The best of adventure travel means sometimes you have something Interesting, wonderful, and disappointing, all in one day!

This morning we traveled out of town to get to La Fortuna.  We had opted for the more interesting combination of transportation – by bus, then horse, then boat, and then combi (shuttle).

Moving by horse was a great choice

Rebecca and I on our horses, the volcano in the background

The bus ride was fun. Lots of curvy roads and beautiful scenery. Then the bus driver stopped on a country road and ran inside a house with a bunch of bananas. Bringing his mom some bananas maybe? Anyway, he returned quickly.

Then he stopped on the road again, in a remote area this time and said something in Spanish. I caught the words chicas, and caballos (horses); so I assumed he meant for us to get off the bus. It felt kind of funny – a bus full of tourists and we were the only ones getting off.

The bus drove off and we were happy to see someone was there to greet us. It was so wonderful.

Every time our guide got the horses to trot I was grinning ear to ear. Unfortunately, Rebecca has found that maybe she isn’t meant to ride horses as she had some back pain. No more horses this trip.

Arriving at the Volcano

But what a view we had of the volcano! When we arrived for the boat, it was a huge tour boat and just Rebecca and me inside. We arrived on the other side and had to carry all of our luggage to the top of a hill, then meet up with a combi. It arrived fairly quickly and we had a quick ride into town.

Rebecca enjoying the free drink at the pool bar

Our hostel is very nice looking, the Arenal Hostel Resort. There is a nice little pool and bar – not something you generally see at a hostel. The entrance was on the main road, but it’s tucked away from all the noise. There are nice hammocks to rest in, and it’s very clean.

Feel like I’m surrounded by used car salesmen

We walked around town a little. I started to feel like we were sidestepping mines and scary car salesmen. Everywhere people were trying to sell us tours and trips. The thing is, we were now in the part of our trip where we had to watch our funds, so we weren’t interested in spending money on day trips. We stopped in a store where a local started talking to us about things we could do in town. The conversation seemed to be going great and we asked about free things to do around town. He said, “follow me”.

Rebecca and I have always found great coffee on this trip

We followed him and he brought us right to a packaged tour place where they tried to sell us a $75 per person package. Um, no thanks.

Hot Hostel

The one downside to the hostel was the bunk room was so hot during the night, it was difficult to sleep.

I would say that if I come back to Costa Rica, I would take the trip from Monteverde, but forget staying in La Fortuna.

Want to see more:
Day 8 Monteverde, Costa Rica
Day 10 La Fortuna, Costa Rica

I’m Sonja Dewing. I’m an award winning creative writer, a published author of Toy of the Gods, an adventure in the Amazon. If you’d like a free copy of the prequel, Ire of the Gods, sign up for my email list and you’ll get it right away.