Anna S. E. Lundberg

Coach, Speaker, Writer

Two Weeks in Central America: Finishing in style in Costa Rica

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And so we’ve arrived at the final chapter of our trip across Central America. Having travelled from Guatemala City and Antigua to the Lake Atitlán, up to the Tikal ruins, down again and up the river to Lívingston, across the border and across Honduras, to Granada and over to the Isla de Ometepe, and down to the Nicaraguan border crossing at Peñas Blancas… we arrived in La Fortuna in Costa Rica.

La Fortuna was given its name after the town survived the eruption of Arenal Volcano in 1968 unscathed. It made a great final stop before we continued on to San José and each went our separate ways at the end of an epic two-week journey.

Gringo Pete's in La Fortuna
In La Fortuna we stayed at Gringo Pete’s, named after its eccentric American owner
Horse riding in La Fortuna
We booked onto a horse riding tour that did involve helmets but did not involve learning how to ride. My horse was the younger brother of Annie’s, and he would just trot off to catch up with his brother rather than pay attention to my attempts at directing him
Hiking in La Fortuna
The horse ride also involved getting off for a walk through the forest…
Hanging bridge in La Fortuna
…across the hanging bridge…
Waterfall in La Fortuna
…to the waterfall where we could go for a cooling swim
Butterfly in La Fortuna
We even got to visit some butterflies and poisonous frogs! A worthwhile investment.
Baldi Hot Springs
In the evening, we opted for some well-deserved relaxation at the Baldi Hot Springs, with temperatures ranging from 30 up to 70 degrees
Baldi Hot Springs water slides
I bravely went on all three water slides, later finding out that someone else staying at Gringo Pete’s had got a concussion and needed stitches after flying through one of them. (There was a sign declaring that use of the slides was at your own risk.)
Chocolate fountain at the Baldi Hot Springs
CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN! Nuff said.
Cocktails at Baldi Hot Springs
Fruity cocktail with umbrella = Holiday
Cocktail in San José
…and another thrown in for good measure, on our last night in San José
Cheers!
Cheers to the end of an amazing trip!

Two Weeks in Central America: The island of two mountains

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After our volcano adventure in Masaya, outside Granada, we headed down to Rivas and took the boat across Lake Nicaragua to the Isla de Ometepe.

Formed by two volcanoes, Volcán Concepción and Volcán Maderas, Ometepe is the world’s largest volcanic island within a freshwater lake. While Maderas is considered dormant, Concepción is active, its most recent eruption occurring in March 2010.

View from our balcony at Hotel Finca Venecia
We booked into a more expensive finca, or estate, than we would usually go for but I’d say it was worth it! A gorgeous little hut with stunning views, this felt like a proper holiday. We even stayed there two nights (what luxury!)…
Turistas sign
That’s us!
Bicycle, Isla de Ometepe
Our big activity on the island was to rent bikes from the hotel and to cycle to the other side. When we thought we were about halfway across, and realised that we were maybe 1/10th of the way, we gave up, following signs down a country lane to an empty restaurant and resting there with a plate of chips as reward for our efforts. Then we cycled back to the hotel.
Bicycle Ometepe
Though short, the bike ride was very exciting given the special phenomenon of the brakes not working. The downhill stretches were particularly thrilling.

I seem to have had some bad luck with bikes. Many years ago, while sailing the Stockholm archipelago with my family, we stopped off at the island Utö. My cool older sister didn’t want to wear a helmet so of course neither did I, and my cool dad let us off. Now the peculiarity of Swedish bikes is that they don’t have brakes on the handlebars as in any normal country, and the only way to brake is to backpedal. The problem being that when your feet come off the pedals, well, you’re out of luck, my friend. So on a steep, rocky path down to the beach, my feet slipped off and I thundered through the woods, out of control, finally coming to a stop in as I vaulted off the bike in spectacular fashion and hit my head on a rock. It was my first concussion (followed by several others, involving other exciting adventures like radiators and slippery fire escapes) and it’s one of my great street cred stories. Oh yeah.

But anyway, no injuries were sustained this time and we made it successfully back to the hotel. The next morning, we made our way back across the lake to Rivas on the mainland.

Boat Ometepe-Rivas
Burning my shoulders on the boat ride back to the mainland

There are so many places along the way that you miss, on any trip, but especially on our whirlwind trip across four countries in two weeks. In Nicaragua, we didn’t go to colonial León or to Managua, we didn’t go surfing off San Juan del Sur, we didn’t go volcano boarding, we didn’t visit the Corn Islands off the Caribbean coast… FOMO*, man! But every location we did see, every day we were travelling, was an experience. It’s not about ticking boxes. And we can always come back and explore more next time, right?

*For those of you not up to speed with the Millennial lingo, FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out.

From Rivas, we took a bus to Peñas Blancas, where we got our exit stamps, ignoring the touts (wearing badges, so looking official) who tried to convince us that we needed to buy some kind of form from them before doing so. Then we walked the 1km across to the next border post (there are also pedi-cabs)  and officially entered Costa Rica. From there, we got another bus and continued along the Pan-American Highway, a road that I would spend quite some time on two years later, during my South America trip…

Chillaxing at the border crossing, waiting for our next bus
Chillaxing at the border crossing, waiting for our next bus

Next up, we’ll be arriving in Costa Rica for our fourth and final country. More volcanoes as well as horse riding, water sliding, and more piña coladas.