Costa Rica trip: Arenal Volcano Day 2

Our second day in Costa Rica was very full and exciting! We awoke to the beautiful view from our room, and ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Their breakfast was excellent! We had the traditional meal of gallo pinto, fried plantains, fruit, and coffee.

After breakfast we took a guided nature hike around the hotel property. Our guide had a great eye for spotting animals, and we saw a howler monkey in a tree with her baby! We also saw 2 blue Morpho butterflies and many birds.

crossing a hanging bridge during our hike

a beautiful waterfall on the hotel property

In the afternoon we went into La Fortuna for lunch. On the drive we asked our taxi driver for a recommendation, and he brought us to Soda La Parada. It seemed to be a popular place, and with good reason! It had really good food and was very reasonably priced. The restaurant overlooked La Fortuna's beautiful central park.

central park in La Fortuna

After lunch we went to the La Fortuna waterfall. It was raining—pouring, actually—but we didn't care, and made the steep hike down to the falls anyway. After 500 steps we reached the base of the waterfall. It is incredible! Definitely the largest waterfall I have seen in my life. The pictures don't do it justice, but perhaps you can make out Jason in the corner of the second one, for a size comparison! Even though we were soaked, we still had a great time!

soaking wet but happy

La Catarata—Jason is in the lower right corner (click to enlarge)

In the evening we ate at the hotel, and had trés leches cake for dessert. It was sooo good (I seem to be writing a lot about food on this trip!). We fell asleep before 9 pm, we were so worn out from day 2 in paradise!