After being home for few weeks, we were itching to get back out of Brandon. We planned on heading out west in the campervan in the fall, but wanted to go somewhere before then.
We toyed with the idea of renting an RV in Europe and cruising around over there for a while, but quickly ruled it out due to cost. We then strongly considered renting a home for a month or two in Spain, Italy, Argentina . . . somewhere totally different.
While all of this was going on, we also discussed going somewhere in Central America: Belize, Panama, or back to Costa Rica. We literally whiteboarded the pros and cons of each option, and in the end went with what we were most comfortable with, which was also the cheapest option: back to Costa Rica. Though Jennifer had been there somewhere around a dozen times, she had never seen or experienced anything other than the immediate area around Jerry’s house and the little towns that we pass through getting to/from his place and the airport in San Jose. With airline tickets booked and a rental car reserved, we again found ourselves eagerly counting the days until we left home. There is more to life than Lumsden, after all.
On August 13, we flew out on American with a plane change in Houston. In certainly wasn’t the most direct flight we could have taken, but it saved mucho dinero, so we were ok with a longer day of travel. One nice thing about travelling with little kids is that the Costa Rican immigration agents happily direct you to the front of the line, which saved us a good 30 minutes. It blows my mind that clearing customs and immigration in US airports doesn’t afford one the same courtesy. Old and feeble, pregnant, disabled, or travelling with young kids should be a one-way ticket to the front of the line. After getting a SIM card so that my phone would work down there ($25 for three weeks of calls and unlimited data) and picking up our trusty Daihatsu Bego, we were finally on our way.
It didn’t take long to get away from the crazy traffic near the airport and into the scattered communities that fringe the central valley. We cruised with the windows down, breathed in the fresh cool air (and occasional cloud of diesel exhaust), and started to relax. We were looking forward to the next three weeks of bouncing around with no particular agenda. As the sun slowly crept closer to the horizon, we followed the twisty road towards Volcan Arenal, the most iconic of Costa Rica’s volcanoes. Arenal was dormant until 1968 when it erupted and buried three small towns, killing some folks in the process. It remained one the ten most active volcanoes in the world until 2010, when it suddenly went quiet again. Tourism in the area remains high, but I think a lot of that has to do with older pictures showing the volcano at night with glowing red lava running down it. We knew it wouldn’t be like that, but wanted to see it anyways.
We didn’t make any hotel reservations for the entire trip. We didn’t even look to see which hotels were in a given area. Tourism has become Costa Rica’s biggest industry, and after a few motorcycle trips with no reservations, I’ve learned that there are enough hotels around that it’s not hard to find a place to stay on short notice. We stopped for groceries in the town of La Fortuna and then continued up the road until we were north of the volcano. It was here that we stopped at the Erupciones Inn and got a room for the next few nights. After settling into our room and letting the kids explore the property, we got back into the car and grabbed dinner at a typical Costa Rican joint – open air and simple, but good, food. Being the green season, there weren’t many tourists around, which was really nice. I realize the irony in saying that as a tourist, but it doesn’t make it any less true.
In the morning, we walked down to the check-in/restaurant/owner’s house area for our complimentary breakfast. While we waited for our food, the guy that owns the place grabbed a bunch of fruit and took the kids over to a tree, where he began skewering pieces of it on the branches. He then stepped back, did a funky whistle, and we watched as all sorts of colorful songbirds instantly appeared for their daily breakfast. It was a great entertainment – a show that we looked forward to seeing again the next day.
We eventually piled in the car and followed the north shore of Lago Arenal to the town of Nuevo Arenal. Along the way, we spotted a long skinny peninsula sticking out in the lake and realized that we could drive out on it ; so we did. It was a nice place to stretch our legs and watch the leaf-cutter ants marching along with their tiny green sails hoisted high. We continued up to the town of Nuevo Arenal, where we stopped and had lunch at a funky restaurant called Moya’s Place.
