Hola and Happy New Year friends,

So very much to share with you about our Costa Rican holiday trip! We ended up loving CR so much we extended our trip 4 days while we were there! Costa Rica is an absolutely stunning country and it happens to be our 4th rainforest. As you know from previous posts I am a big lover of rainforests and this is one I could see myself living in! So lets dive into the first stop on this journey – La Fortuna / Arenal Volcano area.

This vacation started with a bang as soon as we got off the plane at 8am! We decided to rent a car after discussing our plans, which we honestly didn’t really make as we weren’t sure what would be open or what restrictions would be put in place during our travel. I am so happy we got a car. It gave us so much more freedom to explore and not be stuck in one place. After landing and picking up the rental we decided to try the local cuisine… Denny’s. Haha truthfully, I needed Wifi to get directions to the hotel! After directions were in place we hopped in the car and away we went. We decided to take the longer route because we wanted to explore. Glad we did!

There are waterfalls aaaaaall over the place in Costa Rica. It was amazing. This one is right off the side of the road. You don’t have to hike to it or anything it’s just right there. You can also walk behind it, simply incredible.

The sign seemed a little fishy but who doesn’t like a little danger in their foreign country trip? Doesn’t it always seem like things you don’t plan for end up being some of the most amazing memories? This was definitely one of them. We had to drive several miles off the beaten path to find this place and I can’t believe how gorgeous it was.

This waterfall was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen and that is saying something because I have seen a fair amount of waterfalls on several continents. The turquoise, the greens, the contrast and vibrancy all together was so magical it didn’t even seem real. And sitting in a hole basically. It was absolutely worth the out of the way drive. Honestly everyone should mark this as a must see location while in CR for sure.

We got back on the road, two waterfalls down, and continued to the hotel.

The next day we started our tours with the amazing Dani! He showed us more animals in one day than I have seen anywhere else in my life! He knew all the secret spots and hidden waterfalls and I recommend him highly for anyone going to the La Fortuna area. Many of you already asked for his reference info and he greatly appreciated it!

We saw 8 sloths on the first day 🦥!!! And so many beautiful birds and coati. Coati are these cute little raccoon looking critters that are all over CR.

Dani took us to a hidden waterfall, somewhat near another very popular waterfall, that came straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. We climbed and jumped and slipped all over. Both Brian and I did legitimately slip which was actually terrifying at the moment but no injuries and thankfully no pictures 😅 So be careful while at deserted waterfalls you have to hike a fair distance to get to, over a swift river, and generally a pretty hard area to get flight for life to come get you if you know what I mean.

There is so much more to this day but I cannot muster enough energy to finish it off in this post. Enjoy these random critter photos from that day and check back in when I finish. We are not even close to half way done with this trip lol. But I promise it’s exciting and there are sooooo many more adventures to come from the Beautiful land of Costa Rica. And as the locals tell the tourists to say 😂 Pura Vida 💙

PS here are some interesting photos of a very empty McCarran Airport in December 2020!

And Travel Nomader What