!

Let's start with the tomato wedge and go clockwise.  From the aforementioned tomato wedge we have shredded cabbage topped with cucumber and salad dressing; a chicken breast with sautéed onions; a tortilla; rice; spaghetti in red sauce with diced chicken; and mashed potatoes.  And don't forget the bowl of black beans.  Plus I had a blueberry smoothie to tie it all together.  Bex! had a smoothie made with cas, a tropical fruit that we've only ever seen in CR, never in Nicaragua.  She said it tasted citrus-y, a little herbal - and she quite liked it.  During lunch, we watched the first part of a World Cup match between Holland and Brazil, for third place - which is kinda pointless.  Even the players looked disinterested.

After lunch we continued on toward La Fortuna, which would be our home base for the next couple of days.  We rounded a corner and pulled off the road to take in the magnificence of Lake Arenal.  This natural wonder was formed millions of years ago during the Jurrasi…  What?  Readers, excuse me for a minute.  (I'm blogging here!  What's so important?!  Okay, what about Lake Arenal?  Wha… no way.  Seriously?  Crap.)  (ahem) Lake Arenal was formed when they built a dam in the '70's.  There was a small lake here before then but the dam created this baby.  In fact, the town of Arenal was relocated and renamed Nuevo Arenal (New Arenal) and the town of Tonadora was, well, just left to be covered with water.  Progress!

Tonadora is just right down there… under about 50 meters of water.

Volcán Arenal is magnificent!  Steep slopes, perfect conical shape and, until October 2010, extremely active.  It reawakened in 1968 and for 42 years put on a helluva show.  In fact, the entire area's tourism was built around the volcano.  Constant lava, ash, and gas emissions were a huge draw.  Most of the hotels were built facing the lava-y slope so at night people could see the red glow from the flow.  The volcanic activity has ceased but the tourist activity has not.  It's still a beautiful area to visit.  Partly because there is real beer!

The Lake Arenal Hotel and Brewery is a cool spot overlooking the lake.  They have 21 rooms, a huge restaurant, banquet/meeting spaces - and a microbrewery.  Lake Arenal Brewery (LAB) is a small operation but judging by the beers we tried, a well done venture.  I had their pale ale, which was just on the edge of being an IPA.  Quite delicious, especially after months of Imperial and my beloved Toña.  Bex! took the servers suggestion and blended the pale ale with their brown ale and it was very good, also.  We tasted the brown ale solo and it was good, although neither of us is a fan of the style in general.  The restaurant space here is huge and sprawling.  Definitely a gringo enterprise, with not much in the way of local art or design.  Being inside here, we could have been Anywhere, USA.  And $5 a pint!  Yeah - five bucks.  I can get buzzed in my little village bar for $5.  Don't get me wrong - it's a neat space but not very Latin American.  

And now I step upon my soapbox for a brief interlude to discuss 'marketing'.  The drive around Lake Arenal is a scenic one, or should be, the road dipping and climbing, zigging and zagging around the contours of the lake.  You can catch glimpses of the majestic namesake volcano here and there.  There are many businesses along the road and the drive is a nice day trip for tourists and locals alike from La Fortuna and other nearby towns.  One of the businesses on the lake is a place called Toad Hall.  It's a hotel/restaurant/family fun center/souvenir shop.  I refuse to put a link in this blog because of the way they single-handedly ruin the drive around the lake with their signs.  Literally every 50-75 meters there is a sign advertising for this place.  Even on the road leading to the lake we saw signs, although not as prevalent.  But the loop around the lake?  Incessant signage!  And not even professionally done signs.  These things are spray painted gold backgrounds with spray painted red lettering and seem to be made of every piece of scrap wood, plastic and garbage they could get their hands on.  Okay, points for recycling.  "Oh, look honey - it's another car hood on the side of the road.  That's weird.  Oh, wait - it's another goddamn sign for Toad Hall."  Every wide spot in the road, places where you may hope to get a view of the lake or the volcano has a damn sign propped up with pallets or tree branches.  Bex! wrote a review of them on Trip Advisor stating that we refused to stop there because of the way their marketing was vomited all along what should have been a scenic drive.  There are other reviews stating the same complaints and the few the owner has responded to are defensive and unprofessional.  The owner accuses negative reviewers of being employees of competing businesses.  Anyway, if I ever find out you were in Costa Rica and visited this abomination, you are dead to me.  Thank you.

And now, a fun game for our loyal readers.  How many Toad Hall signs can you spot in this video? 

We cut off the lake road toward La Fortuna, grimacing at the continuous reminders that we had 'missed Toad Hall/thanks for visiting.'  We got into town and, after venturing the wrong way down a one way street (oops!) we found our hostel.  Our reservation at The Sleeping Indian, made through a third party site, had not been received but fortunately they had a room available for us.  This place is great!  Our room was roomy and clean, with a private bath and hot water.  The common area was like a large living room or den and they have a small balcony overlooking the quiet street below and the parque central just a block over.

