After an early breakfast, most of our group decamped for the airport in San Jose. Steph and I had arranged for a shuttle to take us to La Fortuna, an area near the recently-active Volcan Arenal. The area is well-known for adventure sports and its proximity to the rainforest. It took us about 6 hours of bumpy, windy roads to arrive. My favorite item of note from the ride was passing wind farms in Guanacaste (if this is interesting to you, stay tuned for some incredible stats on renewable resource usage in Costa Rica):
We stayed at the Arenal Backpackers Resort (not one of my top recommendations to anyone who may head that way), where we had decided to try the safari tent accommodations. The tents were fun but ours, at least, got none of the refreshing mountain breeze that whipped through other parts of the hostel grounds. It was also a party hostel, and the tents were well-positioned...to receive most of the noise. Finally, there were several instances of "things gone missing" while we were there (nothing major for Steph and I, but I talked to another guy who was "unburdened" of both his sweatshirt and travel pillow in one day). One fun plus was the gecko that liked to hang out near the bathrooms:
After a quick lunch, we were picked up for the first of our excursions in the area: a rainforest hike leading to a 2010 lava flow from the Arenal Volcano. We went with a company called Desafio, and We were both happy with the experience. Our guides, Marcos and Andres, were bilingual, super informative, and liked to joke around. We learned that Costa Rica has 37 microclimates, and on the hike alone we experienced at least two: we started in the secondary rainforest and moved to the primary rainforest. The difference between the two is that the canopy in the secondary area is not as fully developed as a primary rainforest's canopy. The reason that the two levels existed here was because when the volcano had erupted a few hundred years ago and had destroyed the flora in the area where the secondary rainforest now stands; we were told that it takes around 500 years for a rainforest to regrow after a devastating event like a volcanic eruption.
We saw some fascinating things along the way.
A poison dart viper:
A tree that looks like a giraffe:
What I think was the national bird, the chestnut billed toucan:
A tarantula in a plant:
The lava flow itself (I was expecting smooth expanses, but should have checked in with Jon Zerbe first. I found out that this volcano produced basaltic lava, high in manganese, iron, and silica, and due to these components was more probe to break apart into the rocks that you see here):
Watching the sun peek through the storm over Lake Arenal:
Looking up towards the volcano:
After our hike, it was time to relax in some natural hot springs nearby: a great end to another fabulous day.
We slept in on Friday (partly to compensate for the party hostel scene's impact on sleeping during the night), and woke up ready for our ziplining canopy tour. Accompanied by the hilarious Alex and (a different) Andres, we spent the next hour or so flying through the jungle and practicing our best Tarzan yells. Beautiful views, conquering fears, and going faster than I thought possible, we zipped back to home base all too soon.
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| Photo by Andres on my phone |
After ziplining, we spent the afternoon exploring La Fortuna. There's one main street featuring the church, the park, and most of the businesses (most of them restaurants and tour companies), with several side streets to explore as well. We ate at Soda Viquez, a hole-in-the-wall highly (and rightly so) rated by Trip Adviser. We also bought lots of local goodies at the supermarket, Super Christian #2, before ducking into some souvenir shops on the way home. The afternoon was spent relaxing in hostel hammocks before grabbing an amazing seafood meal down a little side street.
The next morning we woke to an insistent pattering: it was raining in La Fortuna, and we were well-positioned to enjoy its soothing sounds. Fortunately, the tents were under a roof, so we could hear everything without getting wet. The birds continued to call, and it was a really relaxing way to wake up.
Luckily, it had all cleared by the time we set out on our rainforest chocolate tour. On the way to the finca (farm), our guide pointed out a storied part of the local landscape, called the Happy Sleeping Indian. Starting from the left, you can see his head, his chest, and then at the right (as the tour guide said) the reason he's so happy. Haha.
That ended up being an awesome experience: Steph and I were the only people there, so we had our guide, Valeria, all to ourselves. And she was awesome- one of the most knowledgeable and friendly guides I've ever had. We learned that cacao started growing in South America, but spread to Central America via the original Juan Cacao-Semillas (Johnny CocoaSeeds)...that is to say, indigenous peoples who had brought cacao pods with them to chew the sweet, white pulp around the seeds, and had discarded the seeds as they walked.
We saw how to hand-pollinate cacao trees, although bees are important in the natural version of this process.
