Semana Santa: Part I

La Fortuna

Hostel: Oh my god this was a nice hostel. Arenal Backpacker's Hostel. I slept in a dorm so the sleeping conditions weren't great. It was sort of hard to sleep with a bunch of random people in there and it was kind of hot. But nothing to complain about. It was really cheap and I generally slept fine. This place had a great pool, lots of trees, a cool hang out area in the middle, a cafe, hammocks, free internet cafe - the works. It was great. And on top of that, the workers were very nice and helpful.

The Town: Eh. Not much. A bunch of crappy souvenir stores and adventure tour companies. There was a local Soda though (local restaurant) that was VERY good and cheap.

Waterfall: I asked the guy at the hostel for some good local stuff to do, and he suggested I go see the waterfall and that you can even swim in its pool. This sounded pretty cool so, as he suggested, I took a taxi up there (a few kilometers away and uphill). I paid the $10 admission and went into the park area. When you go in, there are a bunch of rugged steps going down and down and down throughout the forest. You go WAY down. I was thinking about how hard it was going to be coming up. When I got to the bottom, the waterfall was beautiful! Very pristine, perfect fall with lots of rocks around and a nice, round pool at the bottom. I took a bunch of pictures. I wasn't sure at first if I was going to swim, but I was really hot and there were some other people swimming and I just though, I can't NOT swim. So I got in. It was SO COLD, oh my god. But I got used to it FAST because of the current. The water is CONSTANTLY pushing you back towards the shore so you have to constantly be treading water hard. Not only this, but I kept trying to swim closer to the actual point of the waterfall. I tried REALLY hard once, but when I looked up, I wasn't any closer at all and was a little bit to the side. That's how strong the current was. When I got out though, I just felt so REFRESHED. It felt SO COOL to go down and swim right next to a waterfall. I LOVED it. Then climbing back up was HELL. I was SOOOOO tired. But there was this viewpoint at the top that was simply breathtaking. I took some more pictures and even yelled "YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" into the amazing view of forest, sky, and waterfall. Then I heard someone way down there yell back.

Canyoning: Overrated and too expensive. I definitely had fun, don't get me wrong. It was rappelling down canyon walls, about half of which actually went right through a waterfall. It was a cool experience for sure. The problem is, there were only about five canyon walls. On top of that, the rappelling was SO quick. You drop down in like 20 or 30 seconds, and it's over. Then, you wait for like 20 other people (most of whom were REALLY slow going down 'cause they were scared). So you're just sitting there at the bottom waiting forever. So in all, you're only actually rappelling for a total of 3-5 minutes, interspersed by watching, semi-hiking, and waiting. I think what would have made it much more worth it would have been if there had been some climbing involved. It just seemed so babyish to go down canyons without doing any climbing.

Bungee Jumping: Oh my god what an absolutely amazing thrill. SO worth it. And way cheaper than canyoning! It kind of sucked because there was NO one else there except for the workers. I wish I had had people there. But still. It was amazing. The best way I can explain the feeling beforehand is like being walked to a gallows . . . only a bit milder. It's just this relentless march. Everything is happening and you keep having these thoughts that well, maybe something will stop it from happening, but no. You walk into the elevator. You go up. The ground disappears before you. You're WAY up. You look out and see an amazing view of the town and the volcano about 10k away. They strap on your equipment. They yell "THIRTYYYYYY SECOOOOOONDS!!!!!!" They give you a quick overview of how to jump. They yell "TEEEEEEN SECOOOOOONDS!!!!!!" They tell you that once they start the countdown from five, you can go whenever you want. You stand on the ledge. They lock the door behind you. They start the countdown (VERY quick seconds - not normal length). They put their hands on your shoulder as a warning that you better jump or they might push you. At "three," I jump. As I fell, I think my only words were - quietly to myself - "Oh shit." Seriously that initial descent was AMAZING. Oh my god. Completely, completely free falling. Yes, I've been sky diving, but I think this was actually scarier because you can see the ground, and even though you're really high, you're also REALLY close, and you better HOPE that cable supports you. And I did the water-touch, so at the bottom is a pool, and you quickly dip in once the cord reaches maximum length. It's AMAZING how fast it pulled me back out of that pool. The next part was less fun because bouncing up and down for a long time brought a lot of blood to the head and after awhile it got kind of uncomfortable. But man. I definitely am doing it again.

