Costa Rica – Coast to Coast June 2005 and August 2006

I woke up early and went outside and was greeted with a very clear view of the volcano. I can’t even describe how impressive it is. It’s there, gigantic, taking up the entire view. WOW!

Ate a tipico breakfast of gallo pinto, eggs, tortillas, coffee and juice that was included with the room at the hotel. After breakfast we drove back into town to get some pictures of the church with the volcano in the background.

We then checked out of the hotel and drove around Lake Arenal on our way to Tamarindo. The road around the lake was mostly well paved with only a few rough spots. We made it to Liberia in good time and the good road continued to Belen but after that the road condition really deteriorated the rest of the way to Tamarindo.

Once in Tamarindo we were horrified with all the changes since our visit last June. Lots of construction and new buildings – mostly 5-6 story condominiums, a pizza hut, subway sandwiches, TCBY yogurt and a Burger King! After checking in at Hotel Pasatiempo we were also disappointed to learn that several of our favorite staff members were no longer working there. We walked down into town dodging the trucks hauling construction equipment and choking on their dust clouds. We found that several of the restaurants we liked last year were either out of business or had been replaced with new buildings. We ended up at Nibbana (we ate there last year) and found that most of the tables closer to the beach were gone as a result of enforcing the 25 meter rule that nothing can be built or owned by non citizens that close to the water. We had pizza that was ok. We then walked down to Witches Rock surf camp which is now more fancy with higher prices and the waiters wearing uniforms. With advertising “Nachos as big as your ass” you would think this place would be more laid back! We then went back to Pasatiempo for a swim and hung out in their restaurant/bar playing scrabble until it was time to go to bed.

I woke up early and hung out with Collin while he prepared us a breakfast of French toast. After breakfast, we said our goodbyes and hit the road to La Fortuna and the Arenal Volcano. On the road heading back towards Limon, north of Chahuta, there is a checkpoint with lots of serious looking police with automatic rifles. I am assuming that since it is the road coming from Panama they are looking for illegals as well as drugs. We were asked for our passports and were back on our way within minutes.

We took the “back route” to Arenal turning north on to highway 4 and going through Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, San Miguel, and San Carlos. It was a pleasant and easy drive with abrely any other traffic and took us about five and a half hours to get to La Fortuna pretty much without stopping. The highway brought us directly into town and we continued on toward the volcano and our hotel which was 2km past the town of La Fortuna proper. Just as we checked into our hotel, La Pradera, we got a glimpse of the volcano and then it started to rain pretty hard. Our room was decent and had a small porch area with chairs to admire the volcano and was worth the $65/night price (tax and breakfast included)

Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we were hungry so we drove back to La Fortuna and ate a somewhat pricey Mexican lunch at Las Brasitas. It started raining really hard. Too hard to even make it back to the car so we ended up lingering over our Imperials a bit longer than we wanted. The rain finally let up and we walked around the town of La Fortuna for a bit before heading back to La Pradera where we hung out in the rather uninspiring bar and the watched the soccer highlights on TV and the bartender explained about the local teams and rivalries. We then went for a nighttime swim and afterwards craved something sweet so drove back to La Fortuna for an ice cream at Volcan Cone and a nightcap at the karaoke bar where we heard a girl with a amazing voice belting out some Diana Ross songs. After returning to the hotel we still couldn’t see but could hear a rhythmic thumping sound coming from the volcano