Arenal:
After three days in Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, we picked up our rental car and headed towards our next destination; Arenal a volcano in the middle of Costa Rica. The roads were mostly single-laned highways with speed limits ranging from 25 kph through the blink-and-you-miss-them villages to 60 kph through the countryside and occasionally 80 kph on the small stretches of double-laned highway. Pineapple plantations were plentiful as were signs advertising an array of nature tours from sloth spotting to frog stalking. It was very lush, very green. The villages were made up of shabby but colourful box-like houses with open terraces and almost always two rocking chairs sitting beside the front door. Signs warning of fauna crossing the road were frequent and we noticed narrow wire swing bridges strung across the highway from tree to tree. These must be for monkeys or sloths to cross safely.
A volcano appeared in front of us, but it wasn’t ours. The road skirted around it and it disappeared behind us. Finally, there it was, the perfectly symmetrical single cone of the Arenal volcano rising up behind the small town of La Fortuna. It was dusk and we drove through the town without stopping. The place was bustling with tourists, browsing souvenir shops and taking photos of the volcano from the town square.
Our hotel was out of town, almost at the foot of the 1,633-metre-high volcano. It was dark when we arrived, and we were hot and tired. There was a lovely pool set in tropical gardens and a swim was exactly what we felt like. However, a swarm of insects beat us to it and the surface of the pool was thick with drowned bugs. We stood there considering whether to jump in anyway and then saw two giant toads wallowing in the shallow end. That was enough for us. We gave it a miss.
It was overcast the next morning and we enjoyed a slow start to the day. The hotel staff had given us a long list of activities on offer in the area: thermal pools, zip-lining, rafting, horse-riding, hiking, coffee tours, chocolate tours, and more. We booked a chocolate tour for the following morning and decided to spend the afternoon walking in the Arenal Volcano National Park. Like the Tortuguero National Park, the cost to enter this park is $15 US per person. The ranger at the gate gave us a map and pointed out the best senderos (walking paths) to follow. She was particularly enthusiastic about the nearby peninsula trail that she described as “muy bonito” (very pretty). We started by walking to the main lookout, but the volcano was hiding behind a shroud of clouds. The terrain was typical of a volcano, very rocky and covered in scrub.
Arenal was dormant for hundreds of years until July 1968 when it erupted violently burying three villages and killing 87 people. The eruption affected a huge area and crops were spoiled, property ruined, and a large amount of livestock was killed. The volcano hasn’t been active since 2010 and is a magnet for tourists, primarily for the picture-perfect peak itself but also for the thermal resorts that have popped up around the base of the volcano.
We decided to try the peninsula walk that the ranger had recommended. It was a short distance down the road and was through much lusher bush than on the mountain itself. At the end of the Peninsula there was a beautiful view over Lake Arenal and up to the volcano which had dared to reveal a bit more of itself. Colourful birds flitted through the undergrowth and a trail of ants carrying leaves crossed the path from one nest to the other. We were quite taken with these guys; they were very entertaining to watch. Not all ants seemed to be connected to the collective intelligence of the colony and were going the wrong way, bumping into their comrades. Back at the beginning of the track Andrew pointed out a sign warning of how to act if you encounter a Jaguar. I’m just glad we saw that after our walk.
Driving back to La Fortuna we passed lots of luxurious looking thermal resorts enveloped by greenery. In this heat we couldn’t think of anything less appealing than soaking in hot springs. We must be the minority as the volcanic mineral waters are a huge attraction in the area.
The aptly named La Fortuna was fortunate and escaped the 1968 eruption that affected the towns on the Western side of the volcano. The town wasn’t always called La Fortuna and legend has it that it was renamed after escaping the eruption, but the truth, we were told, is that it was renamed La Fortuna before 1968 because it sits on flat fertile land. Its fortune is now linked to the tourists who flock here. It’s a small town and we walked around it in half an hour. In the centre of the town is a grassed square filled with colourful gardens and across the road is a large Catholic church, the spire reaching up towards the volcanic peak. We have noticed no one smokes in Costa Rica and there are No Smoking signs everywhere, including all parks and outdoor areas. They may well smoke in private, but smoking is banned in all public areas, outside and in.
