Travel Log: Day 17 (7/14), Costa Rica

We are continuing to discover more low or no cost things to do in La Fortuna. One of the benefits of a long stay is that we have time to research and try these various options. If we were on even a week long trip I’m sure we would feel pressure to take the easy and more costly options.

The first amazing discovery was last week with El Salto. Today we tried out low cost hiking and no cost hot springs.

Mirador El Silencio

The Hike

After researching options for hiking where the operators don’t stick both hands into our wallet, I found what I thought was a good option. It is called Mirador El Silencio (silence viewpoint). It only costs $10/person and provides several km of hiking trails. We had a little hesitation about going due to transportation logistics. While I could easily get an Uber there, the return trip wasn’t as certain. This turned out to be a well founded concern.

After arriving via Uber ($9.60 with tip) we proceeded to hike the long outside loop shown on the map below. The hike in general was everything we were hoping for, and the value to money was enormous. We were in thick jungle for most of the hike except when we poked out into clearings high on the hillside with a stunning view and cool breezes.

We took the side loops for the frog ponds (#0), the lava loop (#6), and the green lake (#7). The lava loop was an amazing find. It was a huge field of lava rock created from the 1968 eruption. Vegetations is still struggling to fight it’s way through the lava. It looked like something that belonged in Hawaii. This was a score because on my wish list was the more expensive 1968 trail. I happily scratched that off the list since we saw the same thing here. The green lake was also a beautiful sight. Apparently green from the volcanic minerals rather than a mossy covering (says JC).

On top of the cool scenery we saw some animals including a sloth and two pit vipers.

Transportation

The ride back as predicted was not as simple as opening Uber and requesting a car. There was no service at the main gate of El Silencio. Requesting a car would require going much farther up in elevation, and then hustling down to meet the car. On top of that I don’t know how willing the drivers would be to drive the ~7 miles from town to get us. We decided to walk the 1km to go check out the free hot springs due to the lack of service.

The walk was not the safest thing we ever did, but it was an adventure. We had to walk on the side of a fast road that often had no shoulder, let alone a path or sidewalk. The technique we used was to RUN up the road when the coast was clear, and then hug the side when traffic came by. We did the 1km in no time after about three bursts of running. JC won’t be telling her mom about that as she freaks out over much more minor things like JC walking alone during the day.

Free Hot Springs

The free hot springs got mixed reviews from my family. I didn’t go in this time because I didn’t want to change out of my hiking stuff, and I watched our belongings. The water was pretty warm, but not even hot like a hot bath. I think moving up stream would possibly fix that. The rocks made it extremely difficult to walk in the river, and JC fell and scraped her shins. It was also very busy around 1pm when we were there. Most of those problems have potential solutions (water shoes, go earlier, etc).

After leaving the free hot springs we had to continue up the road just a couple hundred meters to a paid hot springs where I once again had some cell service. I ordered an Uber and did have one driver cancel the ride before we succeeded with the second driver. The cost with tip was $7.40.

The Rest Of The Day

The rest of the day was uneventful. We just did what is becoming our regular routine of DuoLingo, daily logs, laundry, cooking, cleaning etc. I spent some time looking at my options for my 401K from work, and luckily don’t have to do anything with it. I may choose to turn it into an IRA with the same institution if they can do it with a simple button click. That will give me more investment options and maybe a cheaper management fee until I can move it to Schwab.