Kangiebibi's Blog: Costa Rica

The 1st international trip since the Pandemic! I chose Costa Rica mostly because I have never been to Central America, and I wanted to get away from the city and see nature. My best friend joined me on this 4-day trip!

1. La Fortuna

The capital of Costa Rica is San Jose. However, most tourists go to La Fortuna or Monteverde. Monteverde offers extreme bungee jumping, ziplining (more extreme activities) and and cloud forests.

We chose La Fortuna because we really wanted to see the 3-toed sloth and the volcano. La Fortuna also has ziplining at Arenal Mundo Aventura Park, although it is not as extensive or extreme as at Monteverde.

Neither of us have ever gone ziplining before. We found a package deal on Tripadvisor that included 7 lines of ziplining, a tour of La Fortuna Waterfall, walking across a hanging bridge, and a horseback ride to the Maleku Village for about $130/person.

Pedro was such an attentive guide, making sure we felt safe and had a good time for our first time ziplining, which was nerve-wrecking!

We survived 7 lines!!

We got to ride a horse (my 2nd time riding a horse in my life) for about 20 minutes down from La Fortuna Waterfall. My horse's name was Chakita even though he was male.

His hair was so clean and had a nice fade~

La Fortuna Waterfall

La Fortuna Waterfall is 200 ft. The water is really cold. My friend and I forgot to bring flip flops, which we regretted as the area is full of rocks.

The entrance fee is $18 but for us, the price was included in our package.

The clear pool of river that the waterfall fed into had silver dart fishes. They were unafraid of people! People come here and catch these fish with pineapple on fishing hooks.

I always get so excited to swim with water animals:

The hanging bridge!

The bridge is literally hanging so it did shake a lot as we walked across. I was a bit nervous even though I'm not that scared of heights:

2. Night tour

We also did a night tour (day tours are offered too) at a place called Sloth's Territory. The tour was about 2 hours starting at 6PM and cost $60/person. We saw a lot of animals that were active during the night, including...the 3-toed sloth!

Sloths get very stressed out if they are touched by strangers, especially humans! So the next best thing~

So sloths sleep 18~20 hours a day. They only come down from their home trees to defecate once per week. They usually get attacked by predators during this time.

Sloths and the bugs that live on their coat have a symbiotic relationship (like me & many things in life haha). The moths fertilize the algae on the sloth's fur which helps to camouflage the sloths. The moths in return, get a warm home to live in!

Our guide helped to spot so many animals even in the darkest dark with his flashlight and binoculars. He took some professional-level photos on our phone for us:

This lizard was one of my favorites. The green/plumed/"Jesus Christ" basilisk has such a bright lime green hue. They are named after Jesus due to their ability to run on top of water.

The red-eyed tree frog is another very famous animal that people think of besides the sloth when you mention Costa Rica.

3. Arenal Volcano

The Arenal Volcano in Alajuela is the best-known volcano and 1 of 5 active volcanoes out of 300+ volcanoes in Costa Rica.

It's illegal to climb to the top of the Arenal Volcano since 2010. A family climbed to the very top and the volcano erupted a little on the top, burning the entire family to death...

On the hike to the volcano, our guide pointed out and explained some of the plants and animals we saw.

This Cecropia plant has medicinal properties and is used/eaten by both indigenous people and sloths!

Our guide said it makes you feel twice as high as marijuana does. (I actually think the leaf looks like a giant weed.) He thinks this may be 1 reason why sloths are so chill all the time.

This lovely orchid blooms for just 1 day then dies...

We saw 2 red-eyed tree frogs! The guide told us they are nocturnal, non-poisonous, and sleep on the underside of leaves during the day. Their skin is very sensitive, so it is recommended not to touch these frogs if you are wearing any bug repellants or chemicals.

The smaller of the 2 is the male!

The strawberry poison dart frog on the other hand is very poisonous. So if you come across one, don't touch!

Generally, flashy, brightly colored animals tend to be poisonous and dangerous.

The Lake Arenal is the largest lake in Costa Rica. You can swim here. The waters are warm since it is right by the volcano:

The volcano tour included lunch and about 1 hour at a hot springs. It felt so nice after the brutal hike!

Restaurante Don Rufino is a higher-end restaurant near the hotel we were staying at in La Fortuna. This was our 1st dinner in Costa Rica, and we both agreed the food was delicious and quite cheap for a fancy restaurant! (Prices for everything were literally 1/2 the price of the same dishes in NYC.)

I absolutely loved how they cooked this cauliflower:

Cheers!

Restaurante Nanku 7 minutes walk from our hotel:

& The last supper! This place has live music. This restaurant was also very close to where we stayed.

4. Where we stayed:

La Fortuna is supposed to be a more expensive city because it is a touristy spot. There are a variety of places to stay, from hostels all the way to 5 star hotels. We chose a mid-range hotel--Secreto La Fortuna--with a view of the Arenal Volcano. It was quite affordable at about $80 per night for a room.

The day we arrived, the concierge showed us a sloth that was just hangin' around the tree right outside!

Another great amenity about this hotel (besides the view) is the little swimming pool. The water is fresh rainforest water, with no chlorine!

Rainforests make their own water! The trees in rainforests use photosynthesis to create clouds to make rain. In Costa Rica, it could be super sunny, then suddenly start raining 30 minutes later for a long time due to to the rainforests.

The hotel also includes breakfast. They have 3 options. This was my favorite option with the fried plantains and rice and beans. Plantains and rice/beans figure prominently in Costa Rican cuisine. Fruits are also readily available and served at every meal:

1 of the best things about Costa Rica is the fresh, delicious fruit at a very cheap price.

I tried some fruits I never had before in my life, courtesy of a local grocery store.

Clockwise from top left: The guanábana , passionfruit, mamon, rambutan, goldenberry, guava.

& ofc I had to try some chips that are popular in Costa Rica!

We also found a nearby chocolate shop with a wide assortment of chocololates:

Because we took Spirit Airlines (Don't get me wrong, I love Spirit for cheap, nearby, within the States flights), problems were meant to arise. We ended up having to spend an extra day in Costa Rica that we didn't plan for. Also, my best friend wasn't feeling too well. We booked an airbnb (airbnb's are very cheap in Costa Rica, but don't offer the best accomodations) for 1 night.

We had an extra day to walk around Alajuela. I spotted this lovely quote on a wall from one of my favorite books of all time, Le Petit Prince:

There is nothing like my all-time fave restaurant McDonald's to cheer me up! Luckily my BFF loves McD as well!

I have a few friends who are really into crystals and rocks. I only started looking into them recently because of them. I had to pick these up from SJO airport: