Costa Rica: Arenal Volcano & La Fortuna

( Post by Colin)

Welcome back  for Post 2 of our amazing Costa Rican Journey.  Pura Vida !..

After 3 days in  Monteverde we headed off to  La Fortuna - the nearest town to the Arenal Volcano which until very recently was spewing out lava and you could watch it.  Many of the tourists and backpackers we saw said that they were going to give it a miss beacuse they would not be able to see the lava..  We decided to go in any case having had a view of the volcano from the cloud forest in Monteverde and because we had also heard about some great waterfalls and natural hot springs.   We also knew that it was the best place to get to our next destination - Tortuguero.

The quickest way to get to La Fortuna from Monteverde is  by jeep and boat - as they call it Jeep-boat-Jeep. We organised and paid for it all with our accommodation in Monteverde, it was convenient and straightforward. The Jeep in fact turned out to be a minivan  and the road we had to go down was...  well Kizzy called it a free massage. I think it was more like torture...   a bumpy dirt road with many twists and tuns going down the side of the mountain into the valley.  As a result we did not take any photos of the beautiful landscape until we reached Lake Arenal where we were to pick up the boat part of the trip.

Lake Arenal Jetty

Col & Kizzy on the boat

The scenery as we crossed the lake was incredible...

Lake Arenal

Arenal Volcano from Lake Arenal

When we got to the other side - there was another minibus to take us to La Fortuna. The driver of our minibus was not having his best day, and did little to let us know that his van was the one that we should take. Unfortunately there were these two ladies who did not know the address of their final destination and he was pretty short with them, advising them to just leave at the next stop. One of the ladies was American, and well, she went on about wanting to speak to his manager, wanting his business card. It was quite hilarious, lucky for them there was a Spanish couple in the bus who also spoke English and they were able to diffuse the situation and calm both the driver and the American lady. They got their destination in the end.

La Fortuna  is a very touristy place  again - alot of hotels and backpackers places and  restaurants or Sodas as they call them in Costa Rica. But unlike Monteverde, is a bit more quiet and the venues are within good distance of each other, giving us a general feeling of space. A bit more work was also put into creating parks and nice areas from where to enjoy the view of the volcano.

On the way here we noticed lots of 5 star style resort hotels... as well.  the only thing missing - was tourists!  The place was incredibly quiet....

La Fortuna

The main square, La Fortuna

We had booked up in advance this time and landed in a slightly odd place! We stayed in a place called Pura Vida Guest house & Spa (there was not really a Spa !). The owner was from Florida and she had a 13 year olf daughter and another friend from Florida visiting. This was our first experience with a 'Guesthouse', in this particular case we felt that 'they' behaved as if we were a family but actually we weren't. So we felt awkward! They were both very kind to us, I suppose being from the city we were wary of all this kindness towards total strangers.

Shortly after our arrival we were headed to a place for lunch. And the friend that was visiting offered to show us to the restaurant she suggested to us. As we were walking she enthusiastically showed us around and introduced us to a few locals that owned businesses, speaking a broken Spanglish. We watched bewildered. We went along with it but we felt a bit uncomfortable. Our interpretation was that she wanted to show that she was down with the locals and knew all the cool places! But no problem - following their advice we organised a tour with a local company - Red lava - and within an hour or so of arriving we took off!

The tour was fantastic. There were essentially two groups split between two cars, and two tour guides: Monica and Manfred (no he's not German). We were in the car driven by Monica, and in the same car were a group of four German lads.  It turns out that Monica was from Portugal so Kizzy and her really hit it off. We also got on well with the German lads, a Swiss couple and an Las Vegas couple. Arriving to Arenal Observatory Lodge, we  took a small hike around the base of the Volcano where we had some great views of it...

eventually reaching the La Catarata Waterfall where we swam in the waterfall... bliss...

After we continued on the trek and had a talk on the fauna and flora of the region...  But the best part was seeing a Viper and  this frog..

Red eyed tree frog

better seen in this video I took.....

Link  - Red Eyed Tree Frog

By the time we had finished trekking it was around 8pm and dark and we then went to some hot springs - literally a  natural hotsprings waterfall.  We did not take our camera here because it was dark and wet..  but here are some day time pics I found on the internet..

Tabacon Hot Springs

Tabacon Hot Springs

Ah - so lovely - basically like a hot bath..  we stayed here  for an hour or so just chilling and letting the aches and pains of the day go.

Red lava were really great and the guides were knowledgeable. We got heaps of information about the volcanoes and the region. Kizzy actually left her camera behind in their Jeep and they actually sent it to us free of charge to collect in San Jose .. Thanks Red Lava !

There is a story around Manfred's name (the other tour guide), he's not German but he explained that Costa Rican's love football and they often name their children after football players they like. So he's Manfred and do not be surprised if you ever meet Ticos with more exotic names. 

The next day we were sorely tempted to go and do some really interesting hikes that we had heard about - but  with tour guides they were too pricey. We would need more time to suss out how to go about it without the guides and so we decided to catch up with the blog and organise our time in Tortuguero which was the next stop 

In retrospect we would have stayed longer in Arenal (at a different accommodation of course!) and if we were to visit Costa Rica again we would certainly consider spending more time here.  AVolcano with lava is not the only reason to visit here as some travellers seemed to think. They missed out. It is beautiful and there is so much more to do and discover in Arenal.

In discussion with a few restaurant and hotel owners it seems that tourism is way down this year and the empty streets are very unusual.  Apparently it would normally be packed at this time of year...

I'll leave you with a few pics - for the main Picasa album click here....