Lake Arenal

Costa Rica!  Okay, it's beautiful, but lets be reasonable.  If Guatemala is the misbehaving spoiled child of Central America, Costa Rica is the well behaved spoiled child.  Costa Rica is extremely touristic.  This country is much more developed than its neighbors, but the development is rather superficial and only focused around touristic centers.  Being developed allows for greater comfort while traveling, but it also makes for much more expensive traveling.  Which of course we detest.

Despite the cost of visiting Costa Rica, it is an absolutely beautiful and wonderful place to visit.  The first place we visited was Arenal Lake.  This lake is surrounded by beautiful lush forest and explosive volcanoes.  If you like the touristic side of travel, this is a perfect place for you.  There are plenty of activities to keep you busy there.


Our time at Arenal Lake was spent walking in the forest and hiking around.  The forest is so thick and moist.  We walked to the La Fortuna River from the town to have breakfast there.

Later, we entered a preserve so we could hike to some waterfalls.  The trail was an adventure in itsel.  We climbed up and down steep switchbacks and crossed massive suspension bridges.  When we finally arrived at the waterfall, what we saw was actually less impressive than the path we had taken to get there!

Pino Blanco waterfall.