Eventually, we made our way back over towards the volcano and to the town of La Fortuna. We went there to check out the La Fortuna waterfall, which is accessed via way too many stairs. All good going down, but coming back up carrying kids was a bit strenuous. The waterfall was cool to see and we wished we had thought to bring our bathing suits to play in the river.
Before heading to dinner at the same place we ate the night before, we checked out the hot springs near the town of Tabacon. A fancy resort by the same name is located there. Though the amenities may not be as nice as in the resort and there is nobody waiting to hand you a soft white towel, you can access the same geothermally-heated river if you park alongside the road and walk down a short path. It is quite the local hangout and was busy when we stopped by in the evening. The waxy remnants of long-extinguished candles were jammed in every possible crevice in the rocks. One can only imagine what happens by candlelight in the steamy jungle river at night. Romantic, I guess. We moved on to the restaurant and were greeted by the same smiling server as the night before and seated at the same table. Cooper and Brooks hammed it up for the couple at the table next to us. After dinner, we put the kids to bed and then hung out on our porch for a while, staring out into the dark towards the volcano.
After sharing another breakfast with the songbirds, we packed up and said goodbye to the Erupciones Inn. We were off to see the Rio Celeste, which meant again driving the same road around the Lago Arenal that we’d driven the day before. Shortly after passing through Nuevo Arenal, we turned off the paved road and on to a dirt path that seemed to be heading in the right direction. We used the Waze app on our phone for navigation, which works really well down there as long as you have cell service, which certainly isn’t a given. The road we were on may not have been the fastest route, but it was certainly scenic. We followed the ribbon of dirt through miles and miles of rolling green pastures, occasionally passing a cowboy, a lone house, or tiny village. We also drove through periods of very heavy rain, which would come into play later.
Our scenic dirt road eventually dumped us back on the main highway, which took us north to the turn off for Volcan Tenorio Parque Nacional. This put us back on another dirt/rock road; this one was in horrible shape and beat the heck out of our poor Bego and its occupants. After miles of abuse, we arrived at the trailhead for the Rio Celeste hike. The attraction with Rio Celeste is the color of the water: an intense milky blue. We intended to do the hike in the morning, but stopped here to inquire about the feasibility of hiking with kids. We learned that it is a three-hour hike and you really need to wear rain boots to avoid slipping. The boots were no problem as they rented them onsite, but it sure seemed like a long hike with kids on our backs. We also learned that there was a good chance of rain in the morning and that heavy rains temporarily turn the river brown due to sediment runoff. We thanked them for the information and then drove further down the road to find a place to stay.
Eventually, we crossed a bridge, looked down, and saw the turquoise water we had come all of this way to see. Cool! We got out, took a few pictures, and then the rains that we drove through earlier caught up to us. It POURED.
Due to all of the tourism, the hotels in the area were pretty pricey. We checked a few out in the pouring rain, but didn’t like any of them enough to part with the amount of money they were asking for. We asked for cheaper recommendations, which led us to a family’s house. They constructed two rooms in their backyard, and I checked them out while Jennifer stayed in the car with the kids (it was still raining.) The rooms were rustic, to say the least. I signed off on us staying there, but once Jennifer saw the room, she was very uneasy about sleeping there. There were several bugs, including a nasty looking spider in the corner, large gaps in the wall and floorboards, the lights worked intermittently, and the plumbing was a mess. The rain let up, so we went for a walk near the property. While on our walk, we decided that we weren’t going to stay the night. Sure, it was beautiful there, but the whole reason for being in that area was to see the Rio Celeste, which we had already seen, albeit briefly. We also knew there was a good chance that our hike the next morning would only lead us to a dirty brown river given the high likelihood of rain. The thought of carrying kids for several hours on a muddy trail combined with the lure of Jerry’s house a few hours away resulted in us kindly letting the family know that we were leaving. We gave them some cash for the trouble, which they initially refused to take. The drive to Jerry’s took us maybe two hours; we arrived just after dark and were happy to be there. We are always happy to be there. Every time. We have so many good memories in that house and were looking forward to making more.
