Costa Rica – The Adventure Begins

Costa Rica has always been high on our list of places we wanted to visit. Everyone I know who’s been there has always had nothing but good things to say about it. And yet, Ann and I have always found ourselves choosing some other destination for our next trip. Perhaps we felt that it was relatively close and easy to get to, so we needed to get the more “exotic” places crossed off the list first.

Until now.

Costa Rica is an incredibly beautiful little country, filled with lush forests, sandy beaches, exotic animals, and warm and friendly people. Equally important, this is a country that just works. This is one of the few places I’ve ever been where my impression is that the government actually cares about its people. As a result, almost everyone I encountered here seems genuinely happy and content, specially compared to their surrounding neighbors in Central America.

Costa Rica has 30 National Parks within its small area, along with dozens of attractions and sights worth seeing. Realizing that we couldn’t see everything in two weeks, we settled on an itinerary that took us to four distinct areas of the country. Our first stay was going to be in the Arenal Volcano area and the town of La Fortuna. After landing in Liberia, in the northwestern corner of the country, we first took a little diversion on the way to La Fortuna to visit the Rio Celeste Waterfall.

Rio Celeste Waterfall

Rio Celeste sits inside the Tenorio Volcano National Park, about 1 1/2 hours north of la Fortuna. The highlight there is the 100’ high waterfall, generally considered one of the most beautiful in Costa Rica, and the incredible color of the river that feeds it. The bright blue of the river comes not from the water itself, but from the mixing of suspended minerals where two rivers meet just upstream of the falls.

The 4-mile hike around the river and falls had a few other surprises as well. Upon encountering a groundskeeper on the trail, she informed us that up ahead there was a poisonous snake in a tree right next to the trail. Sure enough, just a few steps later, we saw the Eyelash Viper curled up just a few feet from our heads. This would be the first of many reminders that there are hundreds of things in these jungles just waiting for you to make a careless mistake.

Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna

Arenal Volcano is one of Costa Rica’s most visited and photographed sights. Thought to be dormant, it erupted suddenly in 1968, causing extensive death and destruction. Today, it sits peacefully in the middle of a National Park. In addition to all the great hiking and wildlife spotting in the area, La Fortuna has become the “adventure capital” of Costa Rica, with dozens of operators offering white water rafting, zip lining, canyoning, horseback riding, ATVing, and numerous other activities for adrenaline junkies (like me).

During our time in Arenal, we enjoyed white water rafting through Class IV rapids, rappelling into and through waterfalls, and zip lining through the jungle. It was a great start to our adventure.

Leaf Cutter Ants

During our hike through Arenal Volcano Park, we came across what I thought was wind blowing leaves across the trail. On closer inspection, it turned out to be leaf cutter ants. I was unfamiliar with them, but absolutely fascinated watching them work so diligently to bring these leaves back to their nest.

There’s too much to go into here, but here’s a link with lots more info.