180. Headed Up North

Kissing Good Night Del Griffith GIFfrom Kissing Good Night GIFs

    Friday 5/9- You may remember a couple blogs ago, I mentioned that we booked an Airbnb for a get away up-north. After a long, stressful tax season, we are finally taking a break, and after far too long, we are going on another mini-vacation instead of just staying at home. It’s been more than 5 years, but for the next few days we are heading up to the mountains of La Fortuna and Arenal volcano. We last visited La Fortuna in 2020 on vacation and have kept in contact with Daniel, the owner of the Airbnb that we stayed at back then. We would be staying in the same casita with a beautiful view of the volcano.

This morning, a little bit after 8am we left the house, dropped Skye off at the pet sitter, stopped to fill up the gas tank, then by 8:30 we were on the road headed north (well actually, north-west, then north) for our 6+ hour drive. The first 2.5 hour drive up the coast is the same as it is when we go to the airport, but once we get to the turn-off into the city there are multiple routes that you can take to get further north. Randall and his family just visited La Fortuna before Easter, and he told Ramie his opinion of the best route to take, and we chose that route on Google Maps.

It turns out that this may not have been the exact route that Randall took, and we ended up taking quite the scenic route. We weren’t really in a hurry, and there were some beautiful views, so we weren’t too bothered by that. We stopped at a little soda for lunch along the way and just enjoyed the drive.

Pictures never do it justice, but we were quite a ways inland and we could still see the ocean from this stop. It was beautiful!

Driving into the town of San Ramon

When we finally got to the La Fortuna area, maps brought us around town the “back way” to the place we were staying. We made it there right at 3pm when we were able to check in… almost! Unfortunately, when we got almost to the house, and by almost, I mean that we could see the house and could have easily walked to the house, the road was all torn up and there were construction workers and equipment everywhere. We were told “you can’t get there from here”, and to turn around and come in from the other side. Well, normally you wouldn’t think that would be a big deal, but the detour was literally nearly an hour, and literally through river crossings and roads that we would usually take on our ATV rides. Fortunately, there was a farm truck that appeared to be going in the same direction that we were and we were able to follow him.

We followed this guy down the mountain 

The locals made this makeshift bridge crossing because otherwise the route was even farther; it was done pretty well and was even poured in cement. 

Then we got to this river crossing. No bridge here.

So we had to take the alternate route. 

Fortunately the river wasn't much deeper than this.  Crossings like this are very common here and this was not our first time.

About an hour later we were coming up the road from the other side, the way we remembered coming in last time, and once again, we could SEE the casita that we were supposed to be staying at, and there was a construction lady sitting at the coned off road telling us that we couldn’t go any further because of the road work. WHAT!? There is literally NO other way to the house! We explained in our best Spanish that we had just come from the other way and they wouldn’t let us through, and our house is literally just right there. We need to make it to the house! She warned us that the road had been dug up and there was a big hole, but that we could try to make it. What other option did we have!? We had to try! Just a little bit further up the road you could see that they did in fact have about 200 yards of the road completely dug up, probably about 2 feet deep, and it ended right in front of the driveway. The workers at the site were waving at us and telling us we couldn’t come through here; we just pointed at the house and told them that was where we were staying. They just shrugged and let us try. The front of the yard was fenced, but if you drove carefully, you could just sneak by on the edge of the yard and into the driveway… at least you could right now. As long as they don’t dig any further down the road, we would be able to get in and out of the driveway. It was a little after 4pm when we pulled in and started unloading the car. 

We were stopped at the top of this hill when we were told to come in from the other direction.

Not much of a driveway anymore. We had to pull their stakes and drive between the drop off and a fence. Barely enough room for our truck.

See that roof at the top of the picture, that's a restaurant, and that's where we were when we were told we had to turn back

The view from the porch of our casita... This is what we had been waiting for!! That is Arenal Volcano 

This guy must have been waiting for guests, he found us right away

He was a very good dog and just wanted to be played with

We remember that last time we were here a different dog came and visited us as well

Once the unloading was done it was time to log onto the wifi and let Daniel, the host/owner of the house know what was going on. He was currently on vacation in Peru so we wouldn’t actually get to hang out with him this time, but he was still our main contact. I suppose he would be in touch with his family who also lives very nearby to figure out what was going on with the road. And that’s when the next issue became known- there was no wifi. The internet was out. Ramie did the typical unplug, replug, but that didn’t fix it. At least we had signal up here and we could use the data on our phones to get our messages through. It turns out that the construction guys had cut the wire for the internet, so we very likely wouldn’t have any internet during our stay here. Alrighty- I guess we do this trip the old fashioned, pre-internet way. That would be fine, but we were completely unprepared for that! We had planned to work on the blog while we were at the house and not out doing touristy things, but that was now off the table. If we had been planning for no internet, we also could have brought cards and board games to pass the time, but we didn’t have anything like that with us. What would we do this evening now!? Early to bed it is after our long day of adventurous driving! 

    Saturday 5/10- We would be here in La Fortuna for 3 full days and we had 3 main things that we wanted to do, so it was a matter of deciding which day we wanted to do which thing. Since it’s kind of the beginning of low-season, we wouldn’t have to contend with the huge amounts of tourists that flock to this area during some times of the year, but it is a weekend, so the locals might be out doing things that they normally wouldn’t be doing during the week. Did that make a difference? Probably not, but it was just something we thought of while we were planning each event for each day. 

Today we would venture to the river. This isn’t just any river, though, the river that runs down the volcano is a natural hot spring. Daniel showed us this place when we were here on vacation, it’s free to get into, it’s natural and in the jungle, you can bring your own drinks, and you can stay as long as you want. Sounds like a great day to me! It started out very foggy this morning and we could barely see the edge of the yard, let alone the volcano, so we started our day with coffee and relaxing at home, then at about 9:15 it started to clear up and we headed to the river.

Waiting for the weather to break. 

The area has changed a little bit since we were last here, and there is now a guy charging about $10 to park along the side of the road and he would keep an eye on your car for you, but honestly, it was worth the price to park along this stretch of road. The attendant pointed us in the opposite direction than we had gone last time, but again, things changed, so we took his advice and went where he told us. 

There are several places to climb down the rocky riverbank to the water, and when we finally found one that looked a bit easier to climb down (I wasn’t prepared for rock cliff climbing today), we went down to the steamy river. 

There were a few other people in the area, but we stashed our things on the riverbank near where we climbed down and found some comfy rocks in a little pool to sit. We spent several hours there taking photos, watching nature, and chatting. It was so nice and so relaxing! 

Same river, just 5 years earlier

We have a camera that works underwater so Ramie was having fun taking these pictures.

We ended up getting a rainstorm while we were there but weren’t overly bothered by it as the cool raindrops felt good in comparison to the hot river. The one thing we were very aware of at that point, though, was the water level. Very heavy downpours on the mountains here in Costa Rica can cause flash flooding and very high, fast rivers. We surely didn’t want to be swept down the river, so we kept an eye on a few particular rocks that were just above the water level, and if the water began to rise too much, we knew it would be time to go. Fortunately, even though the water level did rise, it wasn’t too much, and we were able to stay until after the rain shower.

The drinks may have been getting watered down by the rain

Capturing the rain drops splashing in the river.

It was after 1:30, the sun had come back out and we were ready to go, and the only reason we were ready to leave was because neither of us had eaten anything yet today and we were hungry! Yesterday when we drove through town I caught a glimpse of a Caribbean food place, and that sounded so good (we don’t have any around us in Uvita), so that’s where we went. Yes, we were still in our wet clothes and wet hair, but who were we trying to impress?! The Jerk chicken and rice was delicious! Anyone from the Southern Zone reading this – we need to find someone to open a good Caribbean food restaurant in our area!!

After the delicious lunch, we stopped at a few stores around town to see if we could find a deck of cards, but unfortunately we couldn’t find any. Well, I take that back, we did find some at the tourist shops, but I was not about to pay $10 for a deck of cards that said Costa Rica or had animals on them. I guess we would have to find something else to pass the time this evening, even if that meant using up all of the data on our phone plans and having to add more it… oh well, it is what it is.

   

    Sunday 5/11- Happy Mothers Day!

This is what that view is supposed to look like behind the coffee cup

After yesterday's day of resting and playing in the river, today we will have a more strenuous day. La Fortuna has several national parks with trails that you can hike. We don’t have any like this in our area, and haven’t done any good hiking in a very long time, so that was the plan for today. After looking at the various options, we decided to go back to El Silencio national park, the same one that we went to last time because we knew it was a good hike, it had the longest trails, and the entry fee was much less than some of the other ones. While it was still very cloudy & foggy when we left the house at about 8:30, we knew that, much like in Uvita, we didn’t have to go far and there could be a big change in the weather.

Speaking of weather, what is La Fortuna like this time of year compared to Uvita? Many people assume that it’s much cooler up there than it is in Uvita, and that’s what we thought too, as the last time we were there I remember wanting socks and long sleeves in the morning (and that was after coming directly from a MN winter). And while yes, it did get cooler overnight, it didn’t get THAT cool this time. In fact, the lowest that I saw the thermometer go was 73*. The difference, though, was that even though it did rain in the evenings and mornings, and it was often very cloudy and foggy, the air felt DRIER than in Uvita. It was very comfortable, and I even pulled out the capris and ¾ length sleeves for the evenings and mornings, where Uvita is almost always shorts & tank tops. The days did get warm, in the mid to upper 80s, but with the drier air, it felt quite refreshing.

