La Fortuna

Getting to La Fortuna

Once again, it became clear that although the country is not very large, the roads somehow feel endless. You start in the morning fresh and lively, in a good mood. And by the evening, after a theoretical distance of only 140 km, you feel exhausted and a bit bewildered! Another 140 km!

With a premonition, I decided to take a boat at 7 am in Tortuguero instead of waiting until 9 am. Several boats started at 7 am, mine was the first to leave, speeding up and then... stopping to refuel. Enough time passed for everyone to overtake me. From that point on, we followed the others. At first, they were in sight, but eventually mine almost fell asleep.

When we finally reached Pavona, we realized that the bus, and there were still two French people in my boat, had already left and the next one would leave at 12:30 pm, which means in 4 hours. We scattered to look for a taxi, but we were not the only ones. So we had to be patient until one appeared.

I made myself comfortable and started preparing a second breakfast. Suddenly, just as I had spread peanut butter and pineapple jam on my bread, things started happening one after another. One of the two had spotted a pick-up truck that was about to leave NOW! But there was still space on the cargo bed for us. It was actually perfect because he drove fast and reached Cariari in just 30 minutes. The bus would have taken another 90 minutes for sure.

Today, I decided not to drive through San José and instead go around it, so the next bus to Guapiles was in an hour. Here, I had to wait for another hour for the next bus to Rio Frio, and once I arrived there, I had to prepare myself for another hour of waiting.

Then the bus came, and what a bus it was, a bit of unexpected luxury. It was a double-decker bus, and I managed to get a seat on the top and at the very front, so I could enjoy the next 2 hours until I reached Ciudad Quesada and the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Finally, 45 minutes later, my 4th and last bus for today arrived, but it also took another 90 minutes until I finally reached La Fortuna.

I found the nearest soda and quickly had a delicious fish prepared, then I called an Uber for the 4 km to my lodge.

La Fortuna,

and the Arenal volcano always in sight or almost always, because it is often covered by clouds. My choice of 'Tio Felix Safari Lodge' was perfect. On the one hand, it is peaceful here, and on the other hand, the view of 'Cerro Chato', a second small neighboring volcano of Arenal, is magnificent.

I decided to visit Cerro Chato directly on the day after my arrival. And in the hope of hiking without paying an entrance fee, it didn't quite work out.

The path I took led me through a road that eventually ended. I had to open a barbed wire gate and then follow a cow pasture. I thought I was alone, but there was someone in the middle of the prairie wearing bracelets, so he was well prepared. And he promptly asked for 10 US dollars from me, but I only pulled out 2000 colones (about 3 dollars) from my pocket. I said it was my taxi money for later and I didn't have more.

After 5 minutes of back and forth, we agreed that this was okay and he let me continue as long as I didn't mention it. So you haven't read anything about the last sentence...

Okay, the way up to the volcano crater was quite a challenge, according to the map it was only 1 km and 1 hour of walking time according to my research, I was skeptical. But the path was not really a path, it was more like climbing and scrambling. And it was a total of 600 meters in elevation!

60 minutes later, I was at the top, and to my surprise, the way down wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

The next day, I wanted some action, so I visited one of the many canopy zipline providers. And I chose the largest and oldest, but also the most expensive one. It was called 'Sky Adventure' and it was located on the opposite side of Arenal from where I was staying.

I don't want to go into too much detail about this, I just want to say that I'm glad I chose to do it. It was kind of awesome to ride the cable car up and then fly over the jungle on 7 sections of the zipline. It felt strange at first, but it was a great experience. Afterwards, you could walk on a well-constructed path in the jungle and cross 4 large suspension bridges.

On the next day, I needed some relaxation, so I decided to walk to the 'Paradise Hot Springs' which were 5 km away. There, I let myself cook in the hot volcano water, with temperatures reaching up to 52 degrees.

Although La Fortuna may look like Disneyland from a tourist perspective, it is another beautiful destination here in Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!