I was up early, like 2am, and when by 3am I hadn’t gone back to sleep I gave up and started working on the blog. It was done by the time Ash got up about 6:30, which is also what time breakfast opens so we started moving in that direction.

The restaurant for breakfast is open all day, this was our first time here. They had a few tables outside and we were able to snag one since we were early. It’s beautiful here and more comfortable; the inside seating seems very formal.

A nice variety of things: black beans and rice again which is called gallo pinto here; tender beef in a nice tomato sauce; eggs, bacon, pancake and, no, not tater tots but fried mozzarella.

We lingered quite a while at breakfast and finally got moving around 9:30am. It’s vacation, right? No need to be in too much of a hurry.

I thought to catch this on our way out: the front entrance. There’s no door. At all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. And I swear every time we walk through the lobby someone is mopping. They keep this place immaculate.

We were headed to Fortuna Waterfall, about a 10-minute drive away.

This is the first walkway after you pay for tickets. Ash insisted on me doing something goofy and all that came to mind was Jaida: Look over there! (IYKYK)

There was a little butterfly garden at the very start. Beautiful but we only saw one butterfly. Probably not the right time of year.

And this is where we were headed. There’s a great deck just at the start of the climb down where you get this view. It was a little misty most of the time and everything glistened wet. Rainforest, right?

A shot early on our way down: 530 steps. It was at times quite steep but well paved.

It is 70 meters high and was running at full force. The water flows to the left of this shot into a calmer area where people were swimming. We knew that was an option but had no interest. We are so not water people. We just like to look at it.

A little video to capture the rush and the sound, with a person at the bottom for scale.

Above and below: a couple of different shots we asked the guy in front of us to take. Swedish I think ;)

A panoramic of the swimming hole. A fair number of people out.

Guru Sloth leaves their wisdom up and down the trail.

Another attempt to capture the climb.

There was an orchid garden but not many of them were in bloom.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at an art gallery Ash wanted to take a look at.

An interesting piece of sculpted wood and tire chains, very weathered. Several of these outside.

And on the front deck what it would look like new. We bought a sculpted mask (Ash collects them) and a set of trivets for our dining room table. They are already wrapped for travel so no photos, sorry :)

It was almost Noon at this point, so we decided to find a place to get a bite to eat. We stopped at Makoto Sushi Bar, although their menu was quite diverse.

Much of La Fortuna looks just like this, as does much of the country. Reminds me a lot of places I’ve been in Mexico, with good reason I guess.

Started with some great coffee.

Shared a Dynamite Roll – tuna, salmon, sea bass, in a spicy sauce. It was great.

Ash got the Makoto salad which included salmon, cherry tomatoes, tofu, red onion, other good stuff.

I got chicken wings and what a surprise. They were very tasty, a crust like I’d never had before. See those little cubes of yellow? Pineapple. Talk about sweet and tangy. They were messy and delicious.

When we got back to our room they had cleaned and left this adorable little elephant made of towels on the bed. This place is super classy. The most impressive thing is how everyone remembers our names and never fails to address us as Mr. Gupta and Mr. Haas whenever we appear. And they remember our room number, too. I wonder if maybe they just pay extra attention to those in the master suites or if everyone gets that treatment?

It was also raining quite a bit by this time. (In a rain forest? No way!) We decided to be lazy and continued watching The Sinner (S2). Around 3pm we wanted to go downstairs for coffee. As we were leaving our room we saw David taking some chocolate covered strawberries down the hall.

Oh right, I forgot to post the photo of David. See above. He staffs the front entrance, was the 2nd person to greet us (after the guy who took our bags out of our car), took our bags up to our room for us, and is generally just around all the time, and Always does the “hola Mr. Gupta, Mr. Haas, welcome back” when he sees us.

At any rate, that gave us a hankering for chocolate covered strawberries and coffee which led to the next photo.

We ordered them at the bar and they made them fresh for us. You could tell it was not something that they weren’t really prepared to do but this place doesn’t like to disappoint so someone whipped them up for us. A mix of still warm white and dark chocolate. Amazing. After finishing these we went back to our room for more of The Sinner. It was still rainy and we just had a lazy feeling about it all. That’s allowed on vacation, right? We went back down for dinner at 6:30pm.

For dinner we dressed in some fun clothes we’d just brought in San Francisco a few weeks ago and went down to the same restaurant where we had breakfast.

I started with the Carpaccio which was unbelievable. Maybe the best I’ve ever had. A rich beef flavor with tons of fresh parmesan. I might have to get it again tonight.

Ash had what they called a garlic salad and liked it a lot.

Ash had gazpacho….

…and I had a cream of corn soup. Both great.

For the entrees you got to pick two sauces for your protein and two sides. Ash got tuna, mushroom sauce and a balsamic sauce, with a sweet potato and grilled vegetables.

I had a cut of beef I’d never heard of before – picanha, taken from the top of the rump – with the mushroom sauce and a chimichurri which is olive oil, garlic, cilantro, parsley. The sides were bacon wrapped green beans and vegetables in a rich tomato sauce.

For dessert we shared a big bowl of coconut ice cream which was wonderful. We were so full we almost passed on dessert but have you met us?

With that, we went back to our room, finished S2 and started S3 of The Sinner. We went to bed about 10pm.

And finally: We have a friend dog-sitting for us at the Sacramento house. He sent us this photo late in the day: Zeus laying by the front door waiting for us. He does this when Ash is gone all the time. Hopefully he doesn’t stay there until Friday. Ash misses him like crazy so it will be fun to see them reunite.

I was having tech problems with the website this morning so getting this up much later than usual the following day, but at least I won’t be a day behind. I really hate that! See you all tomorrow hopefully at the regular time….