Costa Rica 2022
Dec 1
It's been a long drive from Paritta today, so as we start getting nearer to the Arenal Volcano, we stopped at Parroquia de San Ramon, services are going on with lots of people praying, so we spent some money paying to use a toilet, grabbed some snacks and drinks and continued on.
Arenal Volcano Region
Arenal Volcano National Park is a protected area in northern Costa Rica. It’s known for its hot springs, active Arenal Volcano and wildlife. Arenal volcano was the most spectacularly active in Costa Rica. For 30 years hotels in the region touted their views of the lava flows and red hot boulders ejected from the volcano glowing in the darkness. For the past seven years the red hot lava has been biding its time and the activity at Arenal has been limited to puffs of steam and a few deep rumbles. No one can predict when this quiet cycle will end and the glowing red orange cone will once again dominate the night sky but even when it’s not erupting spectacularly the peak is still an imposing and beautiful sight.
Arrived at our place in Chachagua, near the town of La Fortuna, this is the Arenal volcano region of Costa Rica.
Casa Vacacional Cacao
The house was pretty cool, woodgrain floors, lots of natural elements and a lot of open outdoor spaces to hang out in. There's two bedrooms up, one bedroom down, several bathrooms, laundry, and even a pool.
We didn't notice mosquitoes in the bedroom, but better to be safe than itchy.
We didn't really feel like going out to a restaurant or to get groceries, so Nathan ordered pizza delivery from a local place, they make pretty good pizza here in Costa Rica.
We spent the evening by the Fire pit in the jungle back yard amongst the creatures.
Dec 2
Chocolate and Farm Tour Don Jorge
After some recommendations from our friends, our first destination of the day was the Chocolate and Farm Tour Don Jorge. Don Jorge acquired this farm more than 40 years ago. There are 15 members of the Araya family living here, they are called 'Los Araya'. Today they still work his land, a plantation of more than 17 hectares abundant with coffee, cacao, sugar cane, turmeric, bananas, papayas, and so much more. The farm is surrounded by lush rainforest which means you can often spot wild animals coming to visit the farm in search of fruits, seeds, and roots to eat.
Don Jorge's son Martin started by taking us on a walking tour of the property. Through the cacao plantation where we can see cacao growth from flower to the ripe fruit.
Martin opened and allowed us to taste a fresh cacao pod and also other tropical fruits along the trail.
As we wandered the grounds we saw a bunch of the locals, including roosters, birds and even a Sloth.
The first thing he showed us in the processing was to see where they dried the Cacao and coffee beans. Then he had us make a drink by crushing sugar cane using an ancient machine. First up was the sweet sugar juice, then after sampling, he put ginger inside the sugar cane, twisted it, then had Nathan wind it through the machine to create a jug of the nectar drink. He poured us each a glass and added a generous portion of a homemade moonshine mix, Pura Vida!
From the moonshine we moved to the palapa where we met Martin's daughter, and learned the sacred uses indigenous had for cacao and how it was transformed in to the sweet chocolate that we know today. Did you know first chocolate drinks where bitter?
We ground cacao seeds on an authentic indigenous Metate (grinding stones), then mixed them with spices to create an indigenous drink on a wood stove that had high doses of medicinal properties. Later we enjoyed a sweet hot chocolate drink, prepared in a similar manner but with milk from the neighbors cow, and brown sugar... delicious!
Martin kept calling Norine and I "Mama and Papa", thinking we were the parents, it was
all kind of funny until he thought Nathan and Annika were brother and sister... then
Nathan had to make sure the situation was explained properly.
"ella es mi tía y ella es mi novia"
The little bees come in to sample the freshly ground chocolate
One of the greatest parts of the process was when we made chocolates from scratch, like really from scratch... roast, grind, processed with a metate. Coconut, cinnamon, powdered milk, vanilla and brown sugar were added, it was all mixed by hand and then put in the fridge. We ate the chocolates later that day, they were so good!
Martin's daughter also roasted coffee beans and made coffee using a Costa Rica Coffee Maker... Chorreador De Cafe. The chorreador itself is a simple device made from a wooden stand and a sock-like piece of cloth (looked like panty-hose to me), held open by a wire or wood rim. In order to brew a cup of what many consider the world’s finest coffee with a chorreador, fill the cloth with your desired amount of coffee and slowly pour boiling water over it, and let it drip into your favorite coffee mug.
After our home-made drinks Martin walked us down to their waterfall where we could swim in the natural pool.
Martin left us to enjoy the pool, and told us to come back up whenever we want. Our VRBO host Carlos had told us these tours typically last 2 hours, we were at Don Jorge farm for almost 5 hours.
