Costa Rica
La Fortuna
Wednesday March 13
Costa Rica here we are! Tuesday night we had checked in to La Chorza Inn for $35. Between that and cokes jumping up to $2 a piece we were in a state of shock at how much everything was costing! Luckily the hotel included a pretty decent breakfast in the morning so we made sure to stuff ourselves sufficiently. After breakfast we took our stuff and moved to Hostel Backpacker, it was the same price but it wasn’t ant infested and it had AC! :) La Fortuna is a really cool little town and a big hot spot for tourists, it is on the north east side of Lake Arenal. They have zip lines, canopy tours, horseback riding all that fun high adventure stuff. Wednesday we decided to walk to the waterfall Catarata De La Fortuna (which means waterfall of La Fortuna, someone must have put a lot of thought in to naming this one...) . Instead of paying the $20 to have a taxi take us there and back, we opted to walk the 8 km each way, haha! We tried hitching a ride from someone, but apparently nobody felt bad enough for the Gringos on the side of the road to stop and let them in. Luckily the waterfall was amazing so it was totally worth the long arduous walk even if McKay did get blisters from his man crocs and had to walk barefoot half the way! :)
Waabam! We made it!
Luckily it wasn’t all bad news when it came to the prices here, I mean check out this sweet offer, buy two 2 liters and receive a free can of tuna. Seriously, who doesn’t love free tuna!? :)
The sure and steady path down to the waterfall…
First view of the waterfall in the jungle!
McKay chose to wear this shirt ironically today, because clearly walking 16km is anything but lazy....
Swimming under the waterfall!
By the time we got down to the swimming hole we were the only ones left. This is McKay just lookin like a boss swimming under a 75 meter waterfall! The current was so strong he kept putting his head down and swimming as hard as he could and wouldn't move anywhere.
Don't be fooled by the smiles on our faces, this water was freezing freezing freezing!
Thursday March 14
Since our hotel no longer included a free breakfast we spent half the morning wandering around looking for a cheap place to eat and then ended up settling on granola bars anyway. :) After that we caught a combi for $6 each up to the Volcano Arenal National Park. Normally it's $10 each to get in but for some reason when we got there the guy told us it was free that day! Our first thought was, "Wahoo, we can afford lunch now!" :) We spent the day walking around the park, they had some awesome viewing areas of the volcano, unfortunately 90% of the year it's completely covered by clouds. They also had an awesome jungle walk where we got to see all kinds of different birds and little animals. I was fine until about half way through the walk McKay asked me how many snakes I had seen, after that things are kind of a blur as I was basically running back to the entrance.... :) By the time we got done we had just missed a combi and were going to have to wait 2 hours for the next one, so we tried our luck at hitch hiking again and got picked up by the second car that passed. It was an empty tourism van and the guy was so nice and wouldn't let us pay at the end, we were beyond stoked! We came back and had a late lunch at a locals only type shop, that was awesome and cheap!
Just imagine a volcano hidden behind that beautiful cloud cover!
Here's a map of the park that proves there really is a Volcano up there!
We're nothing if not risk takers
This is the amazing view we had for lunch, the Volcano to our back the lake out in front!
Another shot of the lake!
This tree is 40 meters tall and over 400 years old and it's the only one like it in the middle of the jungle, cray cray!
Stumbled across this little guy walking down the path, a few minutes later we found the rest of the herd!
We've resorted to looking like drunks walking around with our 1 liter bottle of Coke everywhere we go. It's the cheapest way to buy it, never mind all the stares! :)
If that's not a classy dinner, I don't know what is! :)
This book's been good too us! Unfortunately it's now dead weight so we had to say goodbye.
Friday March 15
Woke up and took the 4:30 a.m. bus to get to San Jose for our flight to Paraguay! Got to the airport and found out once we got in to Asuncion we were going to have to buy a $160 visa each, talk about a shock to the system! After a layover in Panama and a 3 hour time change, we got in to Asuncion around 11:40 at night. It took us another hour and a half to get through customs and get our Visa sorted and by the time we got out the ride we had arranged to our hotel was gone. Luckily the airport had wifi so we were able to call the hotel and they sent the driver back. All in all we didn't get in to bed until well after 2, we were exhausted!
This was our first real drinking fountain in 3 months! We were legitimately stoked to see free water like I've never been stoked before and made sure to take full advantage of this opportunity!
