Costa Rica – Day 2 – Adventures With Crystal

If I could repeat Costa Rica Day 2 a thousand times over, I would. Without hesitation.

Thursday morning, the sunlight creeps into my eyes. I am really here.

It’s an early-morning delightful feeling, to know immediately adventure is waiting.

I know it’s technically Day 2, but it’s my first day waking up in a new country, and I feel Brand New.

There’s a feeling I get sometimes when laughing with friends in the car or after a good work-out where it feels as if I’m more alive than ever. Costa Rica makes me feel this way.

The anxieties from the night before quiet down. Being in a foreign country and traveling alone was much scarier in my head. I close my eyes for a moment and give thanks and appreciation for this trip.

I pop up out of bed and head down for the “Tico” breakfast — “Tico” is a colloquial term for a native of Costa Rica.

My favorite Tico breakfast is usually chicken-rice, eggs, and beans, called Arroz con Pollo. I can barely pronounce it correctly, but the servers have sympathy. Regardless of the name, it packs the right amount of protein without the grease.

I take my breakfast outside to the patio and sip on delightful Costa Rica coffee. The blends here are so smooth, black coffee tastes sweet.

The “Pura Vida” lifestyle — ” pure life ” in Spanish — means there’s no rush. In Hawai’i, we affectionately called it “Island Time.” Everything slows down when you decide to pay attention.

Today is the first breakfast in months where I actually taste my food and sip coffee slowly. Nothing like my daily rush from my home to work back to my home.

The night before, I write in my journal for quite some time, listening to music playlists I made for the trip.

You can listen to my Spotify music playlist below. There might be a curse word or two, but there isn’t egregious language in any of the tracks.

? Listen to My Spotify “Quiet” music playlist here

Playlists keep me company when I’m alone.

I pay to subscribe to Spotify’s premium channel for two reasons — no commercials, which keeps the flow of traveling moving, and there’s a feature to download songs and listen to them “offline” — that’s if you don’t have an international travel phone plan or you don’t have a wireless connection. I also like having the unlimited skips option and being able to pull up any song that’s stuck in my head.

With the playlist going, I move along.

As a new routine for this trip, I shuffle and pick two “Blessing cards” before going to bed.

The Blessing Cards box has over 200 words on mini cards, and for today’s adventure, “enthusiasm” and “focus” are the cards pulled. They summarize Day #2, perfectly.

The hotel staff helps me pack up and get into my cute rental car, and they take this picture. I post this photo of me on Instagram to check in with friends. I immediately get a text.

“Girl, you are glowing,” a friend says.

I really am.

A friend told me the way you can tell someone is truly happy is when their cheeks touch their eyes in a smile. That’s the look on me right there.

“The three grand essentials of happiness are: Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.”

In Costa Rica, here I am blessed with all three.

Something to do:

Explore Arenal Volcano, land of the waterfalls, hanging bridges, volcano, and hot springs, about a 3-hour drive north.

Someone to love:

Me. I read once when asked about who and what we love, most forget to name themselves. I am choosing to remember myself. This trip is devoted to me and my journey becoming friends with the lost answers and feeling closer to my aunt and closer to God.

Something to hope for:

This entire trip hinges on hope, is filled with hope. Everything come s by hope. A beautiful day. A chance meeting. A hidden restaurant on the side of the road. More coffee. I have more hope than ever and I can feel it in my veins: it’ll be a great one today.

The drive to my next stop is scenic.

I discover quickly a 3-hour estimate on “Tico Time” actually is about 4 hours. Heading to the volcanoes, there’s a lot of construction along the dirt roads so I wait 5-10 minutes at most roadblocks waiting to go through one-lane roads.

To make those waits feel shorter, locals walk around cars selling food.

I buy some plantains. They are delicious, authentic and fresh. They taste nothing like the dry, overly-preserved type of plantains you buy in plastic bags here. It’s the real deal, and it tastes amazing.

Every hour-and-a-half or so during my long drive, I look to see if there’s a restaurant or cafe worth pulling over to refuel. The more locals I see eating, the better.

I crank up my Spotify “Upbeat” music playlist. I like these songs in the morning when I wake up and get ready for the day, or whenever I need something uplifting.

? Listen to My Spotify “Upbeat” playlist here

I find a restaurant alongside the road and it looks authentic, so I pull over. I order my old faithful, another Arroz Con Pollo — chicken and rice.

Every restaurant cooks the dish differently, and with different spices. It’s all good. Never had an Arroz con Pollo I didn’t like. With all locally sourced ingredients, it tastes healthy and fresh.

It’s nearly four hours later, and right around the afternoon, I enter La Fortuna de San Carlos. This is where one of the bigger volcanoes rest.

I check into my lodge at Hotel Campo Verde, and it’s breathtaking. I can barely believe my luck.

And just outside my lodge’s window, here’s the view:

This leg of my trip is a “splurge,” I spend $67 for this higher-end find using Agoda .com and Booking.com.

They have the quickest customer service, flash sales for booking, and also accurate reviews. Their photos are also realistic, so I’m a fan of the site.

I ask for recommendations with the staff while checking in, a habit that’s paid off, and it’s this: spend the afternoon hiking the volcano and close the evening at one of the many volcanic hot springs in the area.

They say they also have a hiking trail on their property that should show me some great wildlife, but caution there will be a lot of mosquitoes.

I decide to skip the recommendation involving mosquitoes but make moves on the rest.

