August 10, 2013 / San José (CR) → Arenal Volcano Inn

As the United flight circled the San Jose airport before landing, it was quite apparent that Costa Rica is green… very, very green. We went through a long but reasonably efficient immigration line, picked our bags and headed out to be greeted by Bairon, our driver from SJO international to Arenal Volcano Inn in La Fortuna.

As soon as we were in the outskirts of San Jose / Alajuela area, the city atmosphere gave way to nice greenery along the way. Soon thereafter, we felt like we were driving through a very lush green park all the way… for miles and miles! Part of our drive was in the Pan American Highway that links Panama – Costa Rica – Nicaragua. Actually this highway links countries in South, Central and North America, including the three Central American countries I mentioned.

We made our first stop at a roadside restaurant, ala our Dhabhas, called Mi Rancho. All of us were hungry and we were pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get vegetarian food there. After the short break, we were on our way, soon to have our first glimpse of Arenal Volcano.

We drove by La Fortuna town before reaching Arenal Volcano Inn as the light was fading on Saturday, Aug 10th.