Taking it Easy in Costa Rica: New York to San Jose to La Fortuna

New York City had grown tired of me. It was early 2009 and I was finishing up my law degree in Manhattan, taking part in the hustle and bustle, sharing germs with half the city on the subway every morning and dodging spring showers in my suit while running between classes and meetings. I needed an escape. I chose Costa Rica and I chose to take it on alone.

This was hardly my first trip abroad, but it was my first solo trip. My “ex with benefits” thought I, a petite 24 year old, was crazy to travel alone on a shoestring budget in a country where I didn’t know the language. Eventually it became our shared joke, calling it my “walkabout” after I explained my need to break free and have an experience all my own. Following this week of newfound independence, the voyager in me would never be the same.

My flight to San Jose left JFK Airport at o’dark thirty in the morning. Getting safely to the airport was an adventure in itself. This being Manhatten, my living in Spanish Harlem and making the brilliant decision to take the 6 train to the E train at 4:00 in the morning guaranteed that I would encounter some sketchy folks sleeping on the subway cars and one fellow in particular who used the corner of my train car as his toilet. After a morning like that, I felt I could take on anything!

I arrived in San Jose around noon and took a pre-paid shuttle to my hostel. In accordance with every guidebook I’d read about Costa Rica, San Jose met all of my expectations of being a busy, ugly, dirty city with very little to offer. However, my hostel was very comfortable and helped me to plan my activities for the rest of the week. Within an hour of checking in I had made plans to spend the following day whitewater rafting, then take a van to the cloud forests and volcano region of the country and eventually end up in Playa Jaco, a destination I’d had my heart set on, to chill out with some surfers for a few days.

The amazing thing about Costa Rica is the number of young, relaxed people traveling through all the time. We all go there for the same basic reason: to see something amazing and unwind from our lives in busier, more compressed parts of the world. So it is no wonder that I met two young women from Montreal within an hour of arrival who had made similar plans to mine. The next morning the three of us boarded a shuttle to go whitewater rafting together.



(click on photo above to link to my photo album for this trip!)
It was typical rafting trip devised for tourists. We were joined by college aged kids from all over the world including two German girls who shared our raft and a 20 year old woman traveling alone from Finland. That’s another thing I love about Costa Rica: solo travel is the norm and making friends has never seemed easier. We enjoyed a full day under the sun running the rapids of the Pacuare River, known for hair-raising Class V and VI rapids. Of course, this was a family event, so we only rafted up to Class IV and V at most and, in a raft, this is extremely safe. The tour group provided us with lunch, nothing special but it was nice to be fed. By the end of the day I was exhausted, exhilarated, sunburned, and ready for my bed. The day of rafting was followed by an included shuttle to La Fortuna to see the volcano Arenal and the hot springs. Altogether I paid $99 for the transportation, rafting, and two meals. Not too shabby!


La Fortuna is a beautiful little town in the middle of the rainforest, sitting at the feet of the Arenal Volcano. Typically visitors will hike the volcano trails and dip in the hot springs. Unfortunately, I arrived in La Fortuna to find terrible rainy weather, which really s tressed out my Type A personality. Then, after finding a triple hotel room to share with the two ladies from Montreal and getting cleaned up after my long day, my new “pura vida” self was overjoyed to spend the evening eating bad food at a cafeteria and chatting with new friends. The rain only got worse overnight, so I never did hike the Arenal Volcano or dip in the hot springs. Instead I chose to use what little time I had in Costa Rica (a week is NEVER enough!) to keep moving toward better weather and new experiences. My first few days in Costa Rica were a fantastic start to my first solo trip abroad: I arrived safely, made friends quickly, had an outdoor adventure, and had my first lesson in relaxing “off itinerary” and taking life a moment at a time.

Note: I didn't have a chance to take pictures during the rafting trip, so I snagged these from Google Images. Credit to: amerikaventure.com and travelpod.com.