Back in La Selva

Yay -- Carlos and I made it back from La Fortuna late last night after a pretty long bus ride (it really was only 2.5 hours, but the bus stopped about every 5 meters to let people on and off). Our vacation was so awesome and it is great to come back to work revitalized. The hotel we stayed in (called Hotel San Bosco) was excellent -- it had 2 pools and jacuzzis, nice breakfast included each morning, cable TV, AC, hot water, and really pretty plants everywhere. It was well worth a bit of extra money to stay at such a nice place.

Fortuna is really crowded with tourists at this time of year and they were everywhere. It was pretty strange to see so many gringos everywhere! The weather was fairly cloudy (since it's the rainy season after all!) the entire time, but it was very nice. Our first day there we spent mostly walking around the town looking at souvenirs (nothing interesting -- just the same old junk they sell everywhere here) and relaxing at the hotel. The following day (Christmas), we went to Baldi Hot Springs and enjoyed all the pools and waterfalls. Baldi is a really fun spa/hot springs/water park which we had visited before. Our third day in La Fortuna we relaxed and did some more exploring around the town. Yesterday we stayed in town, checked out, and ate a really nice Italian food lunch before hopping on the bus to head back home.

Here are a bunch of random pictures from our trip. It was weird to spend Christmas here in Costa Rica (I missed the cold weather back in Washington), but we had a great time relaxing away from La Selva! Woo-hoo -- I hope everyone had a great Christmas vacation too!
(one of the pools at our hotel)

(Volcan Arenal -- the peak is covered in clouds, but at night you can see lava!)

(one of the warm pools at Baldi)

(another set of pools at Baldi)

(Tanagers eating some plantains)

(Italian restaurant where we ate our last lunch in Fortuna)