La Fortuna - Costa Rica

Green and humid. 

After the 3 flights to get to Costa Rica, we spent just 1 night in San Jose before getting a public bus to La Fortuna at 8:40am. The bus was a little late arriving, but we expect that as from research and people telling us we knew trasport isn’t so great here. The journey was very hot and took about 4 how. We arrived at the bus stop in the little town around 1. We had the afternoon free, but we were both so tired from all the travelling we’d done I; the past two days we just took it slowly and wandered around the town. We went to book a full day tour with a company we’d seen getting off the bus. We were offered a better tour that was beginning in peak season (December) that they needed to trial and get promo shots of for cheaper so we went with that as it included everything we wanted to do in the area.

We started off with a short walk through some forest alongside La Fortuna river, at one point the path opened out and we spent a bit of time at the river which was refreshing on such a hot day. We then hoped on a tractor that took us up to a viewpoint were we would begin walking down to the waterfall through them  canyon which was created by a volcanic eruption. Halfway down the stairs there was a suspension bridge we had to cross before continuing on. We got a spectacular view of the full 70 meter waterfall in the walking route we had taken, then we got up close and took a swim in the pools surrounding. After this we headed back up the trial and went to a small village of the Maluku (Cost Rican natives) and learnt about their culture. 

After lunch we headed to the park at the foot of Arenal volcano. We took a short trial that brought us out to a view of a green lake, the lake actually hides a village that fell victim to the 1968 eruption. We walked manly up a mass of lava rocks until the highest viewpoint available of the volcano. In every direction there was an incredible view. We could see the Arenal Lake, which produces 30-50% of Costa Rica’s electricity, the volcano itself and lava fields. The trial on the way our was through thick forest. After this it was time for the natural hot springs, which we were very much looking forward to with our aching muscles. We enjoyed a mud face mask and a cocktail whilst soaking in the hot water before having to go back to to the hostel.


We left at 8:20 the next morning for Monteverde.