July 14th: Waterfall and Hot Springs!

Just in case this wasn’t emphasized enough, I would like to reiterate that our hotel is AWESOME! This place is so much nicer than we had thought when we booked it. I was happy enough with the location and our friend at the front desk, but the room is nicer than most American hotels I have been in. Our huge window overlooks our private patio with decorative rocking chairs that look out onto the beautifully landscaped property and a direct view of the volcano! (although we haven’t seen the volcano yet because it has been cloudy). We had a delicious buffet breakfast over which we discussed just how much we loved this place, and decided that we were going to try and rearrange so we could stay one more night. So Mom’s, rest assured, we have secured lodging for our unknown night. We will be staying here one more night and pushing back our stay at Manoa (which, funny story, we knew Manoa was close to this hotel, but they are very literally next door neighbors). 

Today may very well be one of my favorite days so far! This morning after breakfast, we packed our backpacks and headed out to find La Fortuna waterfall. It was only about a 15-20min hike down to the waterfall, but that covered a very steep amount of ground. 

The waterfall was HUGE! and beautiful! There was a log lodged between the rocks so of course we joined right in and jumped off of it! Nick went first.... and then lied about it being cold. But it was fun!! You could swim towards the waterfall and not get anywhere because it kept pushing you out. 

I think an insignificant highlight of this trip was asking the security guard to take a photo, and him taking multiple pictures on his own and the photos actually turning out really well! haha. Sorry, pet peeve when strangers take horrible photos haha. 

A little ways away from where the waterfall spits out, there was a more calm swimming area, which honestly looked like a tropical paradise! (funny that a Costa Rican waterfall would have that effect huh?) But the colors were so bright! And there were fish swimming around in the water. The water just looked so clear!

After a great morning out and about, we happily came back to our room to make a lunch  and enjoy it out on our patio. With the weather still being decent, we called our hotel reception for a shuttle to take us to Paradise hot springs. Drawn to Paradise because of the suggestion that it was less crowded, we may have made a judgement call mistake by choosing Paradise over Baldi hot springs, simply by comparing ourselves to the average age of those accompanying us at Paradise. We were talking up our pina coladas before we got there, but decided once we got there to hold off until happy hour back at our own hotel. But the hot springs were the same and it was a very relaxing atmosphere. We hopped around to all the different pools until the rainstorm came in. We sat in the middle of the hot springs in a complete downpour until the thunder started, and then we figured we should call for our shuttle. As we waited for our shuttle, we engaged in another thrilling round of “rhyme with TOY”. Winner TBD. There were definitely some sketchy words played. 

Yet another reason to love our hotel, this is what we came home to :) even the towel underneath was folded into a heart.

As promised, I told Nick I would get him a pina colada, so we headed down to our hotel bar. Sadly, they were not part of the happy hour specials, and we went for something cheaper. We sipped our drinks under cover, away from the rain that was so loud that we had to yell at each other in order to hear one another. 

Instead of heading into town in the pouring rain, we opted to order room service. Get this, fajitas are on the room service menu, but not offered on the restaurant menu. And even weirder than that, it’s cheaper. Just for the heck of it, let me just share that on the walk back to the room in which we had decided to order fajitas, we somehow managed to stop at our front door and occupy ourselves for 10mins competing back and forth who could say fajitas the fastest. Not talking, whispering. Who knows why, but it was really entertaining. And don’t lie, you know you are going to try it now ;)

Cheapest meal yet, delivered to our door. Dinner and a movie in bed :)

And I just now received the definition of viceroy..... game winning information? Loss due to extreme game delay?...

The weather is supposed to be clear tomorrow, so we are hoping to go see the volcano and possibly go to the lake!