Arenal Observatory Lodge near La Fortuna, Costa Rica

View from the lodge's balcony

We spent two days near the Arenal Volcano and Laguna Arenal at the Arenal Observatory Lodge, near La Fortuna. We had originally planned on taking a long-distance bus from San Jose for 3.5 hours to La Fortuna, then taking a taxi from the city to the Lodge. Fortunately, we met the French family while ziplining and they were also heading to La Fortuna the same day as us and offered us a ride! We couldn't believe our luck! It turns out that it is about $20 to take a cab one-way from the Lodge to the city, so when we arrived and checked in, we found a car rental place that offered to drive the car out to us at no extra cost. It was absolutely worth it, especially since our second day in the area was spent driving around the lake and we obviously couldn't have done that without a vehicle!

The Lodge is a hotel that was formerly the Smithsonian research site to study the volcano. It's on the other side of a river from the volcano, so if there were a sudden eruption, it would take a while for flowing lava to get there (flying debris and poison gasses, on the other hand, would be immediately dangerous). We took the recommendation of a friend who had stayed there a few days for her honeymoon, and we were SO glad we did! We got the cheapest room in the whole place, in a small building removed from the main lodge with 5 rooms and a shared bathroom w/2 baths and 3 sinks. We couldn't believe our luck - we were the only ones there the first night and our room was in the most beautiful location! When sitting on our bed, we could look out one windown and see the volcano and turn our heads and see almost the entire lake. We could hear the rocks falling down the volcano, and we could view them better at night, when they were orange balls rolling down in the dark. There was also a ton of great birds around our room, and we spent our first afternoon birdwatching from the porch since it was raining.

Dinner was a buffet and was $18, so we decided to eat in La Fortuna both nights. We found a great restaurant and we loved it! Breakfast was included though, and it was also buffet style. Fresh tropical fruit, queso fresco (mmm... the kind that makes your teeth squeak), fresh juices, fried plantains... mmm! Another great thing about the lodge is all the walking paths on site that are free. The restaurant overlooked the volcano and lake as well, and the balcony/deck outside was a nice place to just watch the lava rocks fall down the mountain.


Breakfast at the lodge - yum!

Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica

The Arenal Volcano is an active volcano after erupting the last time in 1968. We stayed almost two miles away, and we had great views of the volcano from our room and the restaurant in the lodge. The first time we heard lava rocks falling down the side of the volcano, we were sitting on the porch in the rain and we thought it might be thunder! It sounded a bit like thunder, but definitely like large rocks rolling down a rocky hill.



When we were driving up to the volcano, we came from La Fortuna and had to drive around the volcano to get to the Arenal Observatory Lodge, where we were staying. We saw some places where the vegetation had been burned away by lava and some areas where there were still trees growing.



Some of the best viewing was at night, because the lava rocks that were falling down were burning orange and sparks would fly off when they crashed into the ground on each bounce. It was pretty cool to see. During the day, we could see smoke puffs each time the rocks bounced, and it looked a little like stair steps sometimes. It was very difficult to get pictures, but it was so cool to just sit there and watch it.

Ziplining Outside San Jose, Costa Rica

On our second day in Costa Rica, we took a tour with La Carpintera outside the city to go ziplining. It was more expensive that we would have liked at $75 US per person, but we did end up having fun and meeting a great French family that took us with them the following day to La Fortuna to see the Arenal Volcano.

A big, air-conditioned van picked us up right from our hostel and drove us to the Carpintera lodge. The only people on the trip were us and the French family (father Boris, mother Isabel and daughter Ilona). When we arrived, we got in a mammoth of a suburban-style 4-wheel drive vehicle to drive up the mountain so we could zipline down. The road was mostly gravel but smooth, and we only had to stop once to remove a huge fallen branch from the road!



When we got to the top, Dani and Alex helped us all gear up with harnesses similar to those I've used for rock climbing. Ilona, who was only 6, wouldn't be going on her own, but would take turns going with Dani and Alex. We also had a right-hand glove with a thick leather hand brake on it so we could slow down at the end of each cable before hitting the trees.



We did maybe 7 cables and one really long one - maybe 500 meters? It was starting to rain by the time we got to that one, so they told us to start braking 1/4 of the way into the ride! You can imagine how much faster you'd go if it's wet and slippery :-) We had a lot of great views of the capitol, San Jose, on our rides.



Afterward, we got to eat a traditional Costa Rican lunch with the French family, of whom only Boris spoke any English or Spanish. The lunch at the restaurant there was good, especially the fried plantains and fresh pineapple juice!

Machu Picchu Restaurant in San Jose, Costa Rica

On our first night in San Jose, we asked at our hostel where we could get some good food nearby. The owner asked us a few things about ourselves and discovered that Gonzalo is from Peru, so he suggested a great Peruvian restaurant a few blocks away. Machu Picchu gets its name from Peru's most well-known tourist destination, the centuries-old Incan ruins of Machu Picchu. Gonzalo and I went there when we visited Cuzco in 2004.

The food at Machu Picchu was excellent! Gonzalo ordered Lomo Saltado (or Salteado), a beef tenderloin stir-fry with marinated beef, red onions, tomatoes, fresh cilantro and fried yellow potatoes, served with white rice. Almost all Peruvian dishes are served with plain white rice and potatoes - potatoes have different flavors in Peru and are used for their flavor, not as a main starch. The beef had a great flavor and the vegetables were cooked perfectly. It also came with a spicy sauce - so spicy that we started coughing if we tasted too much!

I ordered ceviche and a seafood soup. The soup came with scallops, shrimp, crab (a WHOLE small crab!), fish, and oysters. It had a great tomato-vinegar flavor and the seafood tasted great. The ceviche tasted old, not like it was freshly marinated. We both ordered fresh juices and they were amazing. I hadn't had guanabana before, so I decided to try it. It was a creamy white drink that tasted tropical and slightly like banana.

The total bill was more expensive than we were expecting (around $30 US) but worth it.

Why I'm glad I learned English as my 1st language...

Um, so English is difficult! We have all these freakin' idioms (metaphorical phrases), homonyms (words that sound the same but mean different things or are spelled differently), acronyms (abbreviations that create words spelled by using the first letter from each word in it) and more. Almost daily I see the improper use of these common words:
to, two, too
their, they're, there
our, are
its, it's
a part, apart

But there are more difficult ones (and words that sound really similar):
accept, except
mete, meet, meat
flout, flaunt
appraise, apprise

and this is just the beginning... sheesh!