A Bumpy Road

The last few days have been full, but a common theme has been this:

You probably wouldn't guess it, but this is a highway in Costa Rica. Not a back road or a driveway, a highway. Dillon and I rented a car to get around and I'm so thankful it's 4WD. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to leave the city.

Since I posted last, we've gone from Grecia to the Arenal Volcano, to Monteverde, and now down to the Pacific Coast on the Nicoya Peninsula. The drives have been absolutely beautiful, but also long, windy, and bumpy. We've even forded a few rivers...

So, let me share some highlights from each place. After leaving Grecia, we made our way northwest to the Arenal Volcano, which is the most active of Costa Rica's 5 active volcanoes. Since we are visiting in the rainy season, there was a lot of cloud cover and we weren't able to see any lava action, but we did hike up the mountain to see the old lava flow of 1994. This sounded great in theory, but our guided tour was canceled, and by the time we finally found a trail that wasn't too expensive, it was getting dark. Not the wisest choice, but we made the hike at dusk and in a thunderstorm. I think that will be another theme of this trip...thunder and lightning storms. Though the last 2 days have been dry for us, we've at least seen them in the distance every day. 

Needless to say, the hike wasn't awesome. BUT afterwards, we went to Baldi Hot Springs for a buffet dinner and swimming until 10pm (late by Costa Rican standards since it gets dark here at 6pm). Baldi has 25 different pools of varying temperatures. The first one at the top of the hill is 107 degrees and then as you move down the hill, the pools get cooler. The pools and saunas were all inter-connected and I was so impressed with whoever designed the resort. A lot of the pools had swim-up bars, and I can just imagine what a party the place must be in tourist season.

On our drive to Monteverde, we drove around Lake Arenal. We made a pit-stop at the only micro-brewery in Costa Rica for some free beer tasting and our first monkey sighting!!

We made it just in time to Hotel Belmar in Monteverde to drop our bags and change before we were picked up for our zip-lining and canopy tour at Selvatura Park in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Zip-lining is probably my most favorite thing we've done on the trip so far (other than laying in the sun, on the beach). It was just enough adrenaline, but with an amazing view. The longest zip-line was 1,000 meters and I loved soaring over the canopy. It was like being in the Planet Earth documentary when they fly over the rainforest. Of course, Dillon and I were the only people in our group so we had the guides to ourselves. They were a lot of fun and Dillon and I enjoyed the Tarzan Swing at the end and going tandem on the last zip-line.

And to answer your question: No, I have not worn the same outfit every day. It's merely an illusion.

Nosara updates to come!

Caitlin
caitlinboyd72@gmail.com