After leaving Ometepe, there was one last stop in Nicaragua that we had planned to make. We drove to San Juan del Sur, a well-known beach town. When we got there we found that there was no place to drive on to the beach, and the town itself was not as great as it was hyped-up to be...so we went instead to a nearby beach, Playa Marcella, and there we found a gorgeous beach and made ourselves right at home.
The beach was perfect except for one thing - the water was freezing cold! The strange cold current that reaches it made it impossible for me to stay in the water for longer than about 10 minutes at a time.
We met two guys, Raina and Robert, from Germany, also travelling overland all the way to Patagonia. They were great people and we had dinner together on the beach two nights in a row. Giovanni was still with us as well, and we had a nice little party going those nights!
We decided to cross all together into Costa Rica. The crossing was pretty quick and easy, as borders go. We did all the appropriate paperwork and headed on our way. We said goodbye to our friends Raina and Robert at the border, and the next day we dropped off our friend Giovanni at the entrance to Volcan "Rincon de la Vieja" that he was going to climb. It was great meeting all of these guys and we had a great time with them. We wish these friends all the best as they continue their travels!
Travelling just the two of us once again, we decided that our first stop in Costa Rica would be Arenal, a volcano just next to a large man-made lake.
We drove around the lake and made it to Arenal that evening, after the park was already officially closed. That didn't deter us, though, and with the added bonus of not having to pay the entrance fee (which are pretty steep in Costa Rica), we still hiked all the trails in the park, which is not very big.
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| that's a coati on the trail |
Once you get to the base of the volcano, you're climbing over lava rocks, but that's as far as you can go - there's no more trail after that. Here's me at the base, it's pretty cloudy though, so it's hard to see Arenal behind me:
On the way back we took the second trail that goes further into the forest. Here's Ricardo with a large Ceiba tree:
We saw lots of birds and butterflies.
By the time we made it out, it was already dark, and we drove to a spot by the river to park for the night. In the morning, we realized what a great spot it was!
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| we woke up in this beautiful spot |
And the clouds had disappeared, so we got some good shots of the volcano that we couldn't see well the night before.
We continued on around the volcano and passed through the small town of Fortuna.
Heading toward the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose, we enjoyed the lovely drive through the hills and countryside. We stopped for a picnic here.
We spent a day in San Jose. Here are some pictures...
Ricardo's favorite part of the city was feeding the pigeons.
From the capital, we would head to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica...but that's for the next post! :)
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