I should start with a post about our trip to Montauk because I totally skipped that, but instead I need to share our Costa Rica trip while it is still fresh in my memory. Also, the entire time I was there I kept making comments to myself about what I would recommend to the next person I know going to Costa Rica and thinking I should write them down. I don’t actually know anybody else going and I have no reason to believe they would ask for my advice, but here it is anyway.
We arrived late Saturday night and besides Frenchie ditching me in the San Jose airport immediately, with no problems. Once we finally located each other in the humongous customs line, we were off to our first hotel. Note: I love hotels and was super excited to get to pick out all 5 of the different hotels we stayed in for our trip. Scam numero uno – the first hotel booked a driver from the hotel to pick us up. He stood with a sign that said “Emily Jarel” and waited for us. Pretty awesome. It was $15 while a taxi would have been about $7. Oops. Well, he was a really nice guy and at least we knew he was taking us to the right place.
The hotel, Hotel La Rosa De Americana, was in a locked compound (very comforting) and had a cool garden with mango and manga trees. Mangas are the female mango and they are bigger. The hotel was not in San Jose but in Costa Rica’s second largest city Alajuela. The airport is in Alajuela so it was super convenient.
This was our room. A queen bed, two bunkbeds and another single bed. We could have fit the driver and his whole family in there with us! We stayed here for a total of 10 hours but it was nice enough. We each had an Imperial (Costa Rican beer) and went to bed, excited about what we would find in the morning.
In the morning we woke up around 5:30 to sounds of the hotel’s other guests. This was our first clue that everything in Costa Rica happens really freakin’ early. After trying to sleep a little more we finally got up and wandered around a bit.
Mango tree!!!
We loitered outside the reception for breakfast and most importantly, coffee! The fruit was amazing as expected and we also had cereal, juice and toast.
Before we left I had done some research about how to get around the country most efficiently. It seemed like people either rented a car or took a bus. I briefly considered just taking the local bus but quickly decided to shell out the extra cash for a shuttle service called Interbus. Interbus was great. Their website did not work but I just emailed them the day before we left and everything was taken care of. It was a little confusing because the first shuttle would not pick us up at the hotel. We had to get to this random restaurant near the airport. But the hotel called us a taxi and it was not a problem. The taxi driver was nice, Frenchie practiced his Spanish, and we made it to the restaurant in no time. As soon as we pulled into the restaurant the bus pulled in and loaded us up. Very efficient!
The bus took us from Alajuela to Arenal in about 3 hours. We stopped along to way to use the banos and look at cheap souvenirs. 
This ride was when I first noticed that there are little dogs everywhere!
Our second and third nights we decided to stay at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. Arenal is an active volcano and the lodge is as close as you can get. A little scary but very cool. When we arrived we could see most of the volcano and a view of Lake Arenal. We had a beautiful lunch and planned out the next couple days. Of course I did not take any pictures at that point because I figured we would be seeing it for the next couple days. Big mistake.
The hotel gave us a list of “activities” when we arrived. We decided to try out to the night lava walk for the first day. We killed some time until then by taking a short hike through the forest to a waterfall.
It was a hot walk, but worth it. On our way back we heard some rumbling that we both thought were horses. Turns out it was that active volcano. Um, a little scary.
After being asked for the 5th time if we had a rental car we realized that we really should have had a rental car. Oops. The road to the lodge was bumpy and long to say the least so there was no way we could walk anywhere. Almost every activity we could have chosen would have been the price of the activity plus $25 each way for a taxi. Uggg. I planned this whole trip and was pretty sure we would not need a car. I really did not want to rent a car because it does not count as a vacation if I have to drive in a car with Frenchie. Driving and him do not get along. Therefore the Interbus seemed like the perfect solution! Until we were stuck on an active volcano.
We spoke with Eduardo, the guide, ahead of time to decide if it was worth the money. He showed us some pictures of lava rocks and said we would walk around these rocks and we would point out some wildlife if he saw it. $25 each. Well, it sounded pretty lame but without a car our options were limited and this tour said “transportation included.” Turns out Eduardo’s idea of transportation included meant that he would force the people with cars to take the people without cars, including himself. Luckily we were paired up with an awesome Scottish couple, Rod and Nikki.
The night walk was not quite as lame as we expected. Eduardo stopped along the road a few times to point out a toucan and some monkeys (acting like he found them himself but I am pretty sure he saw them on the way up the road). Then we walked in the lava rocks and he told us the story of the volcano which basically went like this, “In 1968 nobody in the villages knew that the mountain was active. Cold mountain. There were no scientists around to tell them it was a volcano. Then, July 29, 1968 they heard a rumble. Villagers thought it was an airplane but it was not. It was the volcano. Bunch of people died from rocks spewing out of the mountain (which he demonstrated by picking up a rock and throwing it to the ground). 5 years later the scientists came. Before that, villagers thought was a cold mountain.”
He told this exact story about 5 times as we hiked up the hill.
Eduardo is the one in the cool vest.
As we were getting ready to go back down the hill he asked if anybody had any questions. Not even kidding, one woman asked, “So, before it erupted they had no idea it was a volcano?” Eduardo looks at her with a straight face and says, “nope, they thought it was a cold mountain. There were no scientists.” It took everything I had not to burst out laughing.
When we arrived at the bottom of the hill it was getting dark and Eduardo told us he knew where to find some cool frogs. So we followed him down the road a bit to a swamp next to some dude’s house. We wandered through the brush (which was probably full of snakes) and he pulled out this guy.
Such a cool frog! Then we found another guy.
Pretty bad picture, but it was hard with the swarm of people trying to get the picture at once and the frog hopping around.
Our room at the lodge was the cheapest room they had, called La Casona. It was a large building with five rooms and two shared bathrooms. 
It totally reminded me of girl scout camp. We still had an awesome view with the volcano in one window and the lake from the other.
Still, I forgot to take any pictures of the volcano.
As we were getting ready to go to dinner Frenchie stepped right on a scorpion!! He screamed in pain and expletives while I search for the f*cker. At first we were not sure it was a scorpion so I killed some other innocent bug but then we saw the dude and Frenchie squashed him and put him in a baggie for evidence in case his foot fell off. We brought the dead guy to the hotel staff and they basically made fun of us for freaking out told him he would be ok. The staff at the lodge’s front desk were kind of jerks.
After all that excitement we were off to dinner.
On the way back up to the hotel we discussed dinner plans with Rod and Nikki. They were planning to go into La Fortuna, the closest town, because the food at the hotel was pretty bad. Luckily they invited us as well! We ended up going to a pizza place which seemed like an odd choice, but it was pretty good. They had already been in Costa Rica for 2 weeks so I guess they were getting tired of the Tipical food. We had just arrived so it was a little disappointing to have pizza but at least we did not have to eat at the hotel again and we met some cool people!
To be continued…
That little gazebo was a jacuzzi which Frenchie refused to go in. It turns out that was a good choice because we later saw the bartender sneaking in the back door with a scorpion he had found in the jacuzzi!!
We also saw some monkeys and lots of cool looking trees.
On our way out of the forest we missed the bus again and were not too excited about walking back down the hill in the dark. Luckily, an awesome Californian father and daughter duo overheard our problem and offered us a ride back to the hotel! See, Americans can be nice.
