Honeymooning around the world: Arenal area

We left Monteverde after our coffee, choco and sugar cane tour to Rio Celeste. We had planned to stay at Hotel Rio Piedras for two nights in Neuvo Arena. There were two reasons for us to stay there: for easy access to Rio Celeste and for Markus the possibility to go kiteboarding if there were windy days. In the beginning of the way we saw Arenal Volcano from a distance but it looked like it would like to throw out some lava ;)

Arenal volcano

Everything does not always go as planned… We arrived to Piedras around 4 pm. The place looked empty so we went to the restaurant next door to ask with Edda’s un poco español. We found out that the hotel is CLOSED!
That’s a nice surprise when your reservation has been confirmed and a deposit has been paid. Besides this it started to get dark and the daily thunderstorm was on its way. We had seen a Hotel Micro Brewery on the way to Piedras, so we went to check it out but it turned out to be quite expensive. We decided to continue driving towards La Fortuna around Lake Arenal and if we find a place to stay we take it, otherwise we would drive all the way to La Fortuna. We saw a sign with ‘Hotel La Rana’ and it had also ads on bratwurst and wiener schnitzels. It was probably a German-owned hotel because it had Germany’s flag on the signs and on the hotel’s wall. The receptionist was also German. The price was reasonable so we stayed there. The hotel looked like it has been a really fancy hotel back in the days, but now it is a bit “rustic” :P and we were also the only guests that night. There is a tobacco law in Costa Rica from 2012 that prohibits smoking in public places such as restaurants, parks, hotels… The German reception guy (possibly even the owner) in our hotel was smoking all the time inside and even in the kitchen. The law didn’t bother him at all, or just a bit, because every time we came he hide his cigarette :P

The sign we saw on the street when we were looking for a place to stay

Good views from the hotel's balcony at breakfast

As we said, the hotel has probably been a good one sometimes, but as you can see from the tennis court, it wold need some updating

In the morning we left to Rio Celeste. We used an offline map app to navigate, and that bastard put us to drive again on these off-road roads with rivers, holes and stones. We managed to get to Rio Celeste parking area. It costs $2 or 1000 CLC and the entrance fee to the National Park is $12 per person. The trail is around 3km all together and easy to walk. If it is very rainy and wet, the trail can turn in to a mud trail and be slippery. We visited the park in the end of the rainy season and the night before it was raining a lot but the trail was in good shape and closed shoes are enough or sandals with straps. We just went there and there is no need for a guide if you just want to walk, see the waterfall and the river. If you want also to hear more about flora and fauna it might be a different thing.

Rio Celeste waterfall

There are several view points and the waterfall with a blue pond is the first one. We went in a bit hurry to see the waterfall in sunshine and we thought it was in the end of the trail. We saw all the other nice places in the sunshine but we didn’t manage to come back to the waterfall before it became cloudy. Despite the clouds, it was really nice and the blue/turquoise color was bright. In some places the smell of the volcanic gases was rather bad. Swimming inside the National Park is prohibited and we knew it before. Markus spotted a swimming place just a kilometer before the park so after the hike we went there for a refreshing swim in the blue/turquoise water, and yes, it was quite cold. We helped also some locals to push their car uphill to their parking place. It was not a long way but quite heavy to push a big 4wd car. After our swim, we drove to La Fortuna for about 2,5h. This time we didn’t let the map trick us to some bumpy rides and we drove almost the whole way on asphalt roads :D