'Pura Vida' in La Fortuna

La Fortuna is a really small town, north west of the capital, San Jose. 

It was a really long journey for us to get here - we got up at 3:45am (which if you ask me is NOT the morning, it's still the middle of the night) to get a shuttle to Guatemala City Airport. Our flight was straightforward but after landing in San Jose, we had to get a taxi to the bus station (no English there) and then a 5 hour bus to La Fortuna. 

By the time we were arriving in La Fortuna the sun was starting to set! I took the above photo on the bus ride, we were about half an hour away and the sun was starting to set over Arenal Volcano.

The following day, we decided to take it easy and wander around the town - we had been sick and the huge travel day did not help! The town of La Fortuna is actually really small - this photo is of the small park in the centre, overshadowed by the Arenal Volcano. 

La Fortuna actually has a really interesting history, Arenal Volcano, which is really famous and the main reason people visit here, unexpectedly and violently erupted in the 1960s, the lava flow traveled up to 15km and wiped out three of the small towns surrounding the volcano. La Fortuna was the only surviving town and, as a result, it's original name was then changed to La Fortuna = The Fortunate. Now, Arenal Volcano is Costa Rica's most visited volcano and the centre of tourism for this little town.

I had to take a photo of the delicious iced coffee we got - I loved their glasses! As we wandered around the town we were surprised at how much English was spoken - in Guatemala this was not the case! Turns out, Costa Rica is a favourite American holiday location (no Americans in Guatemala), hence, many people here speak English. 

La Fortuna Waterfall

For out few days in La Fortuna, we decided that hiring a car was the best way to explore. This time I actually filled the forms out correctly so that Michael could do the driving!

First stop: La Fortuna Waterfall.

You really had to work hard to see this waterfall - 471 steps down (and later back up). 

The sun briefly came out for our time at the La Fortuna Waterfall. 

We both tried to guess how tall the waterfall is and were badly wrong - it's 75m tall.

You can 'swim' / enter the water at the waterfall but you cannot get to close - I couldn't believe the power with which the water was crashing down! It was loud! I wouldn't want to be under that amount of water! There was a man with a whistle who I believe was there to stop people from getting too close. 

Even from a fair distance the water was splashing onto the camera! We are visiting in the peak of the 'rainy' season so the waterfall is currently at is strongest, the flow of water is much weaker the rest of the year.

One of the best thing about visiting during the rainy season is how green everything is - no filter needed, it's actually that green! Also, there is hardly any other tourists here - everyone has been scared off by the thought of torrential rains, so we pretty much have everything to ourselves!

Don't be fooled by our smiles - that water is COLD!

Beautiful!

We spent a little while swimming around / admiring the waterfall (it's power was quite mesmerising) before heading to our next stop for the day.

Mistico Hanging Bridges

We jumped back in the car and made our way to Mistico Hanging Bridges Park. On the way were many amazing views of the Arenal Volcano - I love how it seems to completely dominate the whole town, you seem to be able to see it everywhere you go!

Michael at the entrance to Mistico Handing Bridges Park - of course, Arenal Volcano is the featured view!

This park was pretty pricey, even just to visit on your own, but we decided that, since the whole rainforest / hanging bridge concept is such a Costa Rican icon, we should pay it a visit! Plus, who doensn't like hanging bridges!?

Naturally, some of the bridges featured views of Arenal Volcano - it's hard to escape!

We made friends with this little butterfly at the start of one of the bridges, he spent quite a fair amount of time on Michael's hand before moving onto my watch and phone case (both bright coloured).

The park also had a small waterfall, not as impressive as La Fortuna Waterfall, but still nice!

It's hard to capture exactly what the surroundings of the handing bridges are like - I think this photo does a fairly good job of showcasing the dense jungle that you are immersed in. The longest bridge is 97m in length and the highest is 45m high (although it feels like more when you're there). 

Finally, we spotted some wildlife (with the help of a passing tour guide), a howler monkey! We had also see these guys at Tikal in Guatemala.

I took a short video, in which you can see the little dude more clearly than in the photo: https://youtu.be/zDUfWVS4yQM

Arenal Observatory Lodge

After spending a long time on Google, we discovered that you can't actually climb Arenal Volcano - it's too dangerous! After it's huge eruption in the 1960s, it was really active until around 2010 - after which, it has had no more major eruptions. However, hiking the the top is still so dangerous (tourists have been injured and killed on the hike) that it has been made illegal.

Instead, we headed to Arenal Observatory Lodge, which has lots of hiking trails and apparently the best views of Arenal Volcano.

This photo was taken on the 'viewing deck' of the lodge - yep, you can actually just sit on the deck and stare at the volcano if you want to. 

We started with the most challenging hike, I say that not because it was long but because it was insanely muddy slippery. It was just a short hike down to a small river - not super exciting but it was nice to be outside and enjoying the Costa Rican rainforest.

The Lodge has a frog pond on site! We visited, no frogs, but a grasshopper who was happy to let me take some close up photos

One of the hiking trails - we spent so much of our hike looking up into the trees and trying to spot wild life, so we were lucky the trails were well maintained... I had a sore neck by the end of this from so muck looking up!

FINALLY, some wildlife success! This is not the best photos as the little dude (a Tayra) kind of blends into the tree, but he passed about 2-3m away from us! They are super cute! We soon discovered that there were heaps of them in the tree tops! Again, I took a short video as they seem to be a little easier to spot in a video: https://youtu.be/NZ5WXqK6LgY

Once, again, we had the place to ourselves - we only ran into two other hikers the whole time we were there.

Another beautiful waterfall at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. 

Waterfall selflies. 

We spent most of that day walking around Arenal Observatory Lodge - during the rainy season it often rains in the afternoon, so most of the outdoor adventures are cut off at about 3pm - meaning lots of busy mornings and lazy afternoons!

Baldi Hot Springs

Our final day in La Fortuna was one of extreme relaxation! Thanks to the heat given off by Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna is a hot spot (literally) for hot springs. We scored a reduced price low season deal and spent the day at Baldi Hot Springs - the biggest in the area (I think they even claim to be the biggest in the world).

These hot springs are BEAUTIFUL!

Absolutely stunning hot springs and, once again, hardly anyone else was there!

Baldi Hot Spring features 28 different pools, each with different features (jacuzzi, sauna, cold dip pools, swim up bars, waterfalls, slides) and different temperatures (from about 45 degrees, down to 21 degrees).

This water was HOT - I think, from memory, around 43-45 degrees. I couldn't actually bring myself to get under the waterfall. 

Michael relaxing with the pool to himself - this was the hottest pool, around 45 degrees, so we only lasted about 10 minutes before we got to hot and had to move on.

This pool features little waterfalls and also some insane slides (I don't have any photos cos they didn't look like much but they were crazy) and was a balmy 35 degrees, this temperature definitely suited us more and we spent quite a lot of time here.

Instead of having a sauna room, there were caves that linked two pools that acted as a sauna - really cool! Fanciest sauna I have ever been in!

We pretty much spent the whole day here (lunch included) just chilling in the different pools - it was a great excuse to relax and do very little after a pretty active holiday!

From here, we made the grueling trip (don't get me started on how AWFUL the buses are in Costa Rica) to the Caribbean Coast for some more beach time!

xxx