There are several different colors of pods that grow, sometimes on the same tree!
This is what a new pod looks like inside (the white stuff was what I mentioned above):
The first step from here to cocoa lies in the fermentation process: seeds are fermented for 7 days (this box shows what they look like in each stage, with the beginning seeds in the bottom right box, moving counterclockwise to the seeds farthest along in fermentation found in the bottom left box):
After fermenting, they are dried for two weeks (they taste like bitter cocoa at this point):
Then the seeds are roasted (smoky flavor that I didn't care for):
Then it must be crushed, first roughly then more finely (this leads to chocolate nibs):
At this point, we learned, several things can happen. This product can be taken through more refining to separate out the cocoa butter from the cocoa powder (leading to two recognizable end products), OR it can be ground into cocoa liquor. That's the process we got to see, although there was nothing alcoholic about what we taste (womp), but it's called that because after the grinding, It begins to look more like a paste, due to the presence of the cocoa butter in the seed. From here, you can go two different directions.
The first is to whisk the cocoa liquor with water to make hot chocolate, which was a prestigious drink for the Aztecs, Olmecs, and other pre-Columbian societies. The word for chocolate may have come from their term for the drink, which meant "bitter water": they did not mix in sugar, only chile powder, corn, and vanilla (and maybe sometimes nutmeg). Steph and I got to sample several cups of cocoa (thankfully with sugar); I found myself liking the old Aztec version quite a bit.
The other product that can be made with the cocoa liquor is chocolate itself. We were also able to sample (too) many spoons of liquid chocolates plus mix-ins. I wish I had taken a picture of that: we could choose from four different flavorings (orange, almond, hazelnut, vanilla), add spices (hibiscus, cardamom, chile powder, etc), and finish it off with other toppings like nuts and raisins. AMAZING.
I would be remiss if I didn't touch on two more crazy wildlife sightings, a boa constrictor:
and some mating lizards:
As if that wasn't a good enough day already, we headed to see another waterfall up in the rainforest. It was about 70-75 meters high (230-245 feet), and the pressure of its cascade created a strong whirlpool current in the swimming hole beneath it. There were 497 steps down to it, but it was totally worth the climb back up to see it.
And on the way home, the top of Volcan Arenal peeked out from the clouds for a few minutes:
We were incredibly hungry at this point, and opted to try the Italian pizzeria for lunch.
We did a little more browsing in the shops of La Fortuna, but I noticed a growing gastrointestinal discomfort. I spent the next few hours running back and forth between the tent and the bathroom, but was lucky enough that by about 9, my stomach had calmed down. It was hard to figure out what made my stomach upset: the only difference in what Steph and I ate was the mushrooms on my pizza at lunch, but I had already been feeling iffy before that meal. And weirdly enough, she got sick, but two days after me. Strange- but I'll still count myself lucky that it only infringed on one night.
I wasn't sure how my body would handle it, but gamely went along to our pre-planned paddleboarding session. Hansel and Will picked up us and we drove to Lake Arenal. After a brief dockside lesson on the basics of standing and balancing, we were on our way. It was a great workout, coupled with an amazing view of the volcano.
We paddled nearly 4 kilometers across the width of the lake, and took the boat back to the dock where we'd started. On the way, we learned that the dam on the lake had been built with lava rocks from the 1968 explosion.
The hydroelectric power generated by the dam accounts for an amazing 73% of the country's power needs. The windmills we saw account for 4%, geothermal sources another 13%. For those of you keeping score out there, as Dave Voigt would say, 90% of the country's energy usage comes from renewable sources. Incredible.
That afternoon, we packed our bags and got an awkward massage...we had found out about a deal offered in one of the local salons, for $35, you'd get a massage, a reflexology session for your feet, and a mini-facial. We arrived for the massage, and only one masseuse was there. We wondered how this was going to go down, but disrobed and arranged ourselves on the table (oh yes, there was only one massage room, so we got a de facto couples massage). This was only the beginning. The masseuse started by alternating between each of us...then suddenly, another woman had entered the room and became Masseuse #2. We started to relax...as much as the pan flute renditions of American hits of the '90 s played, including "Have You Ever Really Love a Woman", "Tears in Heaven", and the Titanic theme song. When we opened our eyes again at the end, the second masseuse was gone.
Our last dinner together was at the Rainforest Cafe, which serves giant patacones and empanadas. Nom.
