Day 3 – Earth, Wind, & Fire

Hi friends!

It has been a week since I last posted a Costa Rica recap post, so I am here to post another one! Day 3 of our Costa Rica adventure was quite the eventful one! So grab your pants, we are about to ZIP through this post together! (Someone please tell me I’m funny)

Our third day of our trip started off with quite the adrenaline rush. Ian and I rushed to breakfast and had only a few minutes to inhale our food and coffee and then hopped on a bus and headed to Sky Adventures for some zip-lining fun!

Shortly after arriving, we were informed that the Sky Tram that would be taking us to the top of our zip-lining start point was under repair. Our zip-lining instructors then had us pile into SUVs and drove us up the mountain that we would be zip-lining down. I am not going to lie, I was terrified the entire drive. To get up the mountain they drove up dirt tracks that were narrowly carved out between trees. Our instructors who were used to driving on these roads were very comfortable whipping around on the windy “road”.  Everett seemed to really enjoy the speed at which we ascended.. but I did not.

Once at the top, I was not only thankful to have survived that drive, but I was excited to take in the fresh air from above. Before getting started with our zip-lining fun, we made sure to take lots of pictures at the top.

We also took a photo with this Happy Birthday sign since my mom’s birthday was that following day. My mom had a pretty awesome birthday week 😉

After goofing around a bit and taking lots of photos, it was time to get “serious” and start zip-lining!

I am not going to lie.. I was a little nervous the first two lines or so. Looking down the cable, it looked like I would be travelling so far down and that kind of made me uneasy BUT I quickly got over how intimating it looked after experiencing how fun it was soaring through the sky.

It was an absolute blast!! We were all screaming and having the time of our lives 🙂 Nothing like a good zip-lining sesh to wake you up!

I was also very impressed with the safety measures Sky Adventures had in place. I have been zip-lining once before in my life and did not feel nearly as safe as I did while zip-lining here. Feeling safe made it so much easier to enjoy myself and have some fun zipping through the canopy below me.

Not to mention, having a view of Volcano Arenal while zip-lining was pretty neat. I mean, how neat is that? Zip-lining near a volcano? I think that’s pretty neat. (Hoping some of you reading this are thinking about Neature Walk)

After zip-lining, we cooled off with some fresh pineapple juice, took a few more pictures because why not, and were off on the road again!

La Fortuna

Approximately 20 minutes or so after hopping in the bus, we arrived in La Fortuna. While I do love being busy with fun activities, I was very excited to just have some downtime in La Fortuna. My favorite part of travelling is wandering through a new city and exploring its culture. Until this moment, I had not had the chance to feel immersed in a city (rather than hotel/resort) so I was very excited.

In 1968, the Arenal Volcano erupted and killed 82 people. La Fortuna, or “The Fortune” was then named after a volcanic eruption for being fortunate in not being destroyed by the eruption. La Fortuna lies to the east of the volcano, but only cities to the west of the volcano were destroyed. Today, tourists come from all over to see this volcano but also the dormant Cerro Chato which has last erupted approximately 3,500 years ago. I don’t know about you, but I found all of this very interesting!

Below you can see a short aerial video of La Fortuna filmed by MyTanFeet – a great resource for planning a trip or learning more about Costa Rica.

Once in town, we headed over to the Rain Forest Café after our tour guide recommended us trying their coffee there. No, this place is not the Rain Forest Cafe you all may be thinking of 😂.

Inside, people enjoyed their coffee and the company of those around them. The environment was casual and friendly. Wifi was also offered here was definitely nice for someone like me that does not purchase international phone plans when I travel.

Ian and I made sure to purchase a bag of the coffee beans after hearing how well regarded their coffee was. We still have not had a chance to try our beans, but I can tell you that they do smell amazing.

As for what I ordered there, I opted for their specialty coffee called the Mono Loco, or “crazy monkey”, and split a chicken empanada with Ian. The Mono Loco consisted of: banana, milk, chocolate, cinnamon, and coffee (I believe…) and was recommended to me by our waiter after I asked him what was popular there. While I did enjoy the Mono Loco.. it was a bit sweet and I am not really sure if there was actually coffee in there, which I guess defeated the purpose of me wanting to try their coffee – oh well! As for the empanada, it was amazing. Ian and I almost regretted sharing one but were glad that we did because of how filling it was.

After lunch, we walked around town a bit and looked inside of the maaaany tourist shops in town. In fact, I think most of the stores there were souvenir shops.

While I normally enjoy walking around outdoors, I was a bit miserable walking around La Fortuna in long pants and a t-shirt. It was SO hot outside and 90% of the stores there were not air conditioned. It was definitely a sweaty experience.

Although most of the shops in town were souvenir shops, I did have the chance to check out their local grocery store which was really cool for me. I love seeing how different packaging looks in different countries, especially for brands that I see in stores here. I also enjoy seeing that people are buying and eating in other countries, how much things cost, and how their grocery stores are laid out compared to the US. I miss strolling through Carrefour while studying in France. The cheese was soooooo cheap and so was the wine *sigh* those were the days.

After walking around for a while and finding souvenirs to bring back, we all met up at Inspira for some cold refreshments.

Ian found a local IPA with a sloth on the beer bottle, so he just had to try it! Turns out, the beer was really good!

After Inspira, we hopped back on our bus and tried lychee from the grocery store in town. I had never tried lychee before and absolutely loved it! It is definitely a unique tasting fruit that has a flavor that is hard to describe.

Ecotermales Fortuna Hot Springs

Shortly after arriving back at our hotel, we got ready for our next adventure – enjoying volcanic hot springs!

Source: Arenal.net

Unfortunately for this blog, I did not take any photographs while at the hot springs. I wanted to fully enjoy the relaxing experience and avoid getting my camera/phone wet. I do, however, have photos that were taken by one of our tourguides. Her camera was water-proof which made taking hot spring photos a lot less risky.

And just wow. The hot springs were not only wonderful to soak in.. but they were gorgeous. I felt like I died and went to heaven. I know that sounds super cheesy, but this place was like nothing I have ever seen before. If only I had photos that did this place justice. It was paradise.

We spent around 2 hours enjoying the springs and one of my favorite parts was the quality time I spent with my family. We all relaxed and enjoyed each others company without any phones or other distractions.

Later that evening we enjoyed a group dinner at the hot springs and celebrated my mom’s birthday a day early with the rest of the tour group.

It made me so happy seeing that our group surprised my mom and another member with a birthday cake and cards.

After enjoying cake, we all headed back to the hotel and sang karaoke for the 5-10 minute drive. I had a blast singing Bohemian Rhapsody with my mom and the rest of the group. It think we may have been a little more enthusiastic about singing it than some people though 😂.

And there you have it! Our Earth, Wind, and Fire day. We experienced the earth and wind as we zipped through the rain forest canopy and enjoyed the earth and fire while we wrapped up our day in the volcanic hot springs. What a day we had! I hope that you all enjoyed this post 🙂 I will be posting our Day 4 adventures (hopefully) at some point this week!