La Fortuna

We watched the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea before leaving Tortuguero on the 6am boat. I slept during most of the hour river cruise back to Pavona. When we arrived in Pavona, we started our drive to Arenal and La Fortuna- a beautiful area of The Costa Rican interior at the base of Volcano Arenal. 

We had magnificent blue skies today as we drove away from the coast, through the jungle, and toward the mountains. Tiffani had a fantastic quote- "This his is like driving through the Discovery Channel. Like, we're not supposed to be here."

We stayed in the town of La Fortuna, which was a little more built up than the places we had been staying. Parts were certainly touristy, with nice restaurants and souvenir shop after souvenir shop. But because the town was still small, there were parts of the town where you could still get that local feel. The best part about La Fortuna- it's right at the base of Volcano Arenal! We had another clear sky day, so our view of the volcano was magnificent!

Volcano Arenal is currently the most active volcano in Costa Rica. It is green and covered with rainforest on one side (the side that you can see from the town), and then the backside is sand and cooled lava flow. Recently it has been flowing lava, which we heard could be seen very well at night! We were pumped about seeing real lava flow, and the pictures on many signs and billboards in the town were incredible! We inquired about some of the night lava tours that hotels and agencies offered, but it turns out that Arenal is currently not erupting... so no lava watching for us :(

We checked in to the hostel called Backpackers, recommended by someone Agatha works with. It was by far the best hostel I've ever stayed in!  It had a pool and hammocks, and it was $14 a night per person in an 8-bed dorm with its own bathroom AND air conditioning! I was super pumped about the A/C! I haven't been getting more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night because it's been so dang hot. However, the A/C unit in the room didn't make any difference, so I still didn't get any sleep during the two nights we were there. Nevertheless, Agatha put it into perspective perfectly (and sarcastically), "Guys, what a terrible view from our hostel. A pool AND a volcano."

The first thing we did when we arrived in La Fortuna was go Zip Lining!!! Zip lining AA so referred to as Canopy) was my number one thing that I wanted to do in Costa Rica. It was a blast!! The zip line area we went to had eleven cables. You reach speeds up to 70 km/hr, heights of over 700 meters, and distances of over a half a mile! One of the cables was even over the top of La Fortuna waterfall! It was so fantastic, being above the trees, flying along the zip line! The weather and the view was incredible! Agatha and Travis had their cameras and took some awesome videos from the zip line too. Zip lining is something I could do over and over and over! It was exhilarating!  We made friends with our guides, and they let us fool around a bit. I got to hang upside down on a cable for a few pictures, and I got to ride double on one of the cables with the really cute guide :) 

The next morning, Agatha and I went canyoning and repelling while Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis went caving. I didn't really want to go canyoning, mainly because it was expensive and I'd already had an awesome abseiling and canyoning experience in Australia, but Ag really wanted to do it, so I went with her. We repelled off of 4 waterfalls, and the final repel was 70 meters high (220 feet)! It was fun, but it wasn't as challenging as the repelling I had done in Australia. The repelling here in Costa Rica was more like zip lining. Your feet aren't on the rock wall, you're just dangling in the air and let yourself down. We DID get a really awesome Costa Rican lunch afterwards though- rice and beans, pico de gallo, chicken, potatoes, carrots, yucca (a type of potato), and mango juice.

When Ag and I returned to the hostel, we napped in some hammocks while we waiting for Courtney, Tiffani, and Travis to return from their caving/lunch. I love hammocking. 

When we all met up, we drove over to the waterhole, which is a local hotspot where two waterfalls dump into a deep pool of water, there's a rope swing there too! We swam around for a while and jumped off some of the rocks. Travis and I swam underneath one of the waterfalls, and when I came up on the underside of the waterfall, I hit my eye on a rock. I thought I was just going to have a nice goose egg, but then Travis said "Hey, your face is bleeding."

So... I used my tank top to clot the blood under my left eyebrow as we climbed the rocks out of the lagoon. We drove back to the hostel where my favorite dialogue occurred:

Me: Hi, is there a clinic or hospital nearby?
Male receptionist: Why? Oh shit!

We all drove over to the local clinic together, where I was seen immediately by the nurses. I got my eye cleaned and ended up needing three stitches. Travis was awesome and held my hand :) The doctor put a bright white bandage on the stitches, and I got to walk around for the rest of the day looking like a mix between Frankenstein and Quasimodo. When i returned to the hostel, they were out of ice, so i laid down on a couch with a can of cold beer on my eye while Agatha made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and Travis gave me cookies :) I got some awesome stares and had fun coming up with stories about what happened. In reality, I swam into a rock. 

That night we went to the "free hot springs". So, there are natural springs that are heated by the volcano. Most of these springs are part of resorts, and you have to pay around $20 to use them. They've been built up and expanded to be more touristy. However, the locals know the way to the free hot springs, which are across the street from one of the resorts. We found our way there at night, and when we went down to the hot springs, we found that it was packed with people! Lots of laughing and screaming and drinking and of course, the hot water. It was a blast!

The next morning my eye was super bruised and super colorful, but not as swollen as the day before. This day was our last full day in Costa Rica, so we decided to do a long hike in La Fortuna National Park to Volcano Cerro Chato. The weather was rainy and cloudy, so the views on the hike were limited, but it never down poured.

Cerro Chato is a dormant volcano that flanks the southeast side of the Arenal Volcano. Cerro Chato has been inactive for some 3,500 years and rests at an elevation of 3,740 ft (1,140 m), which is much lower than it's neighbor (Volcano Arenal). Cerro Chato first erupted 38,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. One of these eruptions paved the way for the waterway that leads to the La Fortuna waterfall. It has two peaks, named Chatito and Espina, as well as a 1,640-ft (500-m) crater that’s filled with greenish-blue water. 

Our hike took us uphill for three kilometers, sometimes reaching grades of 75 degrees. It was uphill uphill uphill, and sweaty sweaty sweaty. Most of the hike was uphill through the moist and foggy rainforest where you have to pick your way over tree roots and through mud puddles. When you reach the top of the mountain, you then proceed down for about 150 meters to reach the emerald crater lake. Swimming in the lake is not advised because of the mineral content of the water, but that didn't stop Ag and Travis! I got some awesome pictures of them swimming butterfly across the crater. Crazy awesome! We were told that it should take us two hours to get up and then two hours to get down, and we did both parts in about an hour and 15 minutes each. Not too shabby! 

After our hike, we relaxed at a nearby bar with some Gatorade and watched toucans high in the tree tops. I was so excited to see toucans! They are so colorful! Ag, Travis, and Courtney went back to the free hot springs while Tiffani and I went back to the hostel to shower. About an hour later, we were all packed up and getting ready to drive to San Jose to return our rental car and catch our flight back to the U.S., but not before stopping at a grocery store to buy some Costa Rican coffee and eat our last Costa Rican meal of chicken and rice and beans!