One half past three

I never knew how big Costa Rica was until I started planning my trip. My friends and I only had four days in there before we made our way down to Panama. Deciding where to visit in Costa Rica was a little hard because each part had so much to offer. We decided to stay in La Fortuna which is about a four hour drive from the San Jose Airport.

There are many different options to choose from on how to get to La Fortuna from the airport. We finally decided on taking a private car which cost us about 120 each way. The drive was pretty smooth but I'll have to admit I was asleep for most of it.

I found this really amazing apartment on Airbnb located in Downtown La Fortuna. I loved how modern and functional it was. It's close to all the major attractions, highly affordable and extremely clean. The hosts were also incredible. They helped book most of our tours and gave us great recommendations on where to eat.

Costa Rica is known for it's coffee, so we decided to go on a coffee tour and it was pretty great. We also got to see the various fruits and vegetables they grow (plantain, banana, lime, etc). I'm not the biggest coffee drinker but I had at least one cup everyday and it was delicious. I bought a few bags of medium and dark roast for my Dad since he drinks coffee all the time.

Croton plant

Arenal Volcano

Our next stop was at the Arenal Volcano. If I could have done it differently I would have not done it with a company. We paid around 53 per person to see the volcano and even though it was beautiful, it was an expensive hike LOL. There are taxi's all over La Fortuna you could easily hire one to take you there and do the hike yourself.

The pictures above are from the Catarata Rio Fortuna which is a huge waterfall. The currents were really strong that day so we weren't allowed to get into the water. My favorite part of the waterfall was getting to it. Once you enter the park you'll see several signs leading to the stairs. There are approximately 500 steps going down and coming back up. I highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes. Going down wasn't nearly as bad as coming up. We decided to make a workout out of it and ran up each stair case in sections.

Organico Fortuna

There were a bunch of restaurants in La Fortuna but this was hands down my favorite place, Organico Fortuna. It had the freshest food made from the freshest ingredients.

The set up was really nice filled with lots of nature and a very casual laid back setting. It has a small store attached to it where you can buy organic products.

I got a Jungle Smoothie which had mango, ginger, kale, spinach, and fresh orange juice. I wish I discovered this place earlier on in our trip because I probably would have eaten there everyday. The owner was there when we visited and she was extremely sweet, even gave us some insider tips on some of her recipes.

I decided to try the Mahi Mahi tacos and they were delicious. It was filled with purple cabbage, kale, pineapple, mango, avocado and a passion fruit dressing. It was extremely filling but still very light. I highly recommend it absolutely anyone, you'll definitely find something you like.

Outdoor fruit market

We shopped at the local grocery stores and cooked at our airbnb on the days we didn't feel like eating out. La Fortuna has a bunch of open market places to choose from.

The last two places we visited were the Eco Termales Hot Springs ( no pictures taken) and by far the best part of our trip the Hanging Bridges. The hot springs were really nice, it's literally like a giant sauna. They had about three different large pools with food and drinks. We went in the late afternoon/evening time which is the best time to go. It's a nice place to relax and take a nap ( I sure did). They give you lockers were you can put away your things before you make your way down to the hot springs. There are a lot of different hot springs to choose from but this one was recommended by our airbnb host.

The Hanging Bridges is by far the most scenic place. It was approximately a 2 mile hike and was worth every penny. I love going on hikes and admiring nature. Our hike was very quiet, there weren't that many people there so we really got to enjoy it and take our time.

I highly recommend anyone to visit Costa Rica. If you're able, spend at least two weeks to really explore and go to different parts. Even though I only spent four days, each day was packed full of activities. I'm glad I packed a lot of workout gear since most of our activities were outside. It rained on and off, Costa Rica is very tropic so it would rain for about 10 minutes then stop.