Anyway, back to hiking. The trails here at El Silenco had a little bit for everyone. You started off in the jungle, in the dense forest with lots of trees and more humidity than in the open spaces. This park is in the mountains and part of the volcano lava fields, so there was a lot of up-hill climbing, but they have built in dirt stairs like you would see in some of the national and state parks back in the US. 

After you went through the jungle, you got to a lookout point on a ridge where you could see for miles and miles around.

That is Lake Arenal off in the distance. It is a massive lake

Then after that, it opened up into a kind of grassland area where they even had cows grazing. Here in the sun it felt much warmer and much drier than in the jungle part.

Do you spot the lone Coati?

Beyond this grassy area you got to climb in the lava fields. Here is the start of the path up to them.

The trail started in the trees, and there was zero air flow. 

Eventually we made it out of the trees and onto the actual lava flow. Here the wind picked up and was quite refreshing.

This is an actual lava flow from when the volcano erupted. Arenal Volcano was active and had a huge eruption in 1968, and continued to erupt and have smaller lava flows until as recently as 2010. For now, though, she is quiet. We climbed through the lava flows and were rewarded with more amazing views that went on and on for miles.

We all needed a break

Its amazing what grows in such a rugged area like the lava fields

This was the “end of the trail”, and then after that we headed back down, via a different route, back to where we started at the beginning. Overall we were hiking for about 2.5 hours, and by the end, I was exhausted. While we did stop to take in the views in many places, we also kept it at somewhat of a fast walk and I am quite sure I’m not in the same shape that I was back in 2020 when we were here last time, but I made it! 

Info from the map that you get at the entrance:

Mirador El Silencio is a Wild Life Reserve located 7 miles from La Fortuna downtown and just 3 miles away from Areal Volcano National Park. We have 55 acres of protected area, including 247 acres of primary forest. Our reserve offers 4 trails that can be walked with the help of a tourism guide specialized in natural history, or can be traversed in an auto guided way thanks to the clear demarcation each trail has. On the way you can enjoy different sceneries like primary forest with giant trees and plants with diverse shapes and colors, streams, pastures, and you can’t miss the view to the majestic Arenal Volcano and its lake while you are in the viewpoint of the reserve. There are many species of flora and fauna that can be appreciated during the walk in the trails, for example: different kinds of snakes, monkeys like howler monkeys, white face monkeys, an spider monkeys; also butterflies of different colors and sizes, including the morpho butterfly; a great diversity of birds and mammals as raccoons, peccaries, and gophers; and sometimes you can see large felines like jaguars and pumas. Because of its natural beauty and the variety of animals and plants, Mirador El Silencio has been selected several times to be part of the scenery of some films like “Congo”, “Spy Kids 2”, and “After Earth”.

After the hike, we stopped in town for a coffee at a cute coffee shop for a treat. I don’t know if the iced coffee was really that good, or if it was because we had just finished the hike, but that was some darn good coffee!! 

We decided that it was too early to go home and we would try our luck finding a store with some cards or games. Heading back into town we found a parking spot and walked around a different part of town and found a regular deck of cards for about $5 which I was willing to pay. Then it was time to find a place to stop for some lunch. We went back to a restaurant we had gone to during our last time in La Fortuna, had a drink and looked at the menu, but nothing caught our eye. Ramie has been craving pizza for quite a while, so we looked around at several places, and finally found one that had woodfired pizza, and even an option for a gluten-free crust. Count me in!! We had delicious pizza for lunch, and once again, we were not sure if it was really that good or just because of the hike, but we really enjoyed it. Once our bellies were full, it was time to head back up to the house and play some cards for the afternoon.

    Monday 5/12- After the strenuous hike yesterday, we had to take advantage of some hot springs again, as what feels better on sore muscles than a hot tub, right? The 3rd and final thing on our “to do” list for this trip was to splurge and get a day-pass to one of the fancy hot spring resorts. When Randall was up here a few weeks ago, they went to Baldi and he told Ramie how much they had enjoyed it, so we took Randall’s advice and went there as well. 

They open at 9am and we got there shortly after. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but the pictures online were beautiful and the website said that they have over 20 different pools ranging from super hot to much cooler. The signs that we saw ranged from 105* down to 68*, but I really don’t think any got as cool as 68, the air doesn’t even get that cool! The first thing that we did when we entered was to walk the whole grounds and see what was there. Here are a brief video for you to watch. 

They even had water slides but we read a lot of reviews that said they were very dangerous and lots of people were getting hurt, so we opted not to do that.

