Rosi Cornwell20th March 2023.
This is kind of click bait because it all turned out alright in the end (it always does) but it was a pretty mad first night in La Fortuna!
To save money on accomodation Hollie signed up to a website called Couch Surfing and we arranged to stay with a guy called Dan. He had said that only 1 of us could stay with him, and 1 could stay with his brother.. Which we thought was a bit weird and said that we wanted to stick together, and if it was regarding sleeping space we had roll matts to sleep on the floor if necessary. Dan said that the owner of the house had told him off for having more than 1 person round, but he had asked and we were okay to both stay for the night.
We arrived in La Fortuna and hung out at the Selina Hostel enjoying their pool and happy hour whilst Dan finished work. It was nice to be back by a pool, sipping cocktails and not having to mop floors and clean up dog piss.
We were joined by an Iguana which was pretty cool, those things are crazy mad, they don’t look real!
Dan text to say he’d finished work so we walked merrily to meet him. He said that he had been busy with work doing tours and wanted to go to the Waterfall with some drinks. We got some Smirnoffs and jumped in a cab.
The waterfall was beautiful with fast flowing water over the big rocks. Some people were jumping from the rocks, and some from a big rope swing. Dan headed straight in and did some funky Tarzan like descend from the rope into the water. He then climbed up the rocks like a monkey man and did a flip off the rocks.
It felt like he was a trick pony flaunting all his best moves and trying to impress the spectators. Who were all kind of sensing that he was being a bit of a show off.
Hollie was obviously braver than me and went on the rope swing. She then encouraged me to jump in off the rock, which took about 6 goes and was a pathetic attempt, but I did it!
Once in the water, Dan took me behind the waterfall and we sat on the rocks and watched the water pour down in front of us. It was pretty cool but required Dan to help me up, and later Hollie when he took her and we felt he was a bit handsy. I mean it was a super epic spot so if you were going to make a move on someone that is the spot to do it.
Dan told us about all the great local spots including the hot springs and how he likes to go at night and stay to watch the sunrise.
It soon got dark and we had a drunken walk back. We got the most expensive chicken shop chips and ate them in the park with some more drinks. The park was super nice with lush green grass, flowers and it was well lit. If you drink in a park in Thanet you’ll be sat in the dark and viewed as a delinquent.
We headed back to Dan’s to get ready to go out. We played 21 which I felt was a boring drinking game and I was eager to get out for some music and dancing!
We stumbled across a bar that had live music and Dan said it would be closing soon, but I wanted to check it out and am super glad we did as they had sombreros hanging up that we put on and danced around to a guy singing and playing guitar. The staff gave us a necklace with a shot glass and poured in a disgusting spirit, but hey a free shot is a free shot.
We danced around to then a different man playing the guitar and I wanted a picture under this sign. Quite ironic really because an hour later Hollie would be very very sick.
We walked to the club with our drinks and the security guard donning a balaclava gave me a plastic cup to pour my drink into. Never in England would you be allowed to take a drink from somewhere else into the club.. So that amazed me.
Inside I danced and and Hollie swayed around for about 5 minutes before she said that she needed to go. I told Dan and we went outside and he ordered a taxi.
As we drove it materialized that Dan had asked the driver to take us to the Hot Springs. We were just about to turn into the entrance when I said how inappropriate that was as Hollie could barely stand and needed to get home.
The taxi turned around and the motion must have sent Hollie over the edge as she tried to undo the window but couldn’t do it in time, so proceeded to be sick all down the inside of the door. The window was now open and sick was flying back into the car … I lent forward to avoid getting chunks of chips in my hair whilst questioning Dan on his bright idea about heading to the hot springs with an incapacitated person.
Everything escalated and he was shouting, I was shouting and when we arrived at his house he got out the car and said that we had to leave. He threw all of us stuff out of the door, and it sprawled all across the steps.
Meanwhile the poor taxi driver comes over with a cloth and Hollie apologised profusely and Dan handed over some money.
Dan then had a change of heart and took all of our stuff inside and went to bed. I don’t know how Hollie had any thing left to chunder but she was now wrapped around the toilet and I could only manage to coax her away and onto the floor. Here I put a blanket over her and a pillow under her head. I got my silk liner and set up camp on the sofa.
We woke up at 6am and discussed the craziness that had happened, and went back to sleep until Dan said that he needed to leave for work and we needed to go. He offered that we could leave our stuff if necessary and that we could meet him after work to go to the waterfall.
We took our belongings and said bye, knowing that we would never see him again and cracked up at what a strange situation it was.
We got a burger for breakfast at 10am and naturally went back to The Selina (the Selina always pulls through with the goods) and waited to meet Pana who was hosting us from Couch Surfing. He popped by to say hello and he seemed super chilled and nice, and we knew that this next Couch Surfing experience would be much less dramatic than the last!
