When we arrived in Costa Rica, our first stop was the Economy Rent-A-Car centre, just outside the airport. We noticed that one of the tyres was a little flat, and asked them to top it up. After insisting that it was OK, they reluctantly put a bit of air in it, then sent us on our way.
After quite a number of wrong turns, we got some directions from a bloke chatting to a cop, and finally found The Orquideas Inn – our first port of call. After the ordeal of travel, we ate locally at the hotel’s restaurant, which it turns out was quite good. Better yet, we were introduced to one of Costa Rica’s beers – Imperial – which is absolutely delightful!
We woke up and enjoyed an awesome breakfast again at the hotel – including the local dish of rice and beans, plus omelettes on demand. This was also our introduction to Costa Rican coffee – and boy, do they like it strong!
Our road trip to Arenal started with a delay, as we had to trudge back to the rental car centre to get the tyre fixed. Again. This time they took the car straight to the shop and replaced the valve; thankfully, it seemed to do the trick as it didn’t give us any more trouble for the rest of the holiday.
We stopped for a break at some random location along the way, because there was a beautiful river to play in. Philip, the girls and I did a bit of rock jumping whilst Natalie and Kristy watched safely from the riverbank.
The final 10km stretch of road to the Arenal Vista Lodge was completely unpaved – it was mostly rocks, dirt, ditches, holes… I’m sure you get the point. We were glad to be in a 4WD! We were also glad when we finally arrived at our hotel; it wasn’t long before we were enjoying drinks on their back deck, as well as the spectacular view of the lake, and Arenal volcano.
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