La Fortuna: Volcanoes, Waterfalls and Hot Springs

After three weeks in Monteverde looking at Arenal Volcano every day across the lake, I finally got to see it up close. I spent three days in La Fortuna, the town at the base of the volcano, and I stayed with a very nice Couchsurfing host who had days off while I was there so he served as my tour guide. He actually works as a tour guide for a company that does ziplining tours, which worked out well because he didn't have to pay admission fees for the sites we saw because of his tourism license (although I still did). 

Even though Monteverde and La Fortuna appear very close together on a map, it takes quite a while to get from one to the other because of the lake in the middle. To take the public bus, which is how I've mostly been getting from place to place, I would have had to take two different buses to get around the lake, and it would have taken about 9 hours. The more expensive but much more convenient alternative that I chose is called the jeep-boat-jeep. These services are run by tour companies, and the journey involves taking a shuttle from your hotel to the lake, then a boat across the lake, and another shuttle to your hotel on the other side. The whole trip takes about 3 hours, and I was willing to splurge and spend the $25 for the convenience and speed of the journey. It was also the first time in Costa Rica that I experienced an air conditioned vehicle, so that was quite nice. :)

The views were also great on the way. The weather was beautiful and I could see the whole volcano from the boat. 

The view of the volcano during the boat ride. Beautiful!

View of the volcano from my host's hosue

My first full day in La Fortuna, my host, Jose, and I hiked Cerro Chato, which is an inactive volcano next to Arenal Volcano that has a lake in the crater. The hike up was difficult because it was steep and had no flat spots to take a break from the altitude gain. The trail was also in desperate need of maintenance. It's hard for me to describe, and I didn't take a picture that shows it well, but I felt like I was scrambling up the mountain the whole time, stepping in places where everyone else's footsteps had worn huge holes in the trail. Then on the way down into the crater it was even more steep and muddy, but it was a fun challenge to scramble up and down the hillside. 

Here are the pictures from when we arrived at the crater. 

The clouds were very low when we arrived, but they cleared a bit after that. 

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go swimming in the crater. It was the first time in Costa Rica that I'd gone swimming in water that actually felt cold. 

Panarama

Arenal Volcano was almost visible.

View of the crater from the rim

Arenal Volcano on the right, Cerro Chato on the left

Again, with less cloud cover

The second day we spent at the river swimming and relaxing. There was a nice swimming hole not far from the center of town that we walked to, and I even went off the rope swing. It was a nice spot, and I was enjoying it so much that I forgot to take pictures. 

My third day, we went to La Fortuna Waterfall, which is the largest and most well-known waterfall in the area. The $12 entrance fee was a bit steep, but I'm glad I went. It's a beautiful waterfall, and you can swim in the pool at the bottom. I'm certain that if this was in the United States swimming would not be allowed because you can get very close to where the water falls into the pool, and Americans are too afraid of getting sued to let people do something dangerous like that. 

La Fortuna Waterfall from the trailhead

I also walked around town a bit and took some pictures, so here is a taste of what the town of La Fortuna looks like. It's a bit bigger than Monteverde, but still has a small town feel. 

Park in the center of town

You can almost see the volcano

The last thing my host and I did was go to the hot springs outside of town right at the base of the volcano. There are several resorts that are built along the springs to give guests the luxury hot springs experience, but Jose knew of a spot where we could go for free, and it was a nice, relaxing way to end my time in La Fortuna. 

I really enjoyed the days I spent in La Fortuna, and I think either there or Monteverde has been my favorite place in Costa Rica so far. Right now I'm in Jaco, which is quite different from either of those places, but I will get to that in a future post. It's hard to believe that I've been in Costa Rica for 2 months now, and I have about 6 weeks of traveling left ahead of me before heading back to the states. For those of you who don't know, I got a job with Montana Conservation Corps as a crew leader for a Wildlands Restoration Crew, which means I'll be doing invasive removal for the summer. The job starts 5 days after I get back from this trip, so it'll be quite a time crunch, but I'm excited for it! As always, thanks for reading and keeping up with my travels!