planetrumsey: Costa Rica Adventure: Day 2

It is now day 2 which means the adventure really begins. Today we left San Jose bright and early in order to start our journey across the mountains in search of Costa Rica’s tallest waterfall and then continuing on to La Fortuna, home of Arenal volcano. We didn’t get too far however before getting stuck in San Jose traffic. Luckily the traffic didn’t last too long and then we were on our way again. Our journey took us up into the towns of Grecia and Sarchi before starting our real 2000m climb up towards Bajos del Toro. In only our first day driving in Costa Rica we already faced the notorious bad roads the country is known for. First, there was the almost vertical section of road and then the road completely disappeared and became a random assortment or rocks and dirt. We didn’t get any photos of this portion of the journey so you’ll just have to take our word for it.

Two hours later we reached Catarata del Toro which is a 300m waterfall into a dormant volcano crater. While visiting the waterfall it is possible to hike all the way to the bottom via a series of steps and jungle paths along the side of the cliff. Hiking to the bottom wasn’t too bad but the we had to hike back out and that was a good workout for the legs. After a few hours exploring the waterfall we were back in the car to continue our journey across the mountains to La Fortuna where we will call home for the next two days.

Upon arriving in La Fortuna we went straight to our hotel. While in La Fortuna we are staying at Hotel el Silencio del Campo For the remainder of our trip we will be staying in B&B type accommodations but we decided to “splurge” a little bit. This hotel only has 24 individual villas so is quite small but it also includes its own natural hot springs, which is a must to experience while in La Fortuna, plus there is also an on site farm that guests can help out with.

That’s all for today. We’ll be exploring more of the Arenal area tomorrow.