Andrew was suffering from a head cold and we bought him some oranges before heading back to the hotel. Back at the hotel and we were desperate for a swim. There were no toads this time and we were soon relaxing in the pool. Vivid blue and green hummingbirds hovered nearby, sucking nectar from bright red flowers. Lovely velvety black birds with vivid red wings about the size of a large sparrow swooped over the pool. We’d seen them earlier on our walk. They are very striking and quite friendly. I read later that they are a Tanager bird. Andrew was feeling better, the swim had worked.
The next morning, we filled up on a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans), tropical fruit, strong black coffee for me and jugo de naranja (orange juice) for Andrew before checking out and heading into La Fortuna for our chocolate tour.
Costa Rica is known for its high-quality cocoa production which is made into some of the best chocolate in the world. Our chocolate tour was on a working Cacao plantation. We had never given the cacao plant much thought, which was exactly why we were there; to see how this amazing fruit gets turned into chocolate. At the start of the tour we were encouraged to wander through the Cacao trees to see the fruit at different stages of maturity. The flowers of the Cacao were surprising. They grow directly on the trunk of the tree and the fruit that forms from these flowers protrudes straight from the bark covered trunks and primary branches. It looks very odd, almost like they are stuck on.
Once the fruit has turned crimson-red they are picked, and the seeds are removed and fermented before being dried, roasted and husked. We tasted the dried cacao seed and it already tasted like bitter dark chocolate and even more so after being roasted. Our guide took the husked seeds, mixed them with raw sugar and put them through a hand grinder and out came a thick crumbly chocolate. We all tasted this. It was just like very dark chocolate. The guide then added hot water to this mixture and poured us each a small cup of pure hot chocolate. It was bitter and strong and gorgeous. They then whipped up a bowl of melted chocolate and we got to taste it with a variety of toppings. I chose chilli, then salt, then coffee beans. Andrew tried salt, then orange, and then candy sprinkles. It seemed such a simple and pure process. Our guide stressed to us that only chocolate made from 70% cacao or more can be considered real chocolate and anything less than 30% is not chocolate at all, merely candy. It was a very interesting hour and a half and we both have a new respect for chocolate.
We were full of chocolate when we left La Fortuna, heading west to our next destination. Ahead of us cars were pulled over to the side of the road and a group of people had gathered under a tree. Ahh, we knew what that meant – a sloth! We pulled over and joined the group. Yes, there she was – a mother sloth with a baby clinging to her back. She was darker than the others we’d seen. I tried to get a photo, but the leaves kept obscuring her. The Costa Rican man beside me said it was very rare to see one with a baby on her back.
A bit further along the road and the clouds were finally moving away from the volcano peak. We had plenty of time so pulled over and waited for a photo opportunity. Others joined us. Finally, we got an almost-full shot of that perfectly symmetrical cone and then headed off.
We wound our way along the shores of Lake Arenal. Above us, some very nice houses sat in large lush gardens with views of the lake. There were lots of signs advertising sections for sale, many in English. Apparently, Americans and also Europeans are choosing Costa Rica as a retirement destination.
The lake was behind us and the land changed to farms; first beef ranches with those floppy-eared white cattle and then to dairy farms with the more familiar Jerseys and Friesians. Every farm seemed to have a herd of horses as well. We’d been told the Costa Ricans are great horsemen.
Monteverde:
75kms into our 120km journey and the road turned to gravel and with it our speed reduced. Potholes, dust and very slow going: it took 3 ½ hours to cover 120kms. The terrain got hillier and we were rising quickly. Coffee plantations replaced farms. We passed through a few small villages, each with a handful of colourful houses and always with free-range dogs.
Then we were in Santa Elena, a bustling little tourist town with craft galleries and restaurants sitting on forested slopes. We were staying 6kms further on. Our hotel, Trapp Family Hotel is the closest to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and we had been upgraded to a mountain suite with huge windows and stunning views over the forest. It was remote and beautiful. The first thing we noticed was the significant drop temperature. Monteverde is over 1400 metres above sea level.
We decided to drive back into Santa Elena for dinner over the roughest roads we’ve experienced, and worse still in the dark. Dinner was a traditional Costa Rican dish, Casado. Casado means married in Spanish and this dish is literally a marriage of many foods. Our plates contained rice, beans, salad, tortillas, fresh white cheese, fried platano maduro, and a chicken wing slow roasted in “grandma’s” secret sauce. Although it looks like a lot on the plate there’s barely any fat and the flavours are fresh.
Back at the hotel after bouncing over those awful roads in the dark we were walking up the path to our room – me in front, Andrew lagging behind – and there on the path was an armadillo! I shrieked with excitement; the worst thing to do. He froze and looked at me with a bugger-I’m-busted expression, turned and shuffled into the undergrowth. “Quick, Andrew, hurry…it’s an armadillo”. Too late, he’d gone. Andrew didn’t believe me. I clambered behind the hedge trying to find my armadillo. Andrew stood shaking his head muttering; “crazy woman.”
The wind picked up overnight and the windows shook, waking us. There was a heavy downpour too. The next morning it was still overcast, windy and cold. We waited for the weather to settle then walked up the road towards the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. On the way we found a dead armadillo in the gutter.
In the 1950’s a group of Quakers from the United States moved to Monteverde to avoid being drafted into the Korean War. They settled here and lived a simple life centred on dairy and cheese making. The Monteverde dairy factory is well renowned. One of these original Quakers was Wilford Guindon who in the 70’s when the rain forest was threatened by the expansion of farmland teamed up with some scientists to create the reserve and forever protect this beautiful forest.
It costs $22 US per person to enter the forest. Knowing that all the funds go to protecting the incredible biodiversity of this region with its abundant animal and plant life makes the high price more digestible. Inside the park there is a network of well-marked trails that wind up and down the mountainside. There weren’t many people about. A few groups taking guided walks were sporadically clustered not far from the entrance, but the further you walked the fewer people there were and we were soon alone. We walked to a beautiful waterfall and then up along a ridge to a valley where a hanging bridge took us across through the forest canopy. Because of the altitude, the forest is quite different to the rainforest we had experienced on the coast. It’s a lot more like New Zealand bush. Birds were plentiful. We found a nest in a bank with two small robin-like birds busying themselves with renovations.
Back at the park entrance there was a café with hummingbird feeders hanging in the veranda. The air was filled with hundreds of tiny hummingbirds stopping for a drink. Bright green, blue, violet and yellow; each bird looks different.
We had signed up for a night forest tour that evening, and the bus picked us up from the hotel at 5.20pm. It gets dark early here and by the time we’d picked up other tourists from various hotels and the bus had wound its way down a narrow lane to a remote rural property it was pitch black. Our guide told us the rules: watch where you put your feet and do not touch anything on the side of the path in case creepy-crawlies are lurking. For the next two hours we walked through the forest and peered into the blackness on the hunt for weird and wonderful creatures that only come out at night. We found scorpions, a bug with a light on its bum, a thin striped snake, katydids, fire-flies, crickets of varying sizes, sleeping butterflies, sleeping hummingbirds and sleeping brown jays, a very awake owl, a possum, lots of ants carrying leaves along huge ant highways (apparently they work 24/7), and to my great excitement an orange and black tarantula sitting snugly in her hole. It was great fun creeping through the dark. We felt like kids again, going spot-lighting. I think some people were disappointed we didn’t see more, but that’s wildlife. Nature doesn’t appear on demand. I’m just glad I had my armadillo encounter the night before.
The next morning it was time to head down the mountain to the Pacific coast for some relaxation on the beach. After breakfast, we started off on our 200km journey to Manuel Antonio.
