I moved to a private room today. It was great for organizing! And for having AC in the heat of the afternoon. I didn’t spend as much time there as I thought. I kept meeting people and having cool conversations!
Photo on left is of the creature outside the door to my room today! It’s a tiny Gecko about the legth of a US quarter, mayber slightly longer.
La Fortuna, like the rest of Costa Rica, has really changed!
The trip here over the mountain, to the boat, onto a bus and to the village was great! When I did that before, we were a group of about 6 people! Once we reached the top of the mountain above Santa Elena, we mounted our horses and set off for the lake. It was several hours of riding surrounded by forest. Maybe a farm or two, but no people and certainly no roads. We stopped to have lunch by a stream which was cool!
When the van reached the laked, we backed in for several hundred meters to make it easier for the vans to drive out. There is no turn around. As we got closer, the shore of the lake has at least 6 other vans and small buses empty waiting for their next passengers. WOW!
A boat arrived, it was our boat, and a group of about 20 people got on. Before we left, one other boat had landed and three more were on their way. I hadn’t realized I was a pioneer in this crossing years ago. I’d love to do what we did before. But now, with homes, farms, fences, roads and such, it would not be possible!
Driving into La Fortuna, I was again shocked by it’s size and how much it developed!
Billboards of sorts, small ones, advertising all sorts of tour activities lines the road in areas. ATV rentals. Jet Ski rental. Multi level boats. Kayaks. Boat rental. On and on and on….a large melage of activites all designed to keep tourist engaged, entertained and spending money.
This part of the culture is very different than before but, today, it is the new normal!
Perfect balance?@
If I could have a perfect balance, I would merge the climate and habitate of Monteverde with the village of La Fortuna. I like this village. It’s culturally more Costa Rican to me. The people are friendly. The prices are more normal except for tourist restaurants. And it is easily walkable.
Tonight, with the rain, I decided to go to a closer Soda that was recommended. It is clearly a tourist spot. The food was great! I paid $17 for rice with chicken and fries.
I walked to Soda Flor two days ago. I had a local lunch similar to tonights dinner, casada. The food was excellent and the cost was $8 US. Plus, Flor, in the photo on the left and her partner made it clear that they cook with Passion!
My tour of Cano Negra near Nicaragua.
There were several tour companies I checked into. They all sounded similar so I chose the one through the Hostel. It was good but not great! The guide was certainly knowledgable. However, it felt like he was doing his “job” rather than sharing a passion. And we were on a schedule. We traveled 4 hours round trip, spent 2 hours on the water, had lunch, a brief description of making chocolate and returned.
There were howler monkeys howling, troups across the river from each other. Because we were headed back we didn’t stop. When we sat heron in the trees, we continued back because it was lunch time. I’m assuming that in normal. Most “tourist” like being entertained. I prefer being engaged.
In hindsight, I know there are other companies that focus on the experience on the water and not the schedule. If I come back here again, I’ll dig deeper. I posted a question about that to a facebook Cost Rica travel tip group. Several wrote back quickly giving me a name for a guide who would “never rush me” through the experience.
More experienced now, I’ll choose more carefully in the future.
From Cano Negra!
Travel day!
Tomorrow morning early, I’m off to Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, a new place for me. It is a different ecosystem with fewer tourist. More quiet! I’m stayig in a place on the edge of the forest with birds in the garden for two nights. I’m looking forward to seeing a different part of Costa Rica.
Right now, the rain is pouring down. Perhaps tomorrow, it will let up. But rain on a travel day is always better than rain on a night hike! I’ll take it!
My shuttle leaves before 7:00 am….better get ready!
Ciao!