La Fortuna, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica
On the way to La Fortuna
More
Gravel road
ok
sometimes it would be nice if we would know if a road is gravel –
it looked fairly nice with a drive along the lake – but then we
ended up again with gravel road.... which made the drive quite long.
So when ending up at the lake Arenal we saw:
A
German Bakery
seeing
the sign German Bakery we decided to stop and have a coffee as a
reward after all that gravel....(even I have to say the coffee here
is smaller and 3x more money than in a local Costa Rican run soda)
and some German Apfelschnecke now we are ready to continue on the
last 45 minutes of our drive along the lake (kind of along the lake:
that means sometimes lake glimpses) and over the dam
Wildlife
along the road
suddenly
we saw some cute little racoon like animals: they are the Coatis –
they were super cute and there was a whole bunch of them. It’s cool
to watch them – especially when they start to scratch themselves:
- coat is part of the racoon family and they live in south and central America
- they are also called coatimundi or hog-nosed coon
- they eat ground litter, invertebraes (like the tarantula) and fruit (no wonder their nose is stuck to the ground)
our
little Cabin in Granja Eco Turistica
our
little cabin is around 3 km out of town and part of the Granja Eco
Turistica. Isela is super nice and helpful – give us great hints –
showed us a lot about the organic farm and the rescue center. Our
Cabin is super cute: one huge room with 2 beds, table and 4 chairs –
2 loung chairs... a tiny kitchen area with sink and fridge (ok if you
leave the fridge door open for a whole day – then nothing is really
cold inside and one night is not enough to freeze water bottles) And
we lover our balcony to overlook the valley and the cows. Every
morning before we left we went quick and checked out the volcano –
but we discovered you can see the volcano from everywhere the road –
the town: the question is only in the sun – but mostly in the
clouds.
We
check out the town
for
the first time we go to this little town with some are one ways –
guess the only way to know is you check out the arrows below the stop
sign or you hope for the best (checking out how the cars are parked
is not a big help, since you can park where-ever you want regardless
if it is on the wrong side of the road)... so it could happen you end
up in the wrong direction (guess that happens for us, they beep the
horn and you thankfully they are all helpful if you have to back
out). Also the traffic is not the greatest with stop signs and
whoever drives comes first – if you stop and you shouldn’t they
beep the horn and if you drive and you shouldn’t they beep the horn
too. So tonight we wanted to park around the central park with the
church – and we saw a parking space and as Paul wants to pull in he
got told via sign-lagnuage that the bus will park here... so a bit
back and forth and finally we are in a parking spot....
first
we went to see this unique church with a very unique main picture
about the altar, we haven’t seen one like that before. Then we go
around to check for the restaurants and find a really cute soda...
only 10 minutes later all tables are full (lucky for us) and it was
super yummy food!!!
It’s
laundry time
because
we stay here for 3 nights , we should have enough time to get the
laundry dry. With a nice sink and tide pods – in 3 sets all looks
clean and smells fresh again... and to hang it up we are flexible:
the hammock, the curtain rods, the shower doors...
we
check out the animals and farm
after
a cup of coffee, we walk around this little farm and rescue center
and discover all kind of different plants and animals: we love the
tiny little monkeys (Marmoset) from Brazil – the Agouti (looking like a large rat) - the peacocks, Ostrich and the different geese, which got really loud
when Paul came by, saw some sunbathing turtles – we greeted the large pigs (by the way they had
a beautiful tiled floor) – we saw the chickens and some unusual
bird – we forgot to check for the sloth, because there were also so
many awesome plants. It is a lot of fun to walk around here and
discover it all.
We
get spoiled breakfast
we
decided we have a nice breakfast in town and then we can relax the
whole day in the Hot Springs... and won’t need a lunch. We went to
Tripadvisor #1 for breakfast: and yes it is very good!! and very
filling.... all you want to do is now is relax – good thing we go
to the hot springs!
Wood
carvings
along
the road we saw this wood carving shop and stopped – wow this is
art, it is super cool: some are super huge and amazing – now we get
excited to get some wood work to take home...
2025-05-23