I started the day with a 5 mile run from Relax Termalitas into La Fortuna, ran around the local school and downtown area and then headed back to our place. From just outside La Fortuna and all around the downtown area there were paths and sidewalks on the side of the road; however, for about a mile before you get to town there is only a narrow shoulder and at some points I had to run on the grass. Once I got back to our Airbnb, I was going to grab a quick shower and then we were all headed out to breakfast at a nearby restaurant, Arenal Relax Cafeteria and Viewpoint. The shower turned out to be a learning experience, there was only one knob and at first it appeared to only be cold water. On the inside of the shower there was a box hanging on the wall that didn’t seem to be on, but when we turned the water on we realized that the box automatically turned on…but there was no thermostat to control temperature. After a little online research we figured out that the water pressure determined how hot the water would get, so lower pressure was hotter and higher pressure was colder. This then became a challenge to see how warm we could get the water while still getting a comfortable flow from the shower!
Breakfast was delicious! The traditional Costa Rican breakfast is Gallo Pinto, which is focused on black beans and rice with a side of scrambled or fried egg and soft tortilla. We also got plates of fresh fruit, the pineapple, banana, melon, and papaya were all amazing! The restaurant also had good choices for the kids with pancakes, french toast, fresh banana, and juices/milk. They also had incredible coffee, frozen coffee/milkshakes, and alcohol drinks. I decided on an Irish coffee and was not disappointed!
After breakfast we played at the Relax Termalitas hot springs and explored the resort. This was our only experience with hot springs, so not much to compare against, but I liked that they had different temperature pools/waterfalls for kids and/or adults. We also loved the waterslide but this ended in a pool over 100F degrees so the kids had to get out as soon as they went down the slide.
After hanging out at the resort for a few hours we decided to head into La Fortuna and do some hiking. Bogarin Trail is located right in La Fortuna and advertised sloths as well as lizards, birds, frogs, and a variety of plants. We decided not to use a guide as we wanted to walk at our own pace and we weren’t sure how patient the kids would be. We were happy with our hike but the couple of times that we bumped into a photographer or local they were able to point out plants or wildlife that we would have likely missed…a guide may have been a good idea after all! The self-guided tour was still fun and it was only about $15USD per person which made it pretty affordable for our family of 4. After hiking we got treats at the Bogarin Trail Cafe, soursop smoothie was amazing and refreshing!!!
On the way back to our place we stopped at Zukia Art Gallery to check out some of the local arts/crafts. Hope loves collecting local art from all the places we travel and she found a couple of items here that she liked but we didn’t purchase anything this time. Then we headed across the street to La Cava for some delicious pizza (leave it up to my kids to go all the way to Costa Rica and find pizza, but at least it was really really good)!
The benefit with the sunrise at 5:30am and dark by 6pm was that we got in hot springs again and were ready for bed by 8:30!