Arenal (The Volcano): There is a big, active, volcano, right on the outskirts of the town. You can see it VERY well from the town. It's a perfectly shaped mountain. Totally what a cartoon mountain is shaped like. Very triangular. A lot of times, you could see smoke coming out of it, which was pretty sweet. Often, people can see lava at night. Actual red, smoldering lava, dripping down. I went on TWO trips, two nights in a row, to the other side, where you can normally see it, and both nights, it was really cloudy (which happens frequently). So that was sort of a disappointment. But it was still cool.

Hot Springs: There are a bunch of natural hot springs around because of the heat from the volcano. When I imagined this, I imagined sitting in basically a mudhole that had hot water in it. Which would have been really cool. And I think there are things like this around. But I went with a tour thing and part of that was going to Baldi, a specific hot spring resort. I NEVER expected to be this cool. Oh my god I want to stay in a hotel like that so bad. AAAAAGHHHH. It was a nice resort area with coolly shaped, waterfall-laced, different-temperature, naturally heated hot tubs EVERYWHERE. Some were relatively cool, like 93 degrees. The hottest one I got in was 116 (at least that's what the sign said - I do have a hard time believing this because even 106 in a hot tub is difficult). There was even one that was 154, but this was just for show because you'd probably die in that one. And that one was actually right below some massage chairs, so they probably use it for steam. But. Overall. The coolest damn thing was that there were WATERSLIDES. One was swirly and a tube type thing, but it wasn't very good because it was bumpy, and I even got kind of stuck in there once and then ran into some kids, 'cause the water flow wasn't good. But there was another slide and it was AMAZING!!!!! It was SO fast. SOOO fast. It was just a quick, straight shot down with a few dips. But the dips got you MOVING. Oh my god I ended up going so many different ways: back feet first; back head first; stomach head first; sitting. It was SO fun. Man I went so many times.

Friends: Even with all this AWESOME stuff, I have to say that one of the best things about my time in La Fortuna was the friends I met. That's the great thing about hostels because there's usually a common area and you can just meet people.  I met so many people that came and went throughout the time there. Overall though, there were three people that I hung out with the most - Christine, Tawnya, and Brent (all from Canada - MAN there were a lot of Canadians traveling). I didn't actually hang out with Christine and Tawnya that much in La Fortuna, so I'll talk about them more when I discuss the next places on my vacation. But Brent. Oh my god, seriously one of the funniest people I've EVER met. Very different and unique too. He's a helicopter pilot that has six weeks on/six weeks off. So he works in some random place for six weeks, then travels around for six. On and off. Currently, he's based in the Central American area, but he's been based in almost all the other continents. Next, he's going to Thailand. But god. He was just so funny. The type of guy that you get annoyed at because he's ALWAYS pulling pranks and making fun of you and everyone, but it doesn't matter because it's just so funny. One story that's really funny that happened with Brent (and Christine and Tawnya): He starts telling us this story about a job he had to do where he had to bring a bear somewhere (by dangling it from his helicopter). I've seen things like this online, so I totally had a picture in my head. So he continues the story by explaining that he let the bear go somewhere in the woods. We him how he lets the bear go, 'cause it seems kind of weird - how would you safely get a bear to the ground from a helicopter? He just says, "I push a button." So in my head I'm imagining this fancy contraption of belts and wires that unhooks and lets the bear free to walk away when he pushes the button. But the story develops more. He says, "So I fly right over the river - at this point I'm like 500 feet up - and I drop him. I turn the helicopter so that I can watch it fall. Now keep in mind that there is a huge engine behind my head and the rotors directly above me. When that bear hit the water, I STILL heard it. It was like an explosion!" At this point, we're thinking, um, what the hell, the poor bear! So I say, "Couldn't you go any LOWER?!" and he looks at me like, "Well, I could, but who cares?" At this point, we finally figure out that the bear is DEAD already. That was a crucial part of the story we missed! Oh my god we laughed hard though. It was just so funny because what an asshole helicopter pilot - he takes a living bear, flies it over a river (which in the first place will already make it more difficult for the bear), but instead of lightly putting it down somewhere, he drops it from 500 feet up and intentionally watches it smack the water and revels in the SMACK it makes. I was thinking, man there's no way that bear survived. So he said from now on he's going to tell the story like that so people get confused. SO FUNNY. Overall though, the best part about travel like this is that you can meet people, then plan your trip around hanging out with them more. Luckily, the people I met were already going to where I was going next (Monteverde), so I ended up meeting up with them again. But as I'll mention later, I ended up just going to Tamarindo on a whim, with Christine and Tawnya. It's just great that you can quickly meet people, quickly reserve transportation and a room, and just hang out. I LOVE that.