“The froggery...”

Coming back to Costa Rica has left me with mixed feelings. So many good memories from my trip almost 10 years ago have me excited to return. However, memories have a way of becoming polished with age, so each day we drew closer in Nicaragua, I was left wondering whether this trip would live up to the expectations that my previous experiences have grown in my mind. Would everything have drastically changed beyond recognition, or would that magic I remembered from before now be gone? They say you can never go home again, because the home you remember doesn't exist anymore. The moment that you leave, two different paths are created, and you are not there to change with it as you are off being influenced and changed by a different set of experiences. Today however, I realized that the magic is still here in Costa Rica, you just have to work a little harder to get past the newly polished tourist fed exterior to find it.


Today was an adventure filled day full of waterfalls, frogs, and hot springs. We started off by driving up to the Fortuna waterfalls, a 70 meter high ribbon of water that explodes into a deep pool below. After paying our admission, we descended down into the canyon and were soon swimming in the brisk waters. I made a brief scouting voyage across the river along the path and found a better vantage point for the waterfalls. After some careful barefooted steps through the rainforest, I returned to get Denielle, and we hiked our bags across the river.

We had read about an ecological park just outside of town, so we went to see what it was all about. 11 years ago this place was a bean farm, and now it looks like any old growth secondary rainforest. Right away we saw some toucans make short work of a banana, and soon after up high in the trees an upside down sloth. I had a picture of the sloth, but it just looked like a sack of fur from where we stood. The rest of the park consisted of a 600 meter walking path, a butterfly enclosure, a lagoon, and a frog enclosure. Denielle spotted a red eyed tree frog sleeping, so naturally I prodded it ever so gently to get the photos. This was by far the coolest wildlife I have ever seen.

In the lagoon we saw a basilisk lizard, some kind of strange herons, and I was able to spot the difficult to see caiman. The frog enclosure allowed us to see a blue jeans poison arrow frog. It’s named so because it has blue legs and a red torso, making it look like its wearing pants. Feeling like we received good value for our admission, we donated 1 dollar for local school children to plant a tree to protect the Fortuna River, and made our way back to town. We kept on driving through town towards the volcano, still shrouded in clouds, to inquire about the costs for a nice evening hot springs soak. The one location that I had visited last time I was here had gone quite upscale and was charging 35 dollars per person, which included a towel and locker according to the man at the front. This was supposed to be the cheapest option available.

After returning home and having a brief snack, Google let us know about the location of a free hot spring, coincidentally right next to the 60 dollar per person, 400 dollar per night resort hot springs. We zipped up the road, parked next to the bridge, and walked down the path to the Tabicon River. There were numerous local families sitting in the hot waters of the river, and we waded in to join them, even more knowing that we were saving 70 to 120 dollars. Tomorrow we will try hiking around the volcano park and maybe will get to see some lava, and then it’s off to the cloud forests.

Tyler.