San Jose > La Fortuna

Quite possibly the best thing about traveling solo and staying at hostels is the ease of meeting new people.

At my hostel in San Jose I met Ilse, a Dutch girl who had plans to take the same bus as me to La Fortuna.  We took a 6:15am bus which got us into la Fortuna by 11:00.

We stayed at Arenal Backpackers Resort.  The mattresses were excellent, the pool was beautiful, and the company was wonderful.

Ilse and I were drenched with sweat from the heat and humidity of our bus and immediately went in the pool.  We quickly met a couple Dutch guys with a rental car and were invited to be included in their plans for the afternoon.

We quickly formed a little backpackers family.  We hopped in the rental car and went to La Fortuna Waterfall, or Catarata Fortuna.  It cost $14 to enter the park.  The waterfall was large and beautiful,   If on a tight budget, I would say there are better things to do.  Like what we did with the rest of the afternoon:
We went to a little free local swimming hole with a small waterfall, El Salto.  There was an awesome rope swing we took turns on.  We hung out for a little bit and then when it was getting colder, hopped into the car and drove to hot springs that you can go to for free.  It's right in front of Tabacon Hotel.  We hiked in and it was amazing!   A hot river with little natural Jacuzzis.  It was luxuriously relaxing.

When hiking back out, I tripped and reached out to grab hold of something to stop from falling... and it was a tree called a black palm that looked something like this:

The evening dissolved a bit after that... My "nurse" Han, kept me hydrated with tequila, while "surgeons" Joeri and Ilse dug for the spines in my hand with a needle and tweezers.

They got a lot out, but unfortunately there are still quite a bit in there and I may need to go to the doctor to avoid infection... but for now, we are off to Monteverde!