One of the staff gave us excellent culinary advice on where we could go for dinner, making several suggestions.  We ended up going to Kappa Sushi, just a couple of blocks from the hostel.  We thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful change of pace.  So much so, in fact, that we went back the next day for dinner again!  They keep it simple here, with just a few types of excellently prepared fish, good sized rolls and great service.

(drool...)

(… more drool…)

The next day we got up early and drove back toward the lake for a canopy tour along a trail interconnected by 15 hanging bridges.  (Here is a map of the drive to the location and the walk.)  Waterfalls, a little rain and a lot of quiet.  When we arrived, we were one of only a few cars in the parking lot.  When we left, the lot was darn near full, including half a dozen tour buses.  Getting an early start paid off in full!  Crossing the first bridge, we had to squeeze by a small group who was with a guide.  In the course of passing them, the lens cap came off Bex!'s camera and fell down below the bridge.  Oy.  We waited and acted busy while the tour group passed us, then we started hunting for the cap.   Boom - spotted it and it was accessible, but only if rules were broken.  Specifically the one about not leaving the trail for any reason.  I acted as lookout and Bex! returned to the head of the bridge, snuck around the pillar and scampered down to retrieve the cap, while I guided her from above.  Success!  She also jaywalks, too, by the way.

Booby was none too thrilled be dragged out on this excursion.

What is Bex! doing?  She's going to get us kicked out!

High about the river.  My sister would love this!  Right, Pat?!

Bex! crossing the Puente la Catarata, 92 meters across and 45 meters above the river.

Hmm, which way is the exit?

How did they get across before they built the bridge?

Birds of Paradise in their natural habitat.

On the way back to town, we stopped in at one of the hot springs for some soak time.  The water is heated by the volcano, so that makes it especially neat.  Just outside of La Fortuna, there are a bunch of hotels, everything from run of the mill to super swank.  Like I said, the volcano is the draw that brings tourists from all over.  We chose a spot that was family friendly and cheap, rather than pay a steep fee to access one of the nicer, private spas or hotels.  It was fun, with many pools at different temperature ranges to choose from.  After relaxing for a while, we headed back to La Fortuna for lunch and soccer.

Another of the food recommendations we received was to enjoy 'the best patacones in Costa Rica' at Restaurante Don Rufino.  Spot on suggestion!  Made of plantains that are sliced into rounds, fried, smashed, fried again and topped with cheese or meat, patacones are a delicious snack, widely available in Central America and especially tasty when paired with beer.  We didn't find them on the menu, however.  Not to be thwarted, we asked our server 'Tienes patacones?'  'Si, claro!'  Excellent!  These babies were off the hook delicious!  Topped with refried beans, cheese, guacamole and  speck ham - OMG.

I want to go to there.

Today was also the championship match for the World Cup, with underdog Argentina facing the robotic precision of Germany.  We walked around town to find a spot to watch the match.  Yeah, good luck.  All the cool little dive bars we had scoped out earlier were now packed.  So we wandered back to Don Rufino's and sat at the outdoor bar.  It was perfect, actually, even when the sky opened up and started dumping buckets of rain.  That lasted until the overhang covering us started leaking, however.  But the bartender found us a spot inside at the bar, so we watched the rest of the game and had a great time rooting for Argentina.  The staff was cheering for Germany, so that made for some humorous interaction!

After the match, we enjoyed sushi for the second time in two days then went back to the hostel and chilled in the comfortable common area.  We mapped out the next morning's adventure and packed for our departure the next day.

Right outside of town about 6 kilometers is the La Fortuna Waterfall.  This is a very cool hike, with 471 stairs leading down down down to the cascada.  It's gorgeous and worth the effort, as you can see.

Heading down a stretch of the 471 steps. 

This is not the sombrilla de pobre (poor man's umbrella).  It is, however, the destitute man's umbrella.

Now, where's the zip line?

This is not the waterfall you're looking for...

Because of its proximity to town, there were quite a few people here but it was no big deal, with plenty of room to maneuver.  It was misty which kept it cool, even though the humidity had us sweating pretty good!  Once we got to the bottom, we enjoyed the various viewpoints of this waterfall.  

Love this pic of my beautiful wife!

Booby, again seemingly unimpressed.  Meh.

The appetizer waterfall.

The entrée waterfall.

Sufficiently warm and sweaty from the misty rain and exertion, we went back to the hostel, loaded our stuff and hit the road.  Next stop, a return visit to the completely awesome Poás Lodge to hang with my 'brothers from another mother', Jimmie and Stephan!  

In fact, we were going to meet their mother on this visit!

Woohoo!!