Travel to Costa Rica, Alajuela, La Fortuna.

I was awake relatively early this morning as our hotel is right on a busy street and given we don't have air-con, the windows are open to let at least some cooler air in. After catching up on blogs, we went out for breakfast at the My Coffee cafe (same place we enjoyed an arvo coffee from yesterday). After tentatively ordering pancakes, Rach changed her mind when she saw the dessert menu...berry crepes (with ice-cream I might add!). I chose an omelet and was happy when it was brought out with fresh fruit and muffins too! So we broke our fast ensuring that we were well fed ahead of our massive adrenaline-rushing excursion.

We were picked up at 10am and taken to our waiting 4WDs. We scrambled onto the back of the trays where they had added benches for the would-be canyoneerers. The drive up the mountain was particularly bumpy...a 'Costa Rican massage' our funny little local guides pointed out (amongst heaps of other one-liners). The heavens then decided to open and a tropical downpour begun, well I suppose its not called a rainforest for nothing

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Travel to Costa Rica, Guanacaste, La Fortuna.

The bus ride from Monteverde to La Fortuna was unpaved and therefore unpleasant. Sleep during the windy, bumpy ride was unsuccessful and the minute we stepped off the bus in town we were "greeted" with annoying tour salesmen. They were polite and friendly but we really weren't in the market for a tour having been in town for less than a minute and wanted to find our place and drop our bags. The "hostel" we booked was less than sufficient, but the bed was comfortable so I didn't mind. Apparently hotels have caught on to the hostel trend and started mislabeling themselves as hostels when they don't provide wifi, a communal area or a kitchen, amenities typical of hostels. Luckily we only booked one night there and found a far better place the next day. The next hostel was more like a backpacker resort; complete with a pool, swim up bar, restaurant, kitchen and lush courtyard. Alonzo was an awesome host, very attentive and helpful. It was like our own little oasis tucked away in the town. The town of Fortuna was pretty uneventful. There were a few restaurants that pretty much all served the same food for a steep price, and very minimal nightlife. We booked an ATV tour set on a farm at the base of the Arenal volcano, our first tour of the trip! It was so surreal; animals freely grazing and enjoying the company of other creatures with a backdrop of jungle and rolling hills. I wish all farm animals could live unconfined like this. There were trails carved out for us, and since it rains often in Fortuna, there was mud everywhere. Some of the puddles were even inches deep with water. We were pretty shocked that given the conditions of the trails the ATVs were not 4wheel drive! Our guide said, "they're 4wheel drive if you get off and push." It was a lot of fun and I'm really surprised I managed to hang on with Kevin's crazy driving, and peeling out around turns. We also got to pose with a six foot python that the guide found on the farm and was taking to the local zoo.

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