That’s a cool feature of this lodge site though, and I make a note to pack even more repellant in my suitcase and come back for the hike some day.

I unpack and find myself actually just exhaling and looking out the window to enjoy the view.

Back home, I barely notice what I’m blowing past. When traveling, I soak and savor every bit. This is a good way to live and it comes naturally to me when traveling. Maybe I can bring that feeling back home.

The volcano national park is a 5-minute drive from my hotel, which explains the epic view.

The 5,357-foot Arenal Volcano is Costa Rica’s most active volcano, and since July 29, 1968 its lava flows have been consistent. The park rangers keep a close eye on the volcanic activity, and will not hesitate to close trails or portions of the park if they feel that it is unsafe. Luckily for me, I arrive on a good day.

Since the sun is close to setting, there are two trails at the national park, short trails 3.4 km and 2 km, each either 2- or 3 hours depending on speed. They pass through both secondary forest and lava fields from previous eruptions.

The Arenal Volcano National Park entrance fee is $15 for adult foreigners. The park is open daily from 8 AM to 4 PM.

That’s all good and fine until I hit a bit of a hike. Pun intended.

The trails are marked by yellow and red signs. One color is for the shorter trail and one is the longer trail.

I know I heard the person at the front tell me to follow the “red” signs for the shorter trail so I could make it to the look-out point by sunset. Except I quickly forget.

Guess which hike I ended up doing?
Hint: Not the shorter one.

Somewhere in my joy and enthusiasm, too love-struck with Costa Rica to pay attention to logistics, I decide the “yellow” signs must mean “easier” trail, so I inadvertently do the 3.4 km hike.

I knew something was wrong when, an hour in, I was still hiking and people passing by me seemed to head in completely different paths. There’s symbolism there, but I won’t extrapolate

But the destination does not disappoint.

I make it to the viewpoint, an hour-and-a-half later, probably an entire 45 minutes of extra hiking in that tropical heat I didn’t plan or request.

Yes, my face is actually that red. Unfortunately, that is not a red filter on the photo.

I also have a knee injury, so I was pretty nervous doing the hike. I wore some nice knee bands that I bought off of Amazon to help give my legs more support walking up the volcano and hardened lava paths.

I don’t like hot and humid while hiking and sweating, so those trails aren’t naturally my thing. But knowing this could be a once-in-a-lifetime hike through Costa Rica’s most active volcano, I push myself to my limits.

Traveling solo is about taking chances on something different.

I make some friends up at the viewpoint, take some photos for people, and have people take photos of me. I exchange a few travel plans and ask people where they’re staying — small talk, which I don’t usually like, but I love the quick company and conversation after sweating up a volcano trail for over an hour.

Then, I make my way down.

I’m almost back to the parking lot when something moves in the corner of my eye, so I turn.

A toucan, just like the ones you see on the Discovery channel or on National Geographic, makes eye contact with me.

There’s something weird about making eye contact with something you’ve seen a thousand times in books, magazines and on TV that you’ve never seen in person. It’s surreal. And I’m aware suddenly the Toucan and I both are looking straight at each other.

It’s startling.

And before I can take out my phone for a photo, the toucan flies away.

I’m not sure why this particular memory feels just as intense now as it did at that moment. I think mostly because it’s a “chance meeting” by hiking the longer trail where I come face-to-face (eye-to-eye?) with a real toucan.

A chance meeting while traveling feels divine.

Even sharing the story, I can see the moment clearly. Yet it ‘s also a completely private moment between the toucan and me that nothing and no one else saw. I oddly wasn’t sure if I wanted to share that with you because it was weirdly an intimate moment with Mother Nature.

Nature is majestic and magical, isn’t it?

As I get back down to the parking lot, my hike feels worthwhile for more reasons than one.

I drive back to the hotel, shower off the dust and dirt, and head over to volcanic hot springs.

People check into these areas; some hot springs are more decadent or more expensive and fancier than others.

I drive to Hotel Los Lagos Spa & Resort, but every hot spring is the same concept, a hot spring you essentially sit and soak in some amazing volcanic mineral water.

You need to make reservations and there’s a discount after sunset.

My entrance fee which gets me through the entire resort grounds with the different hot springs for $40. The prices range in the area from $25 – $60, but some hot springs close earlier than others, so make a reservation, and remember to look up the reviews.

Inside, the thermal temperature is soothing. And it’s quiet — people whisper as they move from one hot spring to the next. Some areas are warmer or cooler than others, so when I get too hot in one section, I’ll wade further away from the volcano source into slightly cooler waters.

I spend probably 3 hours here, closing my eyes, appreciating the warmth and calm of the hot spring.

The volcanic hot spring waters don’t smell like anything, but with an endless hot bath coming from the volcano, I can appreciate there’s a magical, earthy quality to this water.

I get dinner at one of the restaurants on premise and then decide after getting food, I’ll hop back into the hot spring for the last soak before bed.

I switch it up this time, fish tacos and sangria, which runs $23 for the meal. Not a bad price for resort grounds. The server is especially chatty, which feels abrupt since I’ve made friends now with the quiet.

There are directions not to wash off or shower until a few hours later, so all the minerals and the thermodynamics can really soothe your skin and muscles. I don’t really understand how all of the science works, but I get directions say don’t wash off the volcanic water quite yet.

I drive around the town, taking a look at some shops. I pull over when I see a cute cafe and order some flan and hot chocolate before bed. Perfect combination.