Day 4 Costa Rica

Well, good morning… It is Day 4 of our amazing honeymoon adventure here in Costa

Rica and I am super excited… Today is La Fortuna Waterfall day.

Good thing I brought those hiking boots, hey hubby?

It was literally the perfect morning.

We made breakfast at our little Airbnb, which has an outdoor kitchen… the only thing is you have to watch for these tiny little ants that seem to be absolutely everywhere.

I swear, you could drop the tiniest crumb and if you don’t notice it, all of a sudden you’ve got a full-blown family reunion happening on your countertop.

To backtrack a little bit…

On our first night here, we crawled into bed, ready to watch a show and just relax.

Anybody that knows Sase knows he has the biggest sweet tooth on the planet.

So I had made snackle boxes for our head table as a surprise for him—filled with gummy candies, Smarties, chocolates, and basically everything you could think of. We packed one in our carry-on to snack on.

So he takes out the snackle box, puts it on his lap, and then he’s twitching a little like he’s itchy… brushing stuff off his shoulder… and then he looks down.

The snackle box is FILLED with ants.

The entire snackle box was crawling with them, as was the bed and the sheets.

We dumped the whole thing into the garbage, tied the bag tightly, and had to shake out all the sheets and wipe down the walls because the ants literally get everywhere. I don’t know if I could ever fully get used to that.

So… back to our morning.

We had a really nice breakfast, and I cut up fruit and put it out on the birdbath, and all of a sudden these beautiful little tropical birds came in for breakfast with us.

I kind of felt like Snow White, honestly.

After breakfast, we were off to La Fortuna Waterfall.

So this waterfall is about a 10-minute drive outside downtown La Fortuna, making it a super easy and very accessible half-day adventure.

The waterfall is called Catarata La Fortuna, and it’s a 246-foot cascade located within a 210-acre biological reserve at the base of the dormant Chato Volcano. It is fed by the Arenal River system and is one of the most visited waterfalls in Costa Rica for a reason—the power and volume of water coming through here is absolutely massive.

The entrance fee is about $20 USD, and the park is open from 7 AM to 5 PM. One fun thing is that your admission also includes access to a butterfly observatory, a frog exhibit, and a native orchid garden with over 200 species of orchids—it’s stunning.

They close entry around 4 PM because once it gets dark here, it is like someone turns the lights completely off. There is no twilight glow—just darkness—so it is not safe to be on the trails.

We got our hiking boots on, brought towels, wore our bathing suits, and started the trek down.

The descent is approximately 530 steps.

And don’t let anyone tell you this is “easy” because it is not.

Speaking from personal experience… if you have any kind of back or knee issues, these steps are no joke. But they are well-built, sturdy stone and concrete stairs that wind down through the jungle.

But still… 530 steps is a LOT of steps.

But then you reach the bottom.

And there are really no words to describe what it feels like when that waterfall comes into view.

The sheer power of it is unreal. You can feel the mist in the air before you even see it, and the sound is deafening as it crashes into the river below. Because of the strength of the current, swimming directly in the main fall area is prohibited—it would be incredibly dangerous. But if you walk a little further downstream, the water becomes calmer and you can swim in designated areas.

It is still cold though… refreshingly, shockingly cold… which somehow feels perfect after that hike down.

The water is unbelievably clear, but you can still feel the strength of the current even when you’re further out.

We got some pretty funny videos of me “attempting” to swim over to where Sase was sitting on some rocks… I like to think I’m a strong swimmer, but this water had other plans.

We spent a couple of hours down there swimming, floating, and just taking it all in because when you’re standing in that river, surrounded by jungle that towers hundreds of feet above you, it genuinely feels prehistoric—like at any moment something could appear through the trees.

And then comes the part nobody talks about…

The 530 steps back up.

You take breaks. You sit. You question your life choices. You keep going.

But it is 100% worth it.

We’ve only been here a few days, and it still amazes me that this level of beauty exists in the world.

Later that evening, we went into La Fortuna to grab dinner and walk around downtown.

Sase had been waiting his whole life to try his favourite childhood treat again, and we finally found a street vendor making them.

In Costa Rica, it’s called a copo.

It’s basically shaved ice topped with flavoured syrup, powdered milk, and sweetened condensed milk. It is unbelievably sweet—like, if you weren’t a diabetic before your vacation, you might reconsider your life choices after this.

I couldn’t finish a whole one because it is far too sweet for me, but Mr. Sweet Tooth finished every last drop without hesitation.

For dinner, we found a local family-run soda. A “soda” in Costa Rica is a small, traditional eatery—usually family-owned, serving simple, homemade Costa Rican food at very affordable prices.

We were the only ones there, and we joked that he must have called ahead and booked us a private dinner.

I had shrimp fried rice, and he had fried chicken. And of course, one of the local resident dogs came in, planted himself right beside our table, and looked up at us with the sweetest eyes.

In our minds, every dog in Costa Rica must be starving… so of course we feed them all.

This one ended up eating probably a quarter of his fried chicken and instantly became our new best friend.

We later found out he actually lives just outside of town and comes in every morning with his owner, who works downtown. The dog just wanders around visiting people all day.

And apparently… he knows exactly which tourists will give him fried chicken.

He’s got a pretty good system going.

And at the end of the day, he just goes home and does it all again tomorrow.

So I guess, in some way… we’re all a little like that dog.

Just happy, wandering, well-fed…

And also, nowhere to go, nowhere to be.

Deanna