Shuttle Day

After leaving our suitcases outside our Airbnb, we wandered into town. In La Fortuna there is an enclosed outdoor mall, and we found a smoothie shop. We ordered two smoothies and sat in the shade. They were delicious—I may just drink smoothies for the rest of the trip!

We headed back toward our Airbnb and stopped to pick up some groceries. Our next Airbnb would be outside of town.

Once back at the Airbnb, we talked with Nancy, a very nice woman, probably around 30. She lives in the Airbnb, and when she rents it out she stays downstairs with her mother. It’s almost like a family commune—she’s the oldest of eight children, and they all live on the property or nearby.

Nancy pointed out a family of monkeys in the trees across the river. Earlier that morning we had seen a toucan in the guarumo (trumpet) tree. Animals eat the seeds from that tree. On their property they also had a banana tree and a coconut tree.

The only downside was that we were close to the road. The first night we heard trucks and dogs barking most of the night. The next night it rained, the dogs were inside, and with the fan on it almost drowned out the truck noise. We slept very well.

Our shuttle picked us up at two and drove past the Arenal Volcano area. Then, surprisingly, we stopped at Lake Arenal and transferred ourselves and our luggage onto a ferry. It was a relaxing, misty ride across the lake.

On the other side we were picked up by another shuttle. This ride quickly turned into quite an adventure! The road was either rocky and bumpy or filled with potholes. We crossed two bridges. The first was so narrow that the driver had to back up to carefully position the shuttle in the center. He called it the “Oh My God Bridge,” which I may have muttered myself.

The second bridge was called the “Carwash Bridge” because it crosses a river where the water flows right over the bridge. Several times I looked out the window and could see a steep drop below. Yikes!

The rest of the ride was beautiful- seeing ‘green Costa Rica’ all around us! As we drove up into the mountains, the temperature noticeably dropped!