Unlike some places where there are things to do if you look hard enough for them, here the tourist activities come looking for you and just going for a walk you would have to be blind and deaf for you not to notice at least a half dozen signs, adverts and places where you can indulge in any activity you like from Kayaking, Canoing, Zip Lining, Nature Watching, White Water Rafting to Bungee Jumping.
Here money, sun and time is all you need to have the time of your life and I bet that during the sumer every place and tour will be booked up for weeks in advance and the wise tourist would be one that either travelled alone ( thus could fill up any last minute cancellation or spare slot ) or preplanned well in advance.
Much like Cusco, trips can be found and booked just about anywhere and not only that but yet again the prices are far hiked up for the average tourist. A two hour horse ride to a waterfall will set you back abour $20, which might not seem like much but when you consider what the rest of the country populace earns, you might have ever right to feel ripped off when some people dont even earn US$20 a day, so from just one person for juse two hours the tourist agencies are raking it in and making a small fortune.
However, unlike Cusco, there is plenty of colour to La Fortuna, plenty of rain ( !!! ) and much more time and effort has gone into ensuring that the place looks clean, tidy and new. When it comes to hotels, restaurants or tour operators image is king here, not price or quality, and I have seen and be lured in by many a gleaming sign board and nice looking store frontage only to be dissapointed when I got inside and looked around to see what was on offer.
The other thing that confused me is they they have so many coins that have so little value in themselves, as 1000 colones is only £1 and yet they have 8 coins of lesser value than than 1000 colones note and most completely dwarf our £2 coin, so much so that my coin bag can barely hold more than 3000 colones in whatever variety of coins you may chose to think of.
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When I woke up in the morning I was the second up, and sadly the young lady who I saw last night on the twilight volcano trek was sitting reading her book and I tried to engage her in a conversation and find out why she was still here, but she didn't seem in the talkative mood though she did at least say that she had returned from the bus station and was unsure as to what to do next.
After checking out my emails and confirmin my flight to San Pedro Sula I asked about the spa at Baldi, which had looked great in the photos, only for the receptionist to try his hand at selling me a afternoon trip to there and the volcano for double the cost of just the Baldi Entrance with the added line that "I cannot guarantee you seing any actual lava, but this rain cannot lat forever and I am very confident that it will brighten up by the afternoon".
Why he is blatantly lying I dont know, but even the most optomistic person would have to say that after the last few days and the morning's grey skies that there was more chance of it raining fish, frogs and lizards than it had of brightening up enough to see any lava by the evening.
As such, I thanked him for his time, did not book any tour at all, and instead just went for a walk and took a few photos of closer hotels to the Volcano. After about an hour I returned having walked for ages and not seen anything that promised to be much cheaper than what I had already been offered and came back to an otherwise empty room with the bay windows open wide.
I think that they are trying to air out the rooms, but with the ledge of the window being so low it is easy to just step over it and walk into the room, almost without breaking stride and so I am even more glad that I locked away all my stuff before I went for my walk. Saldy one woman in the hostel wa snot so lucky, and as I went into the pc room to check for messages she came in wanting to use a pc urgently as her wallet had just been stolen while she was eating breakfast.
The hostel staff were very helpful, but soon said that it must be one of the guests ... yeah right ... like I believe that, but either way I am more sure than ever that this place is not the idylic paradice that the brochures offer it up to be.
After a rest and a charge to recharge my batteries, I switched bunks as there were no plug sockets in my room at all, drafted up some more emails and photos and then headed on out for another massage followed by a trip to the Baldi spa. If I am forced to be stuck indoors or getting wet then I may as well do so in a manner of my chosing.
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