So last night was our second night at Volcano Lodge and we received another phone call while we were sleeping. We went to bed again pretty early maybe 9:30 and the phone started ringing around 11. I couldn’t believe it; I was in such a good sleep! So I answered and it was security and the guy said something about our car being unlocked. I was like “our car is unlocked?” and the guy said “yes your car is unlocked”. I said ok and hung up. Seriously?! My sister shot up and was like “this is a set up!” So now we are thinking if we open our door to go out and check the car we are going to be robbed or ambushed. So we debated about it for a bit and then Don decided he was going out to check it. Our door didn’t have a peephole or a window to look out at the car so we had to open it. So he went out and the car was unlocked, so he locked it. As he was coming back the guy from next door came out and he was like “oh your car was unlocked too?” The security here is too caring and it’s freaking us out!! Are they just going up to cars and seeing if they are unlocked?! Never heard of that.  Really hoping tonight we can go a night without a phone call.

We woke up early so we could drive to an animal rescue center called Proyecto Asis. Proyecto Asis was about a 40 minute drive from our hotel. We got there about 8:15 and we saw the same family from our dinner last night! How crazy.

There was probably about 10 people on the tour. At Proyecto Asis you can choose from different types of tours. We chose to do a tour of the center and then volunteer. Overall it took about 3 and a half hours. Our tour guide was named Carlos and he was awesome and very knowledgeable. He explained that they tried to rehabilitate animals so they could be released back into the wild. If releasing them back into the wild wasn’t possible because they wouldn’t survive they would live out the rest of their lives at the center. Most of the animals were previously pets.

We got to meet all of the animals: wild pigs, spider monkeys (a baby spider monkey!), birds, white faced monkeys, coatis, and many others. We actually think we saw a coati eating in the middle of the road yesterday. We learned about their stories and whether or not they would be able to live out in the wild again. Here’s a few animals we met.

Kelsey holding Jessica’s hand (spider monkey) while also being photo bombed by Carlos.

 

Once we were done with the tour we had some snacks and then we helped prepare meals for the animals. Meal prep pretty much included cutting up various fruits and vegetables.

Helping feed the animals was a really cool experience. We all had different animals to feed, but in the end we all fed the monkeys. Proyecto Asis was well worth the trip. We learned a lot and had fun. Definitely go here if you are in Arenal.  I have a lot of videos that I need to go through from Proyecto so probably more stuff to come later.

Once we left Proyecto we had another adventure planned: La Fortuna Waterfall. But first we wanted to have lunch at a soda. I had read about the Costa Rican Sodas before coming and basically they are small family run restaurants that you could compare to a diner. You can get authentic Costa Rican food at sodas for very cheap. We tried Soda La Hormiga because it looked good and it was on our way to the waterfall. The food was great; we all had traditional Costa Rican dishes that came with meat, rice, beans, and plantains. It was also super cheap. Unfortunately, I can’t find any pictures from here.

After lunch it was time for the waterfall. It was a perfect day for the waterfall because it was hot! It was about $10 a piece for us to hike down to the waterfall and swim. The hike was pretty easy because it was just stairs…but it made our legs so sore! By the time I got down to the waterfall my legs were crazy shaking. La Fortuna Waterfall was beautiful and incredible. The swim was refreshing. Even though we went in the afternoon and it was crazy hot it wasn’t that crowded. If you are in La Fortuna/Arenal you have to see La Fortuna Waterfall. Just take your time getting down to it and especially be careful when climbing around the rocks to get in. It’s really slippery. When we were leaving we saw a girl that had broken her leg and was being transported out.

The waterfall was great. We were pretty tired after the hike and we went back to the hotel. Once we got back we went back to the pool again.  When we went back to the room again though our key cards were not working so we went to the front desk and I told the guy to please not call us tonight. I told him we have gotten phone calls the past two nights and if anything is wrong with the doors and lock I will come back and let them know.

We got cleaned up and went back to town to eat. We stopped at another soda called Grandma’s Spoon Soda. It was also great and cheap. I had the churrasco and Kelsey had some fish that the owner suggested.  I am blanking on what Don had but it was all good. The owner kept suggesting things and we got a couple of drinks. Really great place.

Once we were done eating we went back to the hotel and tried out the bar. They had a happy hour, it was 2 for 1. This was surprising because it was like 8 or 9 pm. I tried to see if we could watch the Blackhawks game but they didn’t get the channel. Probably a good thing because they lost and now they are done. We talked to the bartender for awhile and he told us about the volcano back in 2009 when it was erupting. It sounded so crazy. He said you would hear it rumbling and you would see it at night.  That would have been a cool sight to see but I would also feel a little scared I think.