At the very top was what looked like a little sanctuary, a big waterfall, a shallow pool with built in concrete beds and chairs, completely open to the sun and sky, and had very, very hot water. Since the weather is the coolest in the morning, now is the time to enjoy this one. We lasted here for about an hour before it was just too much and we had to go find somewhere else to hang out. 

It was to hot to even submerge so this was about as far as Ramie would get in.

We went down a few levels and found the “sports bar” pool, where they had exactly that- a bar in the water, TVs with sports (this morning it was UFC fighting, not that we care at all about sports), and slightly cooler water. We each enjoyed a cocktail from the “cheap” $12 menu (the alternative was the $20 menu), and then Ramie switched to a slightly less expensive craft beer made only for here at Baldi, while I switched to ice water. We hung out at this pool for a couple of hours drinking cold beverages, people watching and making comments about the UCF fight that was on TV. The most exciting entertainment was spotting a possible celebrity.

Ramie loves to take these pictures and likes to share them with our readers.

Even though it was cooler than the first pool and in the shade, this one was still really hot, and it was getting close to lunch time, so it was time to head to the “snack bar” and find some lunch. You aren’t allowed to bring your own food or beverages into the resort, and you need to get dry & dressed to go to the buffet or regular restaurant, but they have a “snack bar” that’s more like quick bites/bar food. You can’t eat in the water, but you can sit here at the bar in your wet bathing suit, which is exactly what we did. We each ordered a burger, Ramie had another one of those beers, and we cooled down from the hot water while we ate. 

After lunch it was back into the water for us. We were ready to find an even cooler pool than the sports bar one from earlier, so we found one that was like a jacuzzi but was pool water temperature. Unfortunately, all of the places that had jets were already taken, but we found a spot where we could enjoy the bubbly water even without the jets. We spent a few more hours here, and when we started hearing loud thunder, even over the sounds of the waterfalls we were sitting right next to, we figured it was time to go. As we headed to the car, we felt the sprinkles begin, and just as we were pulling out of the parking lot the downpour started. While it would have felt good to sit in the super hot pool at the top with the pouring rain coming down, we figured that now that it was after 3pm it was time to head home. I do think that would be a very cool place to hang out after dark, as it looks like everything lights up and would be really pretty, so maybe we’ll plan for that next time. For now, it had been a long day and we were ready to go dry off and drink a much less expensive drink at home.

    Tuesday 5/13- Just like every trip, this one had to come to an end, and today we would be driving back to Uvita. Unlike the rest of this little get away, this morning we got on the move early. We had a little bit of relaxing morning coffee, but then it was time to pack up our things. We loaded up the truck in the rain, and started the long drive back with the rest of our coffee in a to-go mug in the car. 

We were on the road by about 7:30 so we could make it back to Uvita at a decent time. We took a different route back to Uvita, in fact, the same route we took back in 2020 while we were on vacation. Even though we weren’t attempting to re-create that vacation by any means, when you find something that works or that is good, why not stick with it, right? This route today went around the north side of Lake Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica, over the mountains, and through some very scenic areas. This area of the country is very interesting, as on the La Fortuna side of the mountains it is very wet, green, and jungly (yes I made that word up).

Once you get to the top of the ridge, the weather turns very dry and windy, the typical Guanacaste region weather.

At the top of this ridge there is a windmill farm because of the nearly constant wind, and you can see that the trees only have branches and leaves on one side typically, or at least are very stunted on the upwind side. As you go down the opposite side of the ridge, all of the grass and plants are dry and brown, very different from the jungle side we just came from.

We didn’t make any stops other than for quick bathroom breaks on the way back, and we were home by about 1:15. We unpacked and got everything put away, and by 2pm we were finished with that. It’s only Tuesday afternoon, and I took the whole week off work. What are we going to do the rest of the week?! Maybe I’ll be productive, maybe not, who knows!? Even though it was still early, we wouldn’t be picking Skye up from the sitter until tomorrow morning, so it was a quiet evening at our house, and after the long drive we were once again exhausted, so it was to bed early for us again tonight.

We know we're about half way home when we can see the ocean again 

    Wednesday 5/14- While the bed at the casita in La Fortuna was comfortable, it was nice to sleep in our own bed again. We had a leisurely morning and got started working on the blog, since I didn’t get to work on that at all while we were up north. We couldn't pick up Skye until about 9:30, so we spent the morning working on things, then on the way to pick her up, picked up a few grocery essentials in town, and then to collect the most important thing, our pup. She was so excited to see us, jumping and crying the whole time we were trying to say hello to her and talk to Paola to see how Skye acted while we were gone. When we got home it was obvious how tuckered out Skye was and she curled up in one of her favorite spots, under the patio chair, and slept while Ramie and I continued work on the blog. After a few hours of that, our minds and creativity needed a break and we cooled off in the pool… while Skye moved to a different favorite spot and continued to nap, not too far away from her people.

Pura Vida!