Into Costa Rica

Our last couple of days in Nicaragua were spent reaching the area of El Castillo, located on the Rio San Juan 2 hours or so downstream from the city of San Carlos. Our main attraction to this area was a fort that was built here by the Spanish in 1673, Castillo De La Immaculado Concepcion, along with the natual beauty surrounding the fort. The fort itself was awesome and virtually empty, I guess the 2 hour boat ride is somewhat of a deterrent for the casual visitor. The museum was great as well, with english subtitles! The area along the Rio San Juan has a ton of history, the fort was built to prevent pirate attacks on the city of Granada, and the river for a very long time was going to be the site of a canal linking the Caribbean with the Atlantic.

The town itself was kinda cool, its only reached by boat so there were no cars or anything like that. We didn´t have much time to spend there as we were about 10 days over on our visa already so it was a quick trip down to visit the Castle and back to San Carlos.












San Carlos doesn´t have much to offer, but it was kind of a nice town to spend the night in before leaving for Costa Rica the next day. We got a pretty cheap room with a nice balcony, it was about the only Hospedaje in town that wasnt "full", this is what they tell you when it´s basically only used for by the hour activities or to house poor local people. When shower time came though, I was all stripped down with towel in hand, I tried to turn on the water and nothing happens. So I go in the next stall (it´s a common area bathroom, typically in cheap hospedajes) and try there, nothing again. I tell the lady working and she hands me a 5 gallon bucket, which she motions me to dip into a 50 gallon barrel of water to fill up. So a bucket shower it was, and another extremely normal situation to be in in Nicaragua.

The border crossing into Costa Rica was by boat. Immigration was a breeze and the border agent overlooked our 10 day overstay, which would of been a $2 per day fine (money fixes everything down here). There is supposed to be a CA-4 agreement between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador where one entry into one of these countries gives you a visa for all. Well, it doesn´t quite work out so nicely, as none of the borders all agree on...well anything. And all are looking to make a few extra bucks off of you anytime you cross a border, money that literally goes into the agents pocket. This time, we win. Anyways, the crossing was pretty beautiful, and actually went across a waterway that people were paying to take a tour on! We saw a couple monkeys and some birds, and possibly a crocodile. Getting into Costa Rica took longer than probably any other entry we´ve had, but was still pretty fast. We got on a bus and headed for La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal.

It´s a different world here in Costa Rica. Buses run on schedule and on time, toilet seats are not considered a luxury item and I had my first hot shower in 7 weeks. Times are good down here. We spent the night in La Fortuna at a place called Gringo Petes, the cheapest in town but ran by a stinky old man. In the morning we bussed out to the volcano.

Volcan Arenal was one of the most active volcanoes in the world up until a couple of years ago. A hiker, her daughter and a guide were killed in 2000 by an explosion of lava or something. In 1968 it erupted and destroyed 3 small villages in the area, and it has had multiple eruptions after. It is now a National Park, but due to it´s history, only a couple of trails lead around the base of it and there is no entry beyond a certain point. But we walked around the trails and watched it for awhile, it didn´t look like the clouds would clear but they did, and we got a nice view of the top which was belching just a little bit of steam from it.

The bus system in CR isn´t as good as the rest of Central America, in terms of frequency and availabilty. Most likely because private vehicles are pretty common down here, while they are virtually unheard of in other CA countries. So instead of waiting for the next bus (5 hours) we caught a ride with a nice man and his son, and saw these awesome critters along the way! They are Coatis, or known as Pizotes down here and are part of the racoon family. These ones were very friendly and came right up to the car, the result of too many tourists feeding the wildlife.

With one more ride and a bus, we made it all the way to Liberia, the door to Rincon De La Vieja National Park. We lucked out and found a place to camp in town, on the lawn of a Bar/Hotel/Restaurant for only 2 bucks! The lawn was covered in mangos as well, but I took great care so that I wouldn´t contract the mange again. Rachel said the Karaoke in the bar ran until 4 in the morning, but I slept right through it.

The park is a bit difficult to get to without your own vehicle, but we caught an early morning bus to a nearby village and started walking up the road. We got to a guy guarding a little yellow gate that said 700 for admission, about $1.25 U.S. It supposedly is a private road, although it is the one that leads to the park. The price is per person, and the guy expected us to pay it just to walk through. After about 10 minutes of hassling him he gave up, turned his back to us and just waved us through. We win, again.

Rincon De La Vieja is often compared with Yellowstone because of the thermal activity that goes on there. Once we got in the park and got ready, we started our hike up to the summit of 2 craters. Didn´t see a whole lot going up, a couple of monkeys I think. Once we got above tree line the views got really good, and the summit was incredible.  Here is Rachel on a cool ridge line, and me showing how happy I am to be on top of an active volcano.













The one summit had a lake that must of had quite a bit of activity going on in it, Rachel described the smell as a "toxic tuna melt" and when the wind changed and the steam hit you I likened it to walking in on someone taking a really hot shower while eating an egg sandwhich. The fumes from it actually burned your eyes, it was pretty weird. Here is Rachel peering into the abyss.

That night the rangers for the park let us camp in the parking lot as long as we packed up before they opened, awesome! We spent the rest of our evening seeing how we could combine the food we had into a dinner, we came up with the double decker refried beans and onion with black pepper and ketchup sandwhich. Delicious.

Next morning we went on a short loop trail that passed all sort of thermal features; fumaroles, mud pots, a mini volcano and other sorts of bubbling stews.













Since our time in CR is pretty limited, I sort of mapped out a plan for our 3 weeks here. We´ve been making pretty good time and are ahead of schedule already so we decided to come and visit Volcan Poas, stay tuned.