Pura Vida - La Fortuna

Thursday, March 22, 2018
Provincia de Alajuela, Costa Rica
We departed from San Jose with 6 other passengers for the 4 hour drive to La Fortuna - the town near Arenal Volcano. 
First, the journey. It took a while to leave San Jose but apart from a few colonial buildings, there wasn’t too much to entice one to stay too long. On the outskirts we began our ascent inland and the scenery became more tropical.  And foggy and misty from time to time. At times, the weather was quite cool. 
We stopped on the way for a break where we had coffee and a snack. The climate and soil in Costa Rica is ideal for coffee cultivation. 
We stopped again to walk over a bridge which was suspended over a ravine. And then another stop at a little farm where there was a baby sloth. It was super cute but we can only hope it was rescued....
La Fortuna has mostly been an agricultural town. In 1968 Arenal Volcano (6 kms away) erupted violently after 400 years of dormancy  and buried other nearby towns but spared La Fortuna. Suddenly tourists descended on La Fortuna in search of fiery night skies and creeping lava (this would have been amazing to see). This spectacle ended only about 6 years ago. Despite this, La Fortuna is still one of the top destinations in Costa Rica. 
Whilst the volcano looks quiet, lava below is still bubbling and heating countless hot springs. 
There are a lot of accommodation choices here with some hotels boasting their own hot springs - and ours is no exception. We arrived about midday and were allowed to check in straight away. We went exploring the vast grounds - keen to try out the hot springs. We have a nice room with a view of the volcano (how amazing would it have been to have a nightly view of the lava flows!) and we tried out several of the hot springs on the property. One of the springs even has a swim up bar and we ordered lunch from here. So good!
Tim, being a bird fan, was also excited to see his first tiny hummingbird (whilst sitting in a jacuzzi warmed by a hot spring with a volcano as a backdrop). It was very small!
Anyway, tourists don’t come here just to look at the sleeping volcano and to sit in hot springs although I would be reasonably satisfied with that. There is all sort of adventure tourism here so Tim and I spent a while sorting out how we will fill our next 2 full days and booking these tours. As a result we have a ridiculously early start tomorrow so will have dinner here at the hotel tonight.
To prepare for all this adventure, Tim has headed to the spa for a massage followed by a soak in the hot springs. Not a bad afternoon!
We had dinner at the restaurant on site. As it tends to do here, there were some heavy rainfalls but they cleared up to enable us to get to dinner!
The weather is just lovely at the moment. Oh - and haven’t seen another Aussie yet. They seem to be a rarity over this way.
Looking forward to the adventures ahead!
Other Entries

Comments

Joan
2018-03-26

Beautiful photos you wouldn't get me walking across the bridge glad you're having such a wonderful time we are just heading up to Shoal Bay gone for 8 nights. Xxcc

2025-02-11

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank