Pura vida – Costa Rica Part 1

We are leaving Costa Rica in the morning for Ecuador, so I though it was about time to let you all know what we’ve been up to for the last two weeks. We stayed in the town of Alajuela for our first two nights in Costa Rica. Alajuela is about 15km from the capital (which if you’ve been reading Rhys’ messages you will know is) San Jose and about 2km from the main San Jose airport. Perfect for our late arrivals and early starts. We had the great good fortune to stay with Isabel and Norman at the Vida Tropical B&B, highly recommended if you’re ever in Costa Rica. (Norma & Isabel are expecting their first child any day now – so many congratulations). They were great hosts and helped us with our planning and getting around and everything. On our first morning here we accompanied Norman, who also runs a splendid restaurant, down to the farmers market, where we were introduced to a whole new world of tropical fruits.

After some debate about the best way to travel to the places we wanted to go, we decided to hire a car. A four-by –four in fact as this is the only way to get to the cloud forest at Monte Verde in the green (rainy) season.

Our first port of call was to Arenal, an active volcano in the middle of the county. Rachel and Isabel managed to book us a place in the town of La Fortuna, within sight of the Volcano.

So, yet again, we set off in our hire car, this one not very inspiringly named named ‘Terry’ (it was a Daihatsu Terrios). We now consider ourselves old hands at driving virtually anything down the ‘wrong’ side of the road having now covered some 7,000 miles in North America culminating in driving a four-by-four in Central America. I must admit I had my doubts about Arenal and La Fortuna. The publicity pictures of Arenal are spectacular but I was pretty sure that the reality of getting a live Volcano to perform on cue in the middle of the rainy season would be very different. I was also concerned that our accommodation in La Fortuna would be miles away from the Volcano itself and pretty basic as it had been concluded mostly in Spanish after much searching to find something more reasonably priced.

Well what can I tell you, after a pretty leisurely drive to La Fortuna, La Roca Negra turned out to be fantastic: little cabinas with air conditioning, a pool, laundry service!, set amidst beautiful tropical flower gardens filled with humming birds right under the shadow of the most picture perfect, and truly active!!! Volcano. The porch of our cabinas looked out onto the green side of the volcano and on our first night under its shadow a huge tropical storm blew up and cloud descended to obscure the cone. The next day we set off to the other side of the volcano to ride the sky tram up through the rainforest which surrounds it. As we drove we discovered that the rich green growth which covers the slopes facing our chalet was not repeated at all on the other side of the volcano. Here all was grey and barren and scarred with lava flows. As we drove ‘round it became apparent that what we had at first thought wisp of clouds surrounding the summit were in fact quite obviously, large and prolific emissions of gas and steam. As we got closer we could make out the lava, flowing from the cone in broad daylight. Enough about Arenal for now.

The skytram turned out to be a two way ride, Sky tram up – zip lines down. After a quick discussion with the people on the ground Rachel and Jenna decided to stay down while Rowan, Rhys and I thought we’d see what it was all about. We were assured by the ground staff that if we did not fancy the ziplines we could return the way we came. The sky tram turned out to be a sedate ride through the forest canopy, providing great views of the volcano and Lake Arenal. Once at the top we discovered that the journey down involved 6 ziplines, the first two were shorter and lower than the subsequent ones which spanned the majority of the journey back to Rachel and Jenna at the starting point. Rowan was very brave and tackled the first two ziplines excellently. This was the last opportunity to return by the tram after this there was no going back it was ziplines all the way down. On looking at the height and length of the third zipline Rowan wisely decided to return by tram. Rhys on the other hand just stared out over the 660 foot drop and declared loudly that he wasn’t scared of anything. I must admit, I really had my doubts that he would cope with the height and speed even accompanied as he was by a guide. This was exacerbated by the fact that, as he went with a guide he was the first one to go while I waited for four other people and the skytram to return and take Rowan back to the bottom. I was worried that he was at the other end crying and scared after the shock of the ride, with a bunch of strangers waiting for his Dad to arrive. Finally, with Rowan safely on her way back down I got to swing out through the trees and literally lose my breath as the canopy dropped away revealing the enormous drop and stunning views while the pulley I was holding whisked me across the chasm at nearly 70kms/hour. At the other side I found a beaming Rhys, proud as a peacock. ‘Are you OK?’ I asked, ‘did you cry? – ‘No, I loved it, lets do the next one’ came the instant reply. And so, aged 6, hardly able to contain his excitement and enthusiasm, he sailed down more than 2 km of ziplines, shaming the grown-ups into showing no fear and completing the last line by himself totally unaccompanied and in expert fashion. Proud Dad, I should coco!!