Costa Rica: Arenal and La Fortuna

My Austria trip a few years ago included New Years in Scotland, where I met Amanda. Amanda was going to Costa Rica, some plans fell through, and then I stepped up to join her just two weeks prior to the trip.


Oh, I did so love this trip <3


I don't know why, but I love taken pictures of people taking selfies.

Most of our trip, we were in hostels or apartments set up like hostels... it was interesting, but fun! We spent the night in Alajuela before taking a bus to Arenal.

THE BUS EXPERIENCE
We got an Uber to this stop below a bridge.
Everybody spoke Spanish and our Spanish was a little... 
less than admirable.
We waited for maybe 2 or 3 hours for a bus to take us.
This is what we learned:
There are TWO places you can catch a bus from Alajuela to La Fortuna.
(La Fortuna = Arenal)
(If you're confused about Costa Rican names, just look it up on google maps...
it'll co
Confuse you even more...
Places have names that are just an accent or a space apart from being the same)
BACK TO THE BUS SITUATION!
So the main stop supposedly is more like shuttle and costs more.
The stop we were at will cost significantly less.
You may have to city-hop, but you don't have to.
If you were like us,
confused and hungry and not willing to move until something made sense,
you may stick around long enough to catch the bus that goes there DIRECTLY
for... what, 4,500 colones?
I don't know the exact price because there was a money mixup
and a lot of math involved
and hunger.
Point is, it was cheap, direct, and would've been easier to get to if we'd known Spanish.


The bus made a stop and we got to sit down and eat our first meal in Costa Rica: Casado.
Meat chosen: chorizo
It was so yummy!



By the time we got to our hostel in La Fortuna, Amanda had a sunburn from waiting on the bus. This is her strategically applying sunscreen.


Arenal Volcano
We were told it was rare to get such a good view of the volcano, as it's usually surrounded by clouds. But this was our first site of it, from our hostel.

The image taken from my phone, to give you a better depth perception.




Here we are, drinking the main drink of Costa Rica, Guaro (and some other stuff)






Some city views when we walked around.

We came across a free cocoa museum where we got to try samples. This was our cocoa tea sample... and we both ended up buying some!


Some more photos around the area:
  
Side note, we walked in the dark for maybe 15 minutes and it was super scary and the food and drink were amazing. But I asked the server to get us a taxi for the way back. It cost us 1,000 colones. Which isn't a lot. We should've got a taxi there in the first place!

We decided to do a day-long tour of La Fortuna/Arenal. Amanda was pretty good at looking for opportunities like these. Whereas my mind was usually on food... But we did have some really good food!


    
No, we couldn't touch the wild animals. But Amanda and I did swim at the waterfall.


And some people photos

Here, we have the other Jessica, squeezing a sugar cane. And then you have me, posing with a drink with the new friends we made!



More people photos (courtesy of another Jessica on the trip!)

Amanda and me, posing with drinks in the hot springs...
It started off a photobomb and turned into a group photo! Other Jessica is taken the photo, the tour guide is between us, Amanda is on the outside, and behind us... I actually can't remember her name.
Because for some reason, people really liked my owl backpack!

This sums up the first half of our trip.
Go here for the second half.
Or here to see my post about the green macaw.


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