Panama, where you can pay $12 for the $6 burger!
Our $320 photo shoot and he didn't even get my best side!
Paraguay
Asuncion
March 16-18
Saturday March 16
We were so tired from the night before but woke up in a panic because breakfast only went until 10:30, luckily we made it down in time and on our way we were finally able to take in our hotel. Because we were getting in so late we had to book a hotel that had 24 hour reception service and the cheapest we could find was $66. It ended up being an inn that was attached to a 5 star hotel! The hotel was so nice, and the inside reminded me of a slightly run down version of the Grand America. The bonus to staying on the inn side was that we got the same fancy breakfast as the hotel guests, it was a big buffet spread with lots of breads and cheeses and fruit, we loved it! That day we walked around the main square of Asuncion and checked the city out. It is a really cool city that has so much personality, lots of high rises and old buildings, the only downside is it is so run down. Half the buildings in down town are abandoned and covered in graffiti and everyone warned us over and over don't go out at night and stay away from certain areas even in the day! We didn't have any problems, but it definitely isn't the kind of place I'd take a kindergarten class on a field trip! :)
The amazing view from our room! Fun fact, Paraguay was the first South American country to gain independence which they did in 1811, they also built the first train system on the continent. Now you're jealous right?
Massive room complete with a King size bed! It was so far from one side of the room to the other, I had to stop for a water break every time I tried to do the crossing in one swoop.
No bathroom is complete without a bidet (yes, that's the correct spelling, I looked it up and everything!)
A statue commemorating something important that happened at some point in Paraguayan history, I'm sure...
Sunday March 17
We still hadn't acclimated to the time and barely made it down for breakfast again! After that we headed out to find a ward and from there walked to the black market! It was a good thing we had our hearts set on the black market because it was a long ways away. Luckily we found lots of goodies for super cheap when we got there! For example, we are now the proud new owners of some sweet $3 Ray Bans, a $4.50 Adidas sports watch, and a plethora of cheap knock off soccer jerseys! Paraguay is like the China of South America, all the Brazilians and Argentines come there to buy everything. Later we came back and enjoyed some pool time. That night we ate a cute little outdoor restaurant right on the main square.
The two story church complete with a family history center, institute and anything else you could possibly want from a church building. I intentionally dressed to try and blend in with the church this day....
Mercado, I am clearly pumped to be there!
They didn't actually serve any juice here, I mean with a name like pulp I expected there to be juice, but sadly no juice...
Monday March 18
After enjoying our final gourmet breakfast, we took a public bus to the bus station and found a bus to Ciudad Del Este, which is right on the border of Argentina. We got there around 5:30 and had to wait around until 7 for the last and final bus to Puerto Iguazu in Argentina. After thinking we had everything squared away we got on the bus and told the driver we needed to stop at Immigration to get our passports stamped, it doesn't always stop because the locals don't have to check out of the country. Unfortunately he had his own plans of what was going to happen and just drove straight through. The problem with this was that it is not a straight shot in to Argentina, we had to pass through Brazil first, which requires an expensive visa as well, so we couldn't just get off the bus and head back to the border. We were sweating bullets when we finally got to the Argentina border worried they weren't going to let us in and imagining all the terrible things that were going to happen to us when they took us in to the interrogation room to torture us until they realized we didn't have anything to hide. As it turns out that was the least of our problems and they didn't care one bit about us not checking out of Paraguay. What they did care about was us having to pay another $160 reciprocity fee! This is much different (said sarcastically) from a Visa and is charged solely based on the cost that Argentine's have to pay to apply for a Visa to the US. The fee allows us to come and go as we please for the next 10 years, too bad we'll never be able to travel again because of how much it cost, ya know it's like a catch 22... They started charging for these in 2009 but at first only for flights coming in to Buenos Aires and then of course, as is our luck, in January of this year they changed it to encompass all entry points in to Argentina. I'm just gonna tell you, that one hurt a lot!
Classy final breakfast! We fit right in with our t-shirt, jeans, bad breath, and bed head from waking up and heading straight down to breakfast! :)
Fancy pool! If only I could get my husband to show a little personality in these pictures...
Excelsior Inn! Goodbye old friend...
This was my face after realizing that we had paid to use a nasty bathroom in the bus station in Ciudad Del Este, and there had been a free one behind us the whole time! :)
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