Costa Rica has decided to have a steady rainfall since breakfast this morning. We walked down to our hotel restaurant and had the most amazing gourmet breakfast with Costa Rican coffee, fresh squeezed orange/carrot juice, fresh fruits (including papaya which was the red fruit from the day before that I didn’t know what it was- yum!), homemade banana and carrot bread, Gallo de Queso for me and Croquettes for him- wow! All of this is included with our room and we feel like we are getting an amazing deal! Next we walked down around the property to take a picture of some howler monkeys in the trees down from our room.
10:30 we did massages in an amazing spa on site and listened to the actual waterfall next to us while the rain started coming down. It was a blissful hour for sure but that is where our rainy day adventure began.
We suited up (bathing suited) and headed to La Fortuna waterfall. Upon arriving we questioned whether it would be worth it even go as it was pouring and misty and would we even be able to see it- the answer is YES TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!! First off, you can see the waterfall from the landing at the top of the stairs, it was not so foggy that it didn’t show through. Next, you walk approx 500 stairs down to the base of the waterfall… remember, 500 down means 500 back up… UGH!
The waterfall is huge and incredible! Thundering around its little rain forest and you are welcome to set your stuff on the banks and take a dip, although there are signs telling you not to swim directly under it (for obvious reasons). The water temperature feels like a Michigan pool on the first day of summer- a little cold but nothing anyone who has swam in lake Superior can’t handle ;). I think we spent at least an hour down there swimming around in the jungle in total shock and awe of where we were. There were fish swimming around our feet and green canopy as far as you could see. I must admit I am stalling a bit here because I am not looking forward to 500 stairs back up. When I finally reached the top; Matt had been there so long he could’ve gotten a drink waiting for me;I shouted in elation HOORAY!!! I AM SO OUT OF SHAPE!!! 😛 100% Worth it!
From the waterfall we headed out to get some simple lunch from a local restaurante, Soda La Hormiga (Hormiga is Ants in Spanish, which led to the saying “that is how you get Hormigas”) It was decent enough though and still raining we wandered over to the Paradise Hot Springs that we had booked reservations at the night before. $42 a. person gets you an all access pass to 2 massive pools, 4 hot tubs in various temperatures, a river, and a swim up bar. This is all fed by the volcanic water and omg does it feel good. They give you the lecture about the different water temperatures in the pools (1-4, coldest to warmest) and how long you should spend in each. I will tell you that level 1 felt brisk! I did not spend much time there myself but mostly availed myself to the 2-3 levels. 4… well yeah that got hot! Like the hottest hot tub you have ever sat in on a sunny day in July in Arizona on the sun… LOL! I was sweating after 3 minutes and this is still in the cool rain. We kept going back and forth trying out the different temperatures; avoiding the massive amounts of people filtering in; and taking advantage of the swim up bar.
Around 5:45 we decide to go down to Restaurante Pollo Fortunano for dinner and try to get away from the crowds in the springs. Luckily we also beat the crowd to the restaurant and didn’t have to wait. Folks, we ate SOOOO Much food… I am pretty sure our waiter stood there watching us in disbelief at one point. We crushed an entire rotisserie chicken… and that is not all we ate, but I am ashamed to name more. It was delicious food 😉 We packed up our chicken bellies and headed back to the springs to take advantage of the remainder of our time there.
I will pause here to tell you something scary that happened which was Matt jumping into one of the smaller pools and when he went under, the intake literally sucked him to the floor of the pool. He had to roll and push himself off of it and has this GIANT red hickey welt on his back now. Lucky he is a big dude, that would have killed a child. We alerted the front desk and showed the guy his back but they have very little cares here… we don’t think he was concerned.
When we got back to the springs it was EMPTY!!! We had all the pools and hot tubs to ourselves for the next hour and a half which was a great way to end the stilll rainy day. We get back to the airbnb only to find that someone had tried to repair our screen today and left the overhead light on… so every bug in Costa Rica is on our screen door right now meaning we can’t sit outside and enjoy the rain 🙁 But we can hear it coming down along with the peacock (who we have. named Argus) still calling from down the road. That is a sound you won’t ever forget and probably never hear in Michigan .. LOL!
Tomorrow- we are waiting to see how the weather goes since there is a lot of hiking around here we could do before we head over to Tamarindo but not if this rain continues. Tamarindo is on the west coast of Costa Rica and we have a. nice place there thats a 5 minute walk from the beach. Pura Vida!
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