La Fortuna, Costa Rica
As I laid in bed at 3:30 AM after a night of writing, feeling accomplished and ready to close my laptop, I happened to glance at the date.
“Oh wow, its Earth Day!”, I think, (my circadian rhythm curses me)
“Wait, that means it’s the anniversary of Ashley’s birthday trip too!”
“Well I’ve been meaning to get caught up on my destination posts… Costa Rica would be perfect to honor Earth Day, and the anniversary of when I first visited!”
“Thats it. Im writing a Costa Rica Post in honor Earth day right now, I have to, I just have to, everyone will understand that I was just sleeping when I don’t wake up until 5pm to text them back tommorow.”
Welcome to the sporadic specimen that is my brain.. and Happy Earth Day beautiful people! Next to all the little thoughts I wrote above, I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to honor our mother Earth with than the beautiful Alejuela Province in Costa Rica.
When I picture my first time visiting Costa Rica, there’s always a scene that plays back in my mind. On the third day of our trip we went whitewater rafting, but we chose the intermediate/easy route so it was basically just a boat ride (lol). But, boy was it GORGEOUS. I remember when the waters got more calm, gazing out at all the beautiful nature, we all heard some little voices screaming “Hola!” at us. They were little kids, just playing in the lake outside of their house. I looked at our tour guide and said “Wow, they look so happy.” It was harmony. He responded,
“We live simply here, so it’s easy to be happy. We take care of our nature. We don’t use technology. That’s why our motto is Pura Vida.”
Pura Vida. Pure Life. I was witnessing it there in the flesh. I remember saying, “I could totally move here,” but if you are my friend, coworker, family member, ex-boyfriend, or current boyfriend, you will probably roll your eyes and say “she literally says that about every place she goes.” While I’ll admit I have a bad tendency of becoming infatuated with almost every place I visit, I stay true to my word when it comes to Costa Rica. The nature, simplicity, and overall harmonious way of living in La Fortuna could surely make most people fall in love. But for now, I’ll inspire your future love story by telling you all about mine.
After one too many drinks on our delayed and uncomfortable flight, we finally landed in the capital city, San Jose. The five of us went to go pick up our rental car in the pouring rain. Regardless of the conditions and the fact that we had a 3 hour drive ahead of us, we were still so giddy.
Fast forward two hours into an extremely bumpy car ride, I am cursing myself for thinking it was the “polite thing” to offer to sit in the very back. I am begging my friend Stephanie to give me more Zofran. It isn’t helping. My head is buried in my lap, “This is hell, just kill me,” I said.
Fast forward to the next morning. I wake up in our villa in the mountains to the most beautiful view. I run outside in excitement. “Holy crap it looks like heaven!” There are few things I loathe more than being nauseous for a period of time that long in an enclosed space, but there are few things more beautiful than what my eyes woke up to that morning.
I was fortunate enough to find out about the Villas we stayed at by word of mouth. While I was still living in Orlando out at dinner, I excitedly told my server I was going to Costa Rica soon. She said I absolutely had to stay where she and her husband had stayed, a place called La Finca. She raved about the mountain views, toucans outside your window, and excellent hospitality. She honestly could have just stopped at toucans outside my window because she had me there already.
La Finca exceeded our expectations beyond belief. It was a family owned lodge located on a farm in La Fortuna. The husband and son rode around on ATVs doing maintenance, while the wife cooked us the most delicious Gallo Pinto breakfast every morning. Next to the horses on their farm, they even had a pet Water Buffalo the dad had bought for his son. He said his son wanted a lion so he had to settle for a water buffalo instead. Apparently he was a pretty friendly fellow too, they offered to let Ashley ride him for her birthday (The water buffalo, not the son.)
When visiting La Fortuna, the obvious must do thing is to go see the Volcano La Arenal. We spent our first day zip-lining around it and then repelling down from a waterfall, to say it was an incredible experience would be an understatement.
We booked our ziplining/ repelling tour with Tripadvisor. The repelling was an optional experience, but very easy to add on and very much worth it. You’ll feel like Lara Croft… or Indiana Jones.
Our hosts at La Finca made the rest of the trip an absolute breeze. We hadn’t pre-booked any other tours, so they went out of their way to set up each and every one for us, even the whitewater rafting that had no affiliation with their lodge, but they happened to be good friends with the tour guides. However seemingly big La Fortuna was, everyone seemed to know each other, everyone was friendly, it was a literal and figurative feeling of warmth.
After whitewater rafting, we had local cuisine on the outskirts of La Fortuna that came along with the total tour cost. The next day, La Finca set us up to ride ATVs around the mountains and into the famous hot springs. This was my personal favorite day, as I am a huge advocate of anything adrenaline junky-esque, like getting to speed around Costa Rican mountains on an ATV with a tour guide who lets you run free. The delicious mojitos we had when we got to the hot springs were just the cherry on top of an incredible day.
With Dinner being included in most of our tours, the next day was the first time we ate out. We were recommended by locals to try out Restaurante Tierra Mia, a Latin American food themed place that makes my mouth water just typing about it. The hospitality we were shown here lived up to the hype just as much as the delicious tropical chicken did.
We spent our last day in La Finca horsebackriding around the fields, we saw pineapple farms, wild animals, and tried sugar cane straight from the source. It was amazing, until it started pouring rain. Another tour guide rode up on his horse and he had a plastic cover, I asked if I could borrow it because my makeup was running.
He kindly gave it to me, but before I could even place it properly, my horse starting going nuts galloping away, the tour guides ran after until they caught up with me. I almost fell off, but they came to my rescue beforehand. Apparently my horse had a plastic phobia. So I just said screw it, cue “Coming Clean,” by Hilary Duff.
Later that night, we attended the local fair and enjoyed some Costa Rican street food. We even met some fun locals who let us show them how the US does drinking games (so basically we just chugged lots of beer together.)
It was the perfect ending to an imperfectly perfect trip. I left a piece of my heart there that I will never get back, but honestly, La Fortuna, you deserve it all.
I hope you enjoyed my Earth Day inspired love story, so much that you make your own trek out to see how wonderful this place truly is for yourself. When Mother Earth gifts us with nature as beautiful as La Fortuna’s, the concept of Pura Vida is easily understood in us all.
Goodnight (morning) to all you people out there on a normal sleep schedule, and Happy Earth Day.
With love,
Clare
