La Fortuna, Costa Rica.(La Fortuna to San Juan del Sur by bus)

Arenal volcano provided a dramatic backdrop to La Fortuna.

We jumped on the 11.30am bus from terminal 7/10  in San Jose and using our well rehearsed dual attack system where Kathy gets to the front of the queue of punters and I take care of the baggage with the driver. It usually works a treat and this time we bagged the front seat behind the driver with the extra legroom so happy daze. The journey to La Fortuna was a slow affair with plenty of stop offs to pick up and release passengers, toilet stops, other town terminal lay overs even though this was an express bus. We finally arrived 4.5 hours later, hot and sweaty due to the lack of A/C and the increased heat from coming out of the highlands. The small bus station was a short walk to our hotel Xilopalo where we checked in to a nice room on the edge of the jungle. We were really chuffed with our room as it had a great view of the resident volcano called Arenal and the jungle, equipped with coffee maker and a supply of fresh Costa Rican coffee and a fridge to keep those all important beers cold.

This little critter had a lot of attitude when we found him in the undergrowth.

   Next morning though, our smugness collapsed with a 5am wake up call from the builders who were working on the unit above our room. Crash,bang,wallop and that was the end of our shut eye. During breakfast we had the privilege of metal cutting and hammering on our ceiling. Of course we were not happy and went to complain. The staff were brilliant and eventually sorted us out with another room. When we moved to the other room we were not happy as the room was dark and dingy so went back to complain again. This time we came up trumps as we were given a family suite which was huge with a fitted kitchen and living area. Sweet! We must be the guests from hell to them but if you don't say anything then you will never know what you could get in return.

This guy kept his eye on us as we walked around the lagoon.

  After that little debacle we were given a guided tour of the hotel grounds which included some lagoons where we were lucky enough to see some Cayman crocks checking us out for a spot of lunch. To be honest there was little threat from them as they are too small to kill you but you would not want a nip off of one. One of them even stalked us across the lagoon with its beady eyes just breaking the water surface. We also saw a multitude of exotic birds including some Toucans. What we really wanted to see were Sloths though but were unlucky which is not surprising as they live high in the canopy so are hard to spot. We did see a Capybara  though which are usually very shy.( a cross between a pig and a rat is the best way to describe it).

Caught this fluffy bugger trying to get some kip

 Back at the hotel we took full advantage of our new apartment and lounged out. Later we went for pizza downtown which was a lovely looking village, mostly catering to the tourist crowd who used to come to watch the lava pouring down the erupting volcano sides but this stopped in 2010 when the volcano started behaving itself so now you can walk around the base of the volcano and check out the virgin jungle and the lava fields. Which is exactly what we done next day. Doing it the budget way instead of paying the exorbitant fees that were being quoted by the local tour agencies we caught the early 8am bus for £1.50 each which dropped us off at the volcano spur road from where we hiked to the volcano base and enjoyed a very pleasant 4.7km stroll among the lava fields and dense jungle trying to spot Sloths but again had no luck. We did start chatting to another couple on the trail though who had driven there and spotted a massive sloth crossing the road in front of them and showed us a  cracking photo of it. We caught the last bus back to town which was 2pm and retired back to the hotel after walking a total of 8.7km up the steep side of a volcano, we were cream crackered. We did go out later to try to spot sloths around the grounds of the hotel again but had no luck but did start chatting to a local who reckoned he could show us where they were hanging out but wanted $20 for his time so we declined after blowing our budget on entry fees to the volcano.

We were told this was a Toucan but we were not so sure when it was tempted down by some fruit.

  Back at the hotel we had some loud yanks move in next to us blasting out some crap music so I did not approve to their inconsiderate nature. Supported by my wing woman, Kath the septic tank killer , we smashed on their door and asked them politely with our best east end gangster faces to turn it down or else......it worked and the music never came back on again. They obviously had watched a British gangster movie at some stage and thought better of it. We loved La Fortuna, it was laid back and easy, had all you needed as a tourist and had some spectacular scenery to boot and we were sad to leave on the early bus next morning but had to as the cost of hanging out in Costa Rica was killing our budget. We could not believe it was even more expensive than America. The hotels, the food, the tours, the entry fees we unbelievable. The only thing that was reasonable was the bus fare. Even though we loved Costa Rica so far we decided it was out of our price range so rejigged our plans and decided to head for the border and try our luck in Nicaragua where we had heard was a lot cheaper with similar sights so worth a punt. 

Jungle is massive.....but Kathy is only small.

The only problem it was not an easy journey to get to the land border crossing from La Fortuna. We again caught an early morning bus along a roller coaster of a journey around Arenal lake. The views were spectacular but the journey uncomfortable due to the never ending high speed cornering of the bus driver. Also we had the extra entertainment of the bus breaking down on route in the middle of the road while the driver banged and crashed about in the back compartment until it started running again. We were busting for the toilet but when we arrived at the terminal our next bus to Canas was already waiting for us so had to unload the bags and jump straight onto the next bus which pulled out straight away. By now we were both busting for a pee. We eventually reached Canas after less than an hour where the temperature was noticeably higher due to the lower elevation and a lot drier. Kathy darted out of the bus to the restroom while I unloaded the bags and waited for her to return. When she did I went but was low on change to pay the mean faced attendant the required 300 colones (about 40p) as we were running down our money for the border. I slapped all my money on the counter which came to 190 colones. Enough you would think? Not for this dragon lady. She started shrieking at me but I proceeded unperturbed and emptied my bladder while she stood in the doorway remonstrating at me in incomprehensible Spanish. Then it went quiet. I washed my hands and went to leave and found she had locked me in the toilet and held me ransom until I paid the remaining balance on my piss tax. So there I was trying to negotiate my release from the bars of the toilet door while the whole bus station looked on in astonishment.  I just grabbed the bars and let out a comical help! which the attendant found amusing so released me to pay my fine. Luckily there was another bloke locked in with me who paid for me and all was resolved with the dragon woman.
The next bus arrived shortly after and we boarded that for our next stage to Liberia where we decided to take an overnight stop as we felt it too ambitious to head to the border today in case of any difficulties. We booked into a new hostel that had only been open 9 days called the Greenhouse. After chilling out as the heat was oppressive we hit town to explore but found nothing exciting to report except a church and a statue of a man on a mule. We ended up in Maccy D's as that was the only place we could barely afford and had some nice grilled chicken salads. An early breakfast ensued next morning and we caught an early bus to the border point called Penas Blancas which was 1.5 hours away and for the grand sum of £1.50 each.
And that was Costa Rica done. It was a very civilised and beautiful country, teeming with wildlife and a joy to hang out in except for the cost and if we won the lottery we would both definitely return to explore some more. Next stop Nicaragua.