La Fortuna, Costa Rica
It took me the entire 20 minute taxi ride from the La Fortuna airstrip to our hotel to recover from the terror of our tiny puddle jumper of a plane. But the minute I stepped out of that taxi at our hotel and took one look around at where we were, I didn’t even remember the plane. It was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been.
We arrived around lunch time, dropped our bags in our room, and headed down to the poolside restaurant for lunch. And this, my friends, was the view:
The Arenal Kioro Hotel is located at the base of the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. It is absolutely beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. And the hotel itself is equally as beautiful.
My favorite part of the hotel is that it had these hot springs that you could actually sit in and relax after a long day. Amazing! I’m trying to figure out how to rig something like this up in our backyard. So far, Chris isn’t optimistic.
I took a little video tour of the hotel for you all. But then I freaked out some of the guests, so it stops really abruptly. But at least you can see where we were…
Our room was really, really nice, too. Each room at the resort had its own hot tub in the room, a full view of the volcano, and top of the line eco-friendly features. My favorite was that the only way to turn power on in your room was to insert your room key into this little holder by the front door. So, when you are ready to leave, you take your key out of the holder and the power in your room goes out to make sure they are saving power when no one is in the room. It was such a cool, easy to use, practical feature. I have also tried talking Chris into installing one in our house, but, again, he’s not optimistic.
We spent the first day relaxing by the pool, and then had a very luxurious dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was spectacular. So spectacular that I didn’t even pause to take pictures. Sorry, kids.
It was the second day in La Fortuna that was my favorite, though. We got up really early and were picked up by a car and a tour guide. They drove us about 15 minutes down the road from our hotel to the Arenal Hanging Bridges. If I had to pick my favorite excursion on our trip, this would probably be it. It was awesome! We hiked through the rainforest and crossed over eight large, suspension hanging bridges that gave incredible views of the rainforest.
It was a beautiful four hour hike through the rainforest. We saw all kinds of animals and wildlife, thanks to our awesome guide. This is poisonous frog (I can’t remember the name!). He was super loud, but when we finally found him, he was tiny! Reminded me of Bean, actually.
We also saw lots of monkeys, a few sloths, lots of humming birds, and these little raccoon-like things that our guide told us the name of 15,000 times, but I could never understand what she was saying.
Oh, and did I mention the snakes? Yeah. We saw two viper snakes as we hiked.
Now, I have always been taught to leave snakes the heck alone. But, apparently, our guide had not been taught the same lesson. She grabbed our cameras and crawled up within a couple feet of each viper and started snapping away. She never touched them (duh!) or seemed to bother them, but she got close enough to take a great picture. It was crazy!
(Speaking of our guide, if you ever find yourself in La Fortuna on a hanging bridge tour, do yourself a favor and request Indira as your guide. Best guide I’ve ever had for any kind of anything. She was so darn smart!)
I am notoriously afraid of heights. Don’t like ’em. Don’t do ’em. No way, no how. I keep my feet on the ground. But this was too good to miss. So before each hanging bridge, I’d get myself all psyched up to walk out on these incredibly high, wobbly bridges. I found the Rocky theme song to be particularly inspiring…
I also found talking in a British accent to be oddly soothing…
But as scared as I was to walk out on those bridges, it was totally worth it for the views!
Can you see the bridge in the center of this picture? That’s the “lower bridge.”
Now, do you see that bridge at the tip top of this picture? That’s the “high bridge.” I thought I was going to pass out when our guide showed it to us.
But it was views like this spectacular waterfall that made me keep going…
By the time our rainforest hike ended, it was lunch time. Chris and I came back to the hotel and had lunch at that same pool restaurant and then spent the afternoon being completely lazy. It was cloudy out and so we sat in the room and read for a couple hours, then headed down to the spa for volcanic mud facials. I had to really convince Chris to do it, but he loved it! It was awesome! When we finished at the spa, the weather had cleared up a bit and so we spent sunset sitting in one of the hot springs pools, drinking pina coladas and talking about how lucky we were, how happy we were, how relaxed we were, and how much we missed the kids.
It was maybe the best day of the entire trip.
Well…until that one day in our next stop, Quepos, where we upgraded from facials to Swedish massages next to the Pacific and stayed in the nicest hotel yet. I’ll show you that one tomorrow!
20 Comments
Jen @ Caved In
So happy you got to experience the hot springs! They were my favorite part of my trip. And if my hubby was on your hike, he would be trying to sneak those snakes home.
Stephanie @ Our Marriage Adventure
I thought your British tour video was quite inspiring. But then again I’d be the one leaning over the edge of those bridges, soooo perhaps I’m not exactly the brightest bulb in the bunch.
Casey @ The Baker Bee
OHMYGOSH I miss Costa. I’d like to move there tomorrow, please. Also, I think I swam at the base of that waterfall. It looks familiar. It was freezing cold.
Lindsey
Your videos cracked me up! “Oh bugga… I just saw it.. Way the FLIP up there.”
Samantha W.
Arenal is my favorite place in Costa Rica! Its so beautiful! And the raccoon-y animals you couldn’t hear the name of are called coatis in English, or pizotes in Spanish.
Ange @ The Urban Cowgirl
That looks so amazing!!!!
The racoon thingers are a coati – we’ve seen them at resorts in Mexico before 🙂
Chloe
Ah this is wonderful! Good advertising, definitely makes me want to go! (And be a millionaire).
Alaina
Beautiful! Looks like you had an amazing time!
Kelly H
Couple of things: a. that place is GORGEOUS! and I want to book a trip, like, nowish b. thanks for thinking of us while you were there and taking us on so many tours c. you are freaking HILARIOUS!!!! The videos of you on the hanging bridges had me laughing out loud 🙂
Kat
omg how do I get there? Looks heavenly!
Bronwen@Bronwenreads
AMAZING! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a fancy hotel! Hot springs! I think this might be heaven. Except for those bridges – I’m afraid of heights too:-B Thanks so much again for sharing all this info, just in case we, you know, win the lottery and get to go to CR and stay in a hotel like that.
Katie N.
This post just made my day. You are too funny, and I love the British accent! I also love Chris’s reaction to your videos and British accent…he and my husband are one in the same!
Rebecca @ The Reluctant Housewife
Wow… these two days look absolutely amazing!!!!
Juls
Looks like paradise!
Christy
Brilliant! Thank you for taking us with you and taking pictures/videos. I fancy Costa Rica. That bridge was completely mental! I love how Chris was all cheesed off.
P.S. These are all brittish phrases if you can’t tell by my Cockney accent.
Mallory
Your videos are really entertaining. Thanks for remembering your readers even while you were busy finding happiness 😉
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Places of interest in Costa Rica
You really have awesome collection of photos of Costa Rica I love it. I guess that you have long list of reader of your blog.
Rachel @ The Ongoing Planner
You are absolutely hilarious and you and Chris are so adorable! I can’t wait to go on vacation with my husband in 2 1/2 weeks to Italy!
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