Day 4: Tortuguero to La Fortuna

We booked a shuttle trip from Tortuguero to Fortuna for $55, but because it was the low season there weren't enough people to make the trip go.  It's a long story, but someone ended up giving us a ride all the way in his own car, after the early boat filled up and then we consequently lost our second planned connection.  I think he was a tour guide?  I'm not sure, but he was super nice and saved the day.  (and didn't murder us - bonus!)

But before we caught our boat out of town we had a canoe trip planned with the same guy that had taken us on a turtle tour the night before.  He was actually pretty awful, rude and chain smoked - on our nature tours - but we did see quite a few animals.  

Red lored parrots.

Green ibis.

Basilisk lizard 

Anhinga drying its wings

Tiger heron preening in the sun.

I asked if we could find some caiman, so we took some back canals.  There are manatee in these canals also, but it's very rare to see one.

We did see lots of these guys though, I think they are beautiful.  Spectacled caiman.

There is one hiding here:

Jesus christ lizard, hilarious when they run on water!

Finally we caught a boat from Tortuguero to Siquirres.

This is what our boat looked like.

Here is our trusty steed, that drove us halfway across Costa Rica.

There are fruit vendors all over the roads, we asked the guy driving us what this fruit was, so he stopped on the side of the road and had the vendor bring us some to try.  It's called mamón chino.

That foot belongs to a woman we picked up along the way...I'm not sure what the details were as she spoke zero English, and our driver spoke limited English.  But she was nice and taught me how to peel the mamón.  

It's called rambutan in other parts of the world, I know that they also eat it in Thailand.  It's texture is similar to lychee (they're related) but I don't think I've had fresh lychee, so I'm not sure how the tastes compare.  It was sweet, mild and juicy.

A bit of Oregon in Costa Rica!  We also saw Kettle Chips for sale several places.

We finally arrived in La Fortuna, famous for Arenal Volcano, which is in their backyard.  When I visited CR in 2006 lava flowed daily.  In fact when we got close to the volcano, we not only saw lava flowing, but also felt and heard it rumbling.  Unfortunately the volcano is now pretty much dormant.  But it's still beautiful, and this was the view from our room.

We finished the long day off with dinner at the Lava Lounge, owned by the person teaching our cooking class, which we took on Day 5.  Pretty good, I believe Aaron had fajitas, the chicken had been marinated in Salsa Lizano - yum!  My nachos were good too, I think one of two times we had "real" cheese while we were there.