The next day, we left for La Fortuna with our new friends in the afternoon! But before that, we checked out a floating playground 500 metres from the beach in Tamarindo in the morning before setting off. This was the hardest swim I've ever done. 500 metres felt like 2 kilometres with the waves and by the time we got there, we were too exhausted to play on the playground. We had to hitchhike our way back to shore - a guy on a boat was nice enough to drop us back.

Anyway, once we got some lunch and set off, the drive was awesome. But we should have left earlier. The sunset was beautiful... but that was the problem, we hadn't arrived yet and the sun was setting… The next 45 minutes was the most intense driving I've ever done. The roads were so winding that my friend ended up pulling out google maps so he could guide me. He'd say “sharp left ahead” or “medium right” as we approached each turn.

At one point, we pulled over as one of us had to go to the bathroom and this was a bad idea. I swear the ground was sinking and we had to speed out of there back onto the main road. Eventually, we got there though in one piece! The most interesting thing about La Fortuna was how much steak was advertised by every restaurant.

La Fortuna was a chill part of the trip. The next day, we checked out the main La Fortuna waterfall and hiked around a bit on our own. We then checked out one of the lakes the following day which was one of the craziest scenes I've ever seen! We just chilled the rest of the day as it rained most of this day.

Our final day, we had to drive back to San Jose. This was a Friday, but our flight was not until Saturday morning at 5 am. We decided to pack our bags and then book a (slow) water rafting tour. We then met another traveller looking to go back to San Jose to and was hoping to hitch a ride with us. She joined us on the tour, and we drove to San Jose.

The tour itself was rather peaceful and we saw a lot of cool animals – monkeys, iguanas, lots of birds, bats and a snake. It ended at a local farm where we tried some homemade cheeses and cacao drink. We got off and then drove to San Jose from there instead of heading back to La Fortuna. This was the second time we made the mistake of driving too late in the day... we had to deal with the winding roads again. But we were talking about Toronto music and Costa Rica, so the drive was not terrible... We dropped off the car and ate an overpriced meal at a Denny's by the airport. We then decided to get 3-4 hours sleep at a random hostel by the airport. The flight the next day was rough but we made it back in one piece.

This was probably the craziest and most adventurous trip I've ever done! I can't wait to go back to recover the lost pictures and see the rest of Costa Rica! The song of the trip was “Mamacita” by WizKid.