costa rica - day 2 - la fortuna

we originally planned to do the challenging hike up the dormant cerro chato volcano saturday morning, but persistent rain and overcast skies prevented us from doing so. and despite december being the start of dry season, we've had nothing but rain for the first two days; consequently, we opted to hoof it to catarata rio fortuna waterfall - just a 3 mile jaunt roundtrip thru the rainforest from our eco lodge. a few pics of the scenery along the way:




the local in the bottom left pic above was preparing a pig on his table, but once he saw me pause to snap a photo, he proceeded to kindly hold it up for display. top left below is a local and his pet parrot laura...




arrived at the waterfall around 10:30am and forked over $9 for entrance fee - steep, mind you, but well worth it as the view is simply breathtaking.




saturday afternoon brought about ziplining for the first time, so you best believe i was excited. there are a number of canopy tours in the arenal/la fortuna area, but sky trek was the tallest, so sky trek it was. the package deal includes transportation from/to your hotel, so we were whisked away at 1pm, picked up a few stragglers along the way (including groups from boston and san francisco) and were headed up for our 2pm excursion. sky trek involves taking the tram to the surrounding treetops, then ziplining your way down a exhilarating series of 8 cables totalling 1.7 miles in all.




it goes without saying, but it's quite the incredible thrill ride canvassing the rainforest at top speed with nothing underneath your feet... dinner was at soda la parada for whitefish ceviche, churrasco and a couple of imperials: