La Fortuna, Costa Rica – April 27 – 30, 2011

We had an early morning transfer on the 27^th from San Jose to La Fortuna in the north of Costa Rica.  We arrived at our hotel just before noon, checked in and walked two blocks to downtown for lunch.  We then wandered around town, which didn’t take a long time, and returned to our hotel to plan what we were going to do for the next few days.  We walked back downtown for dinner and booked a tour for the 28^th and returned to our hotel for the evening. 

La Fortuna is a small town whose only claim to fame is the Arenal volcano.  There are 112 volcanoes in Costa Rica and seven of them are considered active.  Arenal is the youngest (4,000 years) and most active and thus the one that everyone comes to see.  In fact, the Arenal Volcano is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and the most visited sight in Costa Rica.   Arenal had been dormant for centuries until 1968 when it erupted and wiped out the entire town of Arenal, killing 67 people and burying a lot of the surrounding area.  The immediate area around the volcano is now a national park so no one lives in the direct eruption area in lava.  At the time of the eruption a second peak developed on the mountain so today when you look at it from some directions you can clearly see two peaks instead of just one.  From other views it looks just like a single peak.  Arenal has not erupted since October 2010 but prior to that small eruptions were occurring every few minutes and the lava flow was visible at night from the major resorts and surrounding towns.  We did not get to see any eruptions but we did have several great views of the volcano and some steam rising from it.   Arenal really stands out as it is not part of a mountain range and instead just rises over 1600 meters from basically flat land.

The tour on the 28^th started at 7:15 as we made our way around to the various resorts picking up people (boring!) and had about a half hour drive to the hanging bridges.  This is a series of nine fixed bridges and six suspension bridges that span several kilometers through the rainforest.  Some of them are quite low in the forest and some are quite high.  Our guide was excellent at pointing out interesting points and explaining them whether it was an insect, bird, snake, tree or plant.  We kept hearing toucans but never saw them.  We even heard some howler monkeys but didn’t see them.  We did see a small viper – at least it looked small to me but might have been a couple of feet long.  For some reason I always think of them as being large.  We saw some baby birds in their nests and finally saw the elusive red frog so that was neat.  The one we saw was very tiny and had blue legs and was appropriately called the blue jeans red frog.   We also saw many lizards along the way, some tiny and some quite large.  Some of them had many colours on their backs and tails and they all blended into their surroundings well. 

So let’s see.  What else did I learn on this trip?  The walking palm does not really walk (surprise!) but it has a lot of small roots above ground at the bottom of the trunk so it can sway in a strong wind if necessary and so it can anchor itself to grow in a slightly different direction to find more sunlight.   A different tree has a buttress root which is very large and looks like a wall.  If you cut across the tree it weeps or bleeds and the name of the tree reflects this fact but I can’t remember what it was unless it was a bleeding buttress palm.  There were lots of palms in this forest and lots of ferns and vines.  One of the mature trees can apparently have up to a ton of organisms living on it.  It was amazing how covered the trunks and branches could be.  There really wasn’t an inch of uninhabited space.  I also learned that Tarzan travelled on roots and not on vines since roots grow down from tree tops and are very strong while vines grow from the ground up and are very weak.  One root would hold several people but a vine would simply collapse with just one person on it. 

The views were stunning when we got to the higher bridges.  We could see the volcano and the lake and the surrounding rain forest.  And of course we could see some of our upcoming or past bridges.  The suspension bridges were quite neat as they swayed quite a bit.  One off the last ones, the Waterfall Bridge, was 92 meters long and 45 meters high so there was a lot to see from there.  Someone sighted a toucan but I can’t say that I ever saw it.  I did see the big black vulture sitting in a far away tree but that wasn’t nearly as exciting.  

The walk on the hanging bridges was pretty easy but the visit to the waterfall was a bit more challenging.  La Fortuna Waterfall is in the rainforest and it appears out of thick green vegetation and plummets over 200 feet into an emerald pool below.  It is quite impressive.  The route to get there is also quite impressive as it’s about 500 steps down and then the same 500 steps back up.  Some of the steps were reasonably good albeit uneven in height and depth, while in a few spots you were just climbing over large rocks as steps.  I was certainly the slowest getting down and even slower getting up and my knees really didn’t like the process.  However, the views of the falls were great and the pool at the bottom was refreshing.   There was one big pool where the falls emptied but we were not allowed in that one.  The next one was a bit calmer so we were allowed in it.  The water was very clear and you could see the bottom of the river and all the fish swimming around in it. The water was very cold!  However, I was so hot by that time that the cold water actually felt refreshing so I went in for a quick dip.

From there we went back to town for lunch and a quick shopping break before the afternoon’s activities.  I went back to the hotel and exchanged one wet bathing suit for another dry one and had a short break.  At 3 p.m. we were off on a hike to the volcano.   That involved more pickups from various hotels and a drive to the National Park so it was actually 4 p.m. when we started our hike.  Basically it was on flat ground through very high sugar cane and various other vegetation that was no more than ten feet high.  This area was covered by lava in the last eruption and it is just now coming back to life.  The ground is like black sand and is very easy to walk on.  That is until you reach the final ten minutes of the walk and that is over large lava boulders so moving is a bit slower.  And just as we reached that point it started to rain so everything was a bit wet as well.  However, the view at the top was worth the climb as you could see a lot of the rainforest and surrounding area including Lake Arenal.  And from this lookout we also saw a toucan so that was really special.  You could just make out a little yellow with the naked eye but the guide had some fancy binoculars so you could see it very well that way and we even made some pictures of it through the binoculars.  When you final see them you realize just how incredibly beautiful they are and the yellow bill and belly are a wonderful contrast to the black body.  We also saw another bird whose name I forget.  He wasn’t quite as colourful but he was entertaining.  He would make a funny noise like a turkey gobble and each time he did he would flip upside down.  Apparently this is to show off his beautiful feathers and he does this to attract the females.  It was pretty funny to watch and we weren’t sure how many females of his own kind he attracted but he did get our attention.  The only other wildlife we saw was another viper – also very small looking but I guess that is the standard size.  I guess you don’t have to be big when you’re venomous.  The volcano was still in clouds when we got there so we didn’t get a clear picture of the peak.  However, on the drive out we did get some pretty good pictures with just a few clouds around the top. 

Our last stop of the day was at the Tabacan Resort and Spa.  There are natural hot springs in the area and many of the resorts and hotels have spas they claim are hot springs.  However, those at Tabacan are supposed to be the real thing and they are tied right into the river as opposed to separate man-made pools.  There are 19 pools in all at this resort and I have no idea how many I made it into.  There were big ones and small ones.  There were waterfalls and fast flowing areas and other very quiet and still pools.  There were cement bottomed pools and natural bottom pools that had rocks and weeds on the bottom.   As it was dark at the time it was pretty hard to see exactly where you were going but that definitely added to the adventure.  After an hour or so in and out of the pools I decided to call it quits.  I showered and changed and went up to dinner which was a fantastic buffet that really was delicious.  From there we were picked up to head back to our hotel where we arrived just before 10 p.m. so it was a very long and busy day but very enjoyable.

On the 29^th I did just about nothing.  I slept in, took a long time eating meals, did some blogs (like this one right now), made some more travel bookings, had a massage ($45 for1.25 hours) and spent a lot of time down by the pool.  The pool area looks directly at the volcano so it is quite a lovely setting.  It was a cloudy day but very hot and humid so the pool was nice.  The afternoon rainstorm did cool things off a bit but not much.  It’s dry season here so it looks and feels like rain a lot more than it actually rains.

The town of La Fortuna itself is very small with the main area within a six square block area.  It has banks and a post office and lots of restaurants, cafes, pubs and souvenir shops for the tourists.  Tourism is definitely the main industry here.  Prior to the eruption, farming was more important but much of the land was covered by lava and is no longer productive.  The Church is very new and modern and very open in design.  The main town square is big and very lovely.  It has a fountain in the middle and plants throughout so it’s very relaxing to look at and to visit.  The only downside to the town is that everyone is trying to sell tours and the prices are quite expensive.  I guess they are selling the tours so that is good for them but not so good for the tourists.  The restaurants were all open air and the food was delicious and not too expensive so that was enjoyable. 

I forgot to mention anything about the lake.  Arenal Lake is man-made and the damn is made from lava and dirt, which is apparently a very stable and solid mixture.  It is capable of withstanding a 7.5 earthquake, something that was necessary as this is an active seismic area.  The lake is 30 km by 5 km long and 30 to 60 meters deep.  Because it is a flooded area, there are no beaches but apparently the fishing is good.  The abandoned towns of Arenal and Tonadora are at the bottom of the lake.  The hydro electricity provided by this project provides 70% of Costa Rica’s power.  And while I’m thinking of it, Costa Rica is also tapping into their active volcanoes for power.  I’m not exactly sure what that means but they are now doing it. 

We are off to Flamingo Beach tomorrow morning early so I guess that’s just about it for La Fortuna.  Perhaps I’ll get caught up on some more blogs while I’m there because I’m definitely getting farther behind every day.