After leaving the farm we made our way to the town of La Fortuna where we had some great views of Arenal Volcano.
In La Fortuna we stopped at the Sloth Park and it's 2 kilometer walking trail.
The area was full of colourful birds and sloths.
Aside from sloths, we also saw vultures, and a number of toucans.
A Basilisk and a Pit Viper, ones a super deadly snake, and the other walks on water. The viper is surrounded by yellow caution tape, as the guides and rangers there search the grounds regularly for dangerous snakes.
The night before Nathan didn't just order pizza, he also booked us tickets for his dream tour, a night walk in the jungle. Before heading out for our tour, we stopped for dinner at our local La Pollera Chachagua, another good authentic Costa Rican meal.
Night Tour La Fortuna
Nathan: "Taking a look at Google maps for a place to eat, I spotted
the 'LaFortuna Night Walk' about 10 minutes away from where we were staying for the next
couple nights. Opening their website, I was welcomed with pictures of all sorts of
creepy crawlies. Vibrant colored snakes, massive spiders (ie. the cool stuff that could
kill you). I was immediately sold on the idea and began pitching it to everyone. With a
couple questions and a little convincing we were all in on it. We tried to book it for
that evening, but we needed a little more notice. We decided to make it an 'if we have
time' sort of thing, seeing as the next day was jammed packed with activities already.
The next morning we took off for a tour of a cocao farm. To say the day was heaven
would be an understatement. After the chocolate farm tour, we drove closer to the
volcano to get some pictures and spotted a sloth spotting tour, so we pulled over.
During the tour we saw toxic frogs, sloths, toucans and my first venomous snake of costa
rica. I was getting more excited by the second for the night tour. We wrapped the tour
up and headed to the car and finally got confirmation for the tour, it was a go!
The rules of the tour were close-toed shoes and long pants; how exciting! We headed
back to where we were staying and collected our safety gear. I punch the address in and
after zooming further on Google maps, it seems this tour is in the
middle of a residential neighborhood. I look at the reviews again, all 4 star or higher
with great things said about the guides. So I shrug it off and we arrive after a very
short ride. Pulling up the headlights illuminated the starting sight for the tours, as
well as two people sitting under the porch roof. After a short introduction, found out
they're also tourists from Calgary, Alberta, about an our south from where we live now.
After the familiar shock of how small the world is, our tour guide came out of the
building (his house) and began introducing himself as Jorge, he told us that the tour
area we were about to go through was all farm land 12 years ago. He inherited it from
his father and turned it into a safe haven for all kinds of insects, plants and animals.
After telling us of his amazing plans to continue what he's doing, he gave us the 'stay
on the path' talk and then we started the tour.
Our first stop was quick, he huddled us all into a group and got us to shut our
lights off. He then crouched down and shone his light on a big tree root going across
the path and asked if we saw anything. After a couple seconds of silent searching, we
answered no; that's when his smile exploded across his face. He then told us to look at
the steam looking stuff coming off the root, however it wasn't steam. We were watching
fungal spores being released! What I thought was going to be a tour of the jungles night
predators and dangers, turned out to be so much cooler than that. We saw trees with
spikes an inch long all over it as a defense mechanism, leaves that grew with holes in
themselves so predators would think they were already munched on and select a new
untouched leaf!"
Nathan: "After spotting a couple Red Eye Tree Frogs, some Glass
Frogs and centipedes, the tour guide had us gather around a huge fig tree base. He
explained a little about the tree and then pointed his light into the crevice two root
segments made. Instantly I start looking for somthing creepy and or crawly, other than a
small (to me) spider I couldn't see anything. After pointing out the spider to the
group, he covers it up with his hand and gets us to crunch down and put our ear to the
crevice and listen. Trying to convince Auntie to put her head near the spider took some
convincing but we all listened, it sounded like a humming/buzzing sort of thing. We all
guessed "wind?", he said no and pointed out this stick looking thing coming out from the
crevice. He explained the sound was Bees, and the stick thing was the entrance to their
nest, a wax tube that they can block off at night. We looked inside and saw the little
guard bees looking back at us. They were so tiny! Couldn't have been bigger than a
Tic-tac.
After my jaw couldn't drop any lower from all the amazing things we saw, we reached the end of the path. With the lights of his house poking through the trees, there was no need for a flashlight, and the sadness hit. I could have walked arround that bush all night long, the experience surpassed my expectations!"
The buzzing tree
On the way back to our place, Google maps sent us down a gravel road, and then wanted us to drive across a river on a stupid alternate route... ummm, NO. I guess it's back to Waze for our GPS routes after we had to backtrack all the way past where we started.
