Upon arrival

The lady running our hotel told us many times that there would be coffee in the morning, and just as planned we woke packed up and used our travel mugs to get a cup of coffee on the go. The pastries we had bought the morning before would hold us over until we ate some real food. We marched down to the bus station coffee in hand to catch our bus. After asking for directions many times an being pointed in many different directions, a collage student told us in English to just wait here and a bus should arrive anytime. We sat back and watched all the busses pull out of the station, then the La Fortuna bus pulled up we hopped on. I had found a place the night before on google by searching La Fortuna Camping and came upon this place Essence Arenal. An ecolodge hostel, I thought I had found good directions. When Mateo and I started looking into the guide book we couldn’t figure our where this place was. So we cross referenced the guide book with the google directions, and also Mateo’s app on his phone we figured out where we needed to be. We got off the bus right at the dirt road that led to the national park. It was a 9 kilometer walk, the bus would not get us closer. The hike would pass by the entrance of the National park, so there would be some traffic for at least the first 3 kilometers. We thought we would have a good chance of finding a ride road side, we were picked up within minutes of starting our trek, by a mini bus, that was taking people to one of the adventure establishments.

as we walked I found a giant leaf

They brought us with in 3 kilometers of the place we were heading, we were blessed to have caught a ride so far. The rest of our hike to Essence Arenal was mostly steep uphill making us even more thankful for the ride. Once at the end of the road we found our Hostel and we were greeted by two girls who were volunteering for two months from Spain. They checked us in and pointed us to the camp spots. Costa Rica is so green with lush rolling hills, we are next to a beautiful and this hostel boasted of the amazing view of the Volcano Arenal. I would like to stay here for a week, and just enjoy. I think Mateo and I are a bit worn down from the travel and would just like to relax and not be on a bus. We will stay here for two nights and then move south. Our little tent is all set up on a fantastic ridge where we will be waking up to the view I can’t wait for tomorrow morning to come.