La Fortuna

We arrived to La Fortuna/Arenal around 11:45 in the morning. We were quite surprised as to how nice the hotel/ resort that we stayed in was. We just about decided to cancel it since it would create longer travel to get back to the coast and the fact that we would have to spend more money on semi private shuttles. All in all we kept with our original plan. When we arrived we automatically could see into the lobby which was very nice. The staff greeted us and gave us cool towels to cool off from traveling. There was a souvenir shop, a couple different sitting areas, computers, wifi, and they even have laptops available for those people that need to use them. Our room wasn’t ready so we just hung out in the lobby area and we ended up meeting this baby-boomer aged man from Oregon. We didn’t get his name, but he was very nice. He travels a lot with work and he told us that he came here with a group of 90 people all around his age and some even older than him to Costa Rica. They had been to several different cities and some of them were leaving Wednesday and others who were retired were staying much longer. He was curious as to where we were from and what we were doing here; the usual questions when you first meet someone traveling. When they arrived in San Jose, they rented these old classic convertible cars that you would see at car shows to travel around in Costa Rica. They were all parked in a neat little row around the corner from the lobby area. I never thought that you could do that here, rent specific cars that are vintage, but apparently you can. It was very creative and a different way to see the different parts of the country. He told us that our hotel was newly constructed at the end of 2006. The view of the Arenal Volcano was amazing and the hotel is located in one of the most privileged areas that has the most exuberant nature in the area. One of the staff workers, Javier, who I called Javie took us on the golf cart to our room. What was behind the door was nothing we had expected. We had a king size bed with a huge down comforter, one full size bed, a breakfast table that looks out the sliding glass doors that lead to a patio with our own private Jacuzzi and rocking chairs facing the volcano, and the biggest most creative bathroom I have ever seen. The bathroom had two different types of showers: one was a waterfall shower made out of rocks and had plants to decorate it, and the other was a glass shower that had a state of the art hydro massage shower head. There was a huge hotsprings pool with a swim up wet bar, and a open indoor/outdoor restaurant. We were pretty exhausted from traveling and getting up early so we took advantage of the big comfy bed and watched tv and took a refreshing nap before heading off to the central downtown part of La Fortuna with shops and restaurants. We caught the last shuttle from downtown back to the hotel, and we met a really nice family from Florida on vacation. We played the question game and I told them I had been studying in San Jose for the past month for a medical study abroad. Well, when I said those words the mom all of sudden got very interested and wanted to know more about it. She was so intrigued and told me how great it was that I was learning medical Spanish. To my surprise it turns out that she is a nurse, and her husband is a general surgeon. They both told me that going to PA school was such a great decision with the way health care will most likely change and the uncertainty of how physicians will fare from it. They were such a nice family and we all had lots to talk about; especially the big football rivals of Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. That night, Emily and I ate at the restaurant of the hotel, and it was excellent. I had been craving pasta so that’s what I ate: chicken fettuccine alfreado. Emily got a lasagna with vegetables plate and we definitely ate it all. We took a long time to eat and then went to the hot springs pool for the rest of the night. We met back up with Kyle, who is the boy that is part of the Florida Family we talked to earlier. We had so much fun talking with the bartender and getting to know him. There was a couple from Spain that joined us in the pool they were from the Basque part of the country and the man’s English was very good. I left the pool earlier than everyone else because I was very tired. We had a long day and we were getting up early to travel to our next destination. I also was excited to sleep in a huge comfy bed in a very cold room. I’m so glad that we decided to stick with the original plan and go to Arenal. It was a great experience and we had a great stay. Hasta Pronto…