We had loads to talk about as we sat on our jungle patio for the evening, wondering what
was wandering around the trees in the dark.
Dec 3
Today was Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal day. The park is a forested 29,700-acre national park with trails through the lava fields of an active volcano. We had a mix of planned activities that would give us the full volcano experience.
The area is full of Coati (also known as Coatimundi or the local term, Pizote)
Unfortunately the weather wasn't really cooperating today, so our first stop was Annika’s choice… The Butterfly Conservatory.
Butterfly Conservatory
Annika: "The butterfly conservatory was an amazing place to visit. It was built on a piece of land that was once used for cattle grazing, but had been reclaimed back to an undisturbed rainforest. The fascination began as soon as we walked into the reception building.
There were framed displays of preserved butterflies, moths, beetles, spiders and other bugs that inhabited Costa Rica all over the room. In the back corner, there was a miniature butterfly nursery where we could see many different cocoons, some of which were still intact but some were in the process of hatching butterflies! It was so amazing to see a brand new butterfly with its wings still wrinkly, in its first few minutes out of the cocoon."
Annika: "We then ventured out to the conservatory. Not only were
there 3 different enclosures to see the native butterflies up close, there was also an
enclosure with native amphibians and reptiles! The 3 butterfly enclosures represented
the different regions of the Costa Rican rainforests: Alpine, woodland, and lowland.
Each enclosure contained the species of butterflies and moths that occupy each area,
along with a hummingbird here and there.
The reptile and amphibian enclosure housed mostly frogs along with a few turtles, including snappers! After seeing all the creatures, we went for a walk through the forest that lead to a view point where we could see the Arenal volcano."
Owl Butterfly
Blue Morpho
Isadora Leafwing Butterfly
Turquoise Emperor Butterfly
Rusty Tipped Page Butterfly
Tarricina longwing Butterfly
Orange Mapwing Butterfly
Zebra longwing Butterfly
Variegated Fritillary Butterfly
Malachite Butterfly
Montane Longwing Butterfly
Julia Butterfly
Mosaic Butterfly
Glasswing Butterfly
Other pretty things
Reptile enclosure
At the end of the enclosures was a rainforest walk where you could see butterflies and other critters in the wild. You could also just spend the time looking at plants growing wild that you have in pots back home.
It was still pretty cloudy around Arenal, so doing a volcano view hike just wasn’t going to be great.
Instead we headed to Sky Adventures,for some highly rated zip-line adventures.
Sky Adventures Ziplining
Nathan: "Taking our last pictures at the butterfly observatory, it
hit me; were about to be hundreds of feet in the air.. ZIPLINING! All my life as an
adrenaline connoisseur, ziplining has never been an option. Whenever there has been
opportunity to go in the past, I have either been with people who can't or won't go.
This time, driving down the road with 4 willing participants, nothing could stop us now!
Untill we get to reception.... in the rules and restrictions... surgeries. My gut
sank as I look over at the two recent surgery recipients, both less than a year ago. A
wave of emotions came over me as we walk away from the reception stand and start heading
back to the car. When Auntie stops and tells me and Uncle to do it without them.
Immediately I protest saying I want to do it all together or not at all. There's some
debate about wanting to go together, and Uncle blurts out that he's going... Auntie says
"You can't let the old guy go by himself", so I agreed, we turned arround and booked 2
tickets for ziplining.
We say our farewalls (possibly forever) to the girls and follow the painted color
sidewalk to the gear up line. Uncle and I take our spot in line and the butterflies
started, there's a TV above us playing a sideshow of the rules and what you're supposed
to do. I'm basically taking out a note pad memorizing the rules, as a lady walks by with
a clipboard in her hand. She told us we had the option to rent a helmet mounted Go-Pro,
no Brainer. She brings out the helmet and passes it to us, if we liked the video we
could buy it, if we didn't there was no cost involved. Determining who wore the Hemet
was an easy decision, not me. Would have just been videos of me swearing 90% of the
ziplining. We get saddled up and head to the gondolas."
"On the way up we looked across this valley and saw the girls standing on a bridge,
we waved, they didn't recognize us."
Sky Trek and Sky Tram Map
Cable 2 - Highest (3074 ft above sea level), Cable 6 - Fastest (50 kmh), Cable 7 - Longest (2440 ft)
Just as we are about to do the first zip, the rain finally stops.
Nathan: "We get to the top platform and take some pictures. Before
the first real zipline there's a practice one, to show you how to stop correctly. After
that one, it was the real deal. I don't remember much leading up to the first clip on,
partial fear, partial adrenaline. I could feel my heart beat in my throat walking up to
the platform. He sends the Dutch lady in front of me, then motions for me to step up.
