La Fortuna and Arenal

La Fortuna, a small town amongst a group of active volcanoes, with Volcán Poas ‘smoking’ just a week or so ago. Volcanoes have become a rather standard landscape on our trip so not quite the same excitement as we had at first however , Volcan Arenal was a spectacular sight with lots of cool adventures surrounding it. The whole area is spectacular, with incredible wildlife, jungle, fast flowing rivers etc. and we had a great few days hanging-out and enjoying it all. 

We had our 2nd attempt at white-water rafting on the Bolsa river, this time a much more adventurous journey, which resulted in Johnny and Seb ‘arriving’ in the river at a rate of knots after a poor attempt from Johnny at bull-riding / the bucking bronco! Only minor injuries were sustained and no permanent fears of water so we are all ok 😳😂. 

We also spent some time hanging-out in a thermal river / spring. As always, we did it in true backpacker style as we found a little entrance to the river right next to a posh hotel that charged $80 per person to experience the thermal waters! We love finding these little treats as although Costa Rica can be expensive, you only need to practice your Spanish and make an effort with the locals and they are more than welcome to share the local hotspots. 

We also visited some beautiful waterfalls, the ‘Azul Falls’. We were nervous about visiting as the weather was wet, particularly in the mountains where we were, but someone was looking out for us as we had no rain, and the sun shone for us making the blue falls even bluer and allowing us a swim in the pristine cold 🥶 river . 

A journey to Costa Rica wouldn’t be complete without a zip-lining experience above the canopy in the jungle, so we chose one of the original zip lining companies (they are everywhere now) for our trip. The boys weren’t a little bit scared but of course I had fears of the wire breaking, the mountain collapsing etc! An incredible experience this was, and we even managed to see a Tapir in the jungle!