For our first full day in Arenal, we had breakfast at the little dining area - a huge buffet included with our room. The fruit was incedibly fresh and delicious every day. If you like pineapple, papya, and bananas, you are going to love Costa Rica. After supplying ourselves with food, we went on a Sky Tram ride up to the top of a platform that offers some absolutely beautiful views of the active side of the Arenal Volcano and the man-made Arenal Lake. The shuttle that took us there seemed to be filled with trendy older-hipsters. Somehow, we just did not seem to fit in with them, as they discussed their new cars and all of the money they were spending here and there. Fortunately, we were separated from them upon our arrival, as they wanted to zipline down the mountain and we had already decided we were going to do that in Monteverde. So, they matched us up with another group of folks that were pretty nice. We had two guides - one was very new to the area, she was from Bahli and I think the other one was helping her out.
After we got to the upper platform and took lots of pictures, they took us on a small rainforest hike and explained lots of nature to us. As our first tour and nature seminar, it was really good. They refreshed our memory of epiphites and bromiliades and were really nice. After all of that was done, we made our way back to the platform for our ride back down. It was a really nice and easy trip, and helped get us oriented.
One thing I noticed that was different from my trip to Italy was it seemed like absolutely no one had done any preparatory work in anticipation of the trip, let alone thought to carry a guide book around with them. I could not seem to get my head around this, as I seemed to use my book even more once I got there. It helped us find our way to a local ecological park that is affiliated with the local schools - teaching lots of nature classes. For only a few dollars, we got to wander around the whole park that was completely devoid of tourists except for us and see a sloth, iguanas, herons, poison dart frogs, a butterfly garden, and all sorts of other stuff. It was really awesome, and so incredibly inexpensive. An entire experience I would have missed without my guidebook.
Afterwards, we made our way into the town, had lunch at the great inexpensive place recommended by my guidebook, found a couple of ATMs and a grocery store. Once again, nearly no tourists were to be found in our restaurant. The grocery store was really helpful for getting water and snack food. As is to be expected, water can be really expensive in the hotels and gift shops. All the money saved could be put towards activities, food, and souvenirs.
That night, we had planned on going to a steak restaurant recommended by my guidebook, but our hotel concierge said that we would like this other place more. So, he had us go there. It really was good. I had this half of chicken cooked in banana leaves with this delicious sauce. Fantastic. And my girlfriend had some steak, which was also really good. Even though this was probably one of the nicest restaurants in the entire town, it was probably about as expensive as going to Chili's here in the US. Completely ridiculous.
It was a very productive day and just what we needed in anticipation of our long day coming up.
After we got to the upper platform and took lots of pictures, they took us on a small rainforest hike and explained lots of nature to us. As our first tour and nature seminar, it was really good. They refreshed our memory of epiphites and bromiliades and were really nice. After all of that was done, we made our way back to the platform for our ride back down. It was a really nice and easy trip, and helped get us oriented.
One thing I noticed that was different from my trip to Italy was it seemed like absolutely no one had done any preparatory work in anticipation of the trip, let alone thought to carry a guide book around with them. I could not seem to get my head around this, as I seemed to use my book even more once I got there. It helped us find our way to a local ecological park that is affiliated with the local schools - teaching lots of nature classes. For only a few dollars, we got to wander around the whole park that was completely devoid of tourists except for us and see a sloth, iguanas, herons, poison dart frogs, a butterfly garden, and all sorts of other stuff. It was really awesome, and so incredibly inexpensive. An entire experience I would have missed without my guidebook.
Afterwards, we made our way into the town, had lunch at the great inexpensive place recommended by my guidebook, found a couple of ATMs and a grocery store. Once again, nearly no tourists were to be found in our restaurant. The grocery store was really helpful for getting water and snack food. As is to be expected, water can be really expensive in the hotels and gift shops. All the money saved could be put towards activities, food, and souvenirs.
That night, we had planned on going to a steak restaurant recommended by my guidebook, but our hotel concierge said that we would like this other place more. So, he had us go there. It really was good. I had this half of chicken cooked in banana leaves with this delicious sauce. Fantastic. And my girlfriend had some steak, which was also really good. Even though this was probably one of the nicest restaurants in the entire town, it was probably about as expensive as going to Chili's here in the US. Completely ridiculous.
It was a very productive day and just what we needed in anticipation of our long day coming up.
0 comments:
Post a Comment