Clips my harness to the line and tells me to sit down and dangle, my legs almost didn't
work. I worked up the courage, picked up my feet and with one final Adios, he let my
harness go and I was off. The first 3 second as i'm watching the ground get further and
further away from me, and listening to the scream of the bearings speed up, I was
honestly scared. After swallowing the fear and realizing that I was literally flying, it
was almost spiritual. Reaching the platform, receiving high fives from the group of
female travel buddies, the land legs kicked back in and the fear-based excitement faded.
Uncle came flying in and we waited for the next line.
Listening to the group of ladies ahead of us was absolutely priceless, they were all
a group of women in Costa Rica for a stagette. They were having a blast, singing and
scream laughing. Each of them had a theme song (eg. Whitney would get a Whitney Houston
song from the group). In front of us was two woman from Holland, the 4 of us couldn't
help but chuckle along.
As we rode down, each line got longer and longer untill the last one. The big mama.
2440 feet long and speeds up to 50kph, there was a lot of hype building up to this one.
Looking down from the platform seeing the line dissappear into the tree tops, the
butterflies started again. Everyone goes untill it's just me and Uncle left, I go first
and with a nod of the head he let me go, accelerating uncontrollably toward a seeming
wall of trees. The tree line flew above me with a whoosh and suddenly I wasn't hundreds
of feet up, but flying THROUGH the jungle like Tarzan. Huge fig trees with vines
drooping off them on either side, shaded by the monster tree tops.
The natural thing to do in that situation is howl like Tarzan, of course, so that's
what I did. However as soon as I opened my mouth I caught an unknown flying creature in
the back of my throat, so spent the last seconds trying to choke that up and safely stop
before the platform. Some winding stairs later we were at the picture area looking to
see if we wanted them or not, thankfully we did, because the videos and pictures were
amazing!
I'm still sad that we didn't all go together, but it's one of the coolest things I've ever experienced to date!"
The birds we didn't get pictures of, from our Sky Adventures photographer
Sky Walk - Hanging Bridges
While Nathan and I were ziplining, Norine and Annika did a cloud walk of the jungles over suspended bridges.
Norine: "Since both Annika and I were unable to zipline (huge
bummer!!) We opted to take the skywalk instead. Almost as soon as we got onto the trail,
Annika spotted a large turkey like bird (Great Curasow) weaving it's way through the
underbrush. Then we noticed it wasn't alone! We patiently waited, and followed, hoping
they would make their way onto the path in front of us. As we stood and waited, we could
hear screeching and branches were shaking....HOWLER MONKEYS! Up close and personal!
Where to look?!?! Monkeys above us, and Curasows on the trail right in front of us!
Annika did an awesome job of taking pictures with Dave's camera.
The monkeys were looking directly at us from the branches above, when one decided it
was a good idea to take a leak, and peed in our general direction. Dirty
monkey....missed us!! Throughout, the Curasows continued to come closer! Looking back
skyward, one monkey had moved still closer, and hanging his butt over the branch,
started pooping!!! Right at that moment, a naughty spider monkey took it upon itself to
start tossing hard fruit, and one got me on the forehead! I kind of freaked, thinking a
clump of shit had hit me, but soon saw the hard yellow fruit rolling away from me on the
path. I'll bet those monkeys were having a huge laugh at me from above!
The weather changed on a dime, and we were doused in a downpour, however had the foresight to bring along some big umbrellas. As we got further up the path, we crossed a suspension bridge, just in time to have a 3 car gondola coast by, Nathan and Dave were inside on their way up the mountain! Good timing! Really enjoyed my walk in the forest with Annika, she's a great hiking partner, and is so much better with the map and directions than I am!"
The Great Curasow
Cheeky Monkeys
We all meet up back in the parking lot, and share our stories of fear and excitement. Just as we are leaving the Sky Adventures parking area, the volcano finally came out for a peek.
We stopped for a nice dinner at Rocca Grill Restaurant in La Fortuna, if not for the fog we would have had a great view.
We finished our day of adventures by visiting the Paradise Hot Springs and soaking in their warm pools and having a few drinks around their swim up bar.
Dec 4
The Arenal are was very fascinating, and we got to experience a lot of it even though the weather didn't fully cooperate. But, it was time to move on, so we cleaned up and packed up our Casa Vacacional Cacoa place, and left the house keys hidden under a pillow outside.
After loading the car and leaving our place behind, we had to make one more stop and picked up some backed goods from the local bakery for our long long drive to Puerto Viejo.