La Fortuna and Arenal

The bus arrived at the terminus and before you have stepped off the bus the touts are accosting the tourists.  Have you a place to stay?  Where are you staying?  Have you paid anything yet?  What tours do you want to go on?  Come with me.

A couple of shoulder barges, quick feet and a shoulder dummy and I was away to my hotel around the corner.  La Fortuna is a small place, so unless you booked a place out of town, all hotels are really only around one corner or another.

The hotel was a pretty average mid-range affair. Nice enough, clean, good service, a neat breakfast area and even a small pool.  But I was so lucky to get the best room in the hotel, on the top and south of the hotel such that it was the only room with an uninterrupted view of the Arenal volcano.  The only aberration to the view was a slender red painted communication tower, which seemed to be set in a location to help frame the view.  My camera was straight out of the bag.

After an hour’s break resting on the cool white sheets, letting the air-con do it’s magic, it was time to wander into ‘town’.  Fifteen minutes wandering and you’ve pretty much seen it all.  A good mix of restaurants, sodas, small supermarkets, hotels and lots of travel agencies - advertising their tours to the same places: Hot Springs Baldi or Tabacon; zip-lining; the volcano; the Pacific Coast; Tortuga Island; the Atlantic Coast; Monteverde transfer the ‘Jeep-Boat-Jeep’.

The towns essentials are almost exclusively along the one main road, with just a few more eateries on the opposite side of the main square, which is dominated by the Catholic church.  Facing the front of the church, it in turn is dominated by Arenal, looming over the building ominously in the not-so-background.

My evening meal was in the Lava Lounge, opposite my hotel, which had a video permanently playing a DVD showing the eruptions of lava and falling debris, rolling rocks down the slopes of the volcano.  I would have loved to see such a fireworks display whilst here, but the volcano which has been happily plopping along since it’s surprising departure from dormancy in 1968 ceased it’s Strombolian behaviour nine months ago.  Now the only emissions are gasses.  For now anyway.

I was to stay in La Fortuna for three nights so decided to do Arenal on the last day and go to the waterfalls and nature reserve the day before.  My breakfast of pinto gallo and scrambled egg was as fine as it always is.  It is what it is and you really need to add sauces to give some flavour to the rice and beans.

The Book (Lonely Planet) said the nature reserve Danaus was about 3km out of town to the east.  It was half right, it was out of town to the east, but it was more like three miles.  Took me a deal of time to get there walking along the main road, which involved dodging some big vehicles which seemed not to see me much of the time.

The guide at the park was surprised to see me, looking over my shoulder for where I’d parked.

‘You walked from Fortuna?’, he said with surprise, ‘You sit down here for a while and I’ll put a banana out for the birds.’  I was the only person in the reserve.

Within seconds a variety of birds were queuing up to tuck in to the partially rotten banana.  A couple of large agoutis came out of the undergrowth at the same time.  These rodents were as big as a small dog.  They were not skittish but managed to stand in deep undergrowth whenever I raised my camera.

After a brief rest and a bottle of lemon Fanta I was ready to walk around my park.  It’s not a large one and was largely on stone or wooden chip pathways, which were neatly arranged to take in different plant types.  Small and medium sized birds of every hue were everywhere.  Yellow and green seemed to be the local fashion favourite.

In a small tent for frogs I had to wander around several times to find just one.  The tiny poison dart frog may be small, but it doesn’t try to hide with it’s bright orange and lurid blue colouring.  I doubt it was 2cm long.

After the tiny frog excitement I wandered around the reserve with my eyes mostly on the canopy looking for the large iguanas (basilisks) and sloths.  Forests like this are a nightmare to look for wildlife because it is both everywhere, but also more often as not hidden by the damn vegetation!  When you look up, you don’t know what your missing at eye level, or on the ground - be it trip hazards or snakes!

At the lake I saw a couple of large Boat Billed Herons, but couldn’t see the caiman which were purported to be in the lake.  Shortly afterwards I heard visitors, the park was no longer mine.  A large group of Germans were being shown around the park, walking in the opposite direction.  On the positive side I heard their cries when they saw the caiman, and I followed them to see the small caiman floating in the centre of the lake, looking more like a log than the nearby log also floating there.  They are definitely well adapted to being invisible in plain sight.

Past a butterfly garden I met a Californian woman with her young lad.  He was slightly interested in seeing the caiman, but was predominantly obsessed with seeing a basilisk.  The two were scouring the ground for them, which surprised me given the guide had said they spent their time in the canopy.  Other than a large squirrel and the agoutis I had failed to see any mammals or big reptiles.  But that is nature for you.

Back at the entrance I thanked the guide and said what a good place it was.  

‘Did you see the sloths?’ he asked.

‘No, and I didn’t catch the basilisks either,’ I replied, with a little disappointment.

‘Really? You didn’t look hard enough!’ he said, ‘Hold on let’s see.’

Within five minutes he had found me a two toed sloth, a three toed sloth and a massive basilisk sitting high in the canopy.  Fantastic stuff, and shows the benefit of taking a guide with you if you get the opportunity.  I took a couple of pictures and was away back down the road at midday.  Englishman and the midday sun.

A mile or so down the road and I stopped for a Fanta and a rest before heading into town.  After five or six miles in the day I decided a further six miles up and down Cerro Chato to the waterfall was not going to happen.  So I took it easy in town with my Kindle and a few cold drinks.

The walk up to the waterfall the next day was easy enough for most of the way, being a gentle slope for the majority of the way, until there were two steep sections on the road.  I saw no-one else walking, and was overtaken only by mini-buses and a large group of tourists making their way up on horse back.

At the top after paying the $10 a sign with all the does and don’ts suggests not walking down the 450 steps to the base of the waterfall if you have high blood pressure.  Such advice makes my blood boil.  After a recovery with juice at the view point overlooking the long white veil of the waterfall cutting a swath through the jungle green I decided damn discretion time to take the steps.  The waterfall had a massive blue-green plunge pool and was quite busy with swimmers on the edge of the water - after driving or riding up here I am not sure they deserved the reward, but hey.  It was an impressive sight, and as with most waterfalls the dynamism means that photographs can’t really do it justice.  One stop on the way down, two on the way back up.  No problems, my blood pressure must be fine then.  

In the afternoon I had the trip to Arenal volcano and the Baldi Hot Springs.  I was picked up right on time and after picking up five Americans on the way we went to the base of the 1968 lava flow - stopping only to see an un-energetic sloth doing it’s best to entertain - by doing nothing.


The guide was good explaining about the volcano and the plants and fauna, though I had to put him right on some of his geology!  The Americans to a man (and woman) were completely unaware about the volcanoes history, and were genuinely shocked to hear that it had been erupting as recently as nine months ago.  Does nobody read the guidebooks?  I assume they were here for zip-lining or rafting and springs, but still some basic knowledge - the only reason the town is there is to serve the tourists who have been coming here to see the erupting volcano.  I won’t use the word despair (but I did).

We were lucky to avoid any rain in the afternoon, but it was my turn to get wet down at the Baldi Springs, one of the older, cheaper and naffer hot springs on the edge of the volcano.  Three of the Americans were dropped off at Tabacon, the newer, expensive ($50 dearer), less naff but still gaudy entry to the hot springs market.

It is a nice experience just soaking in the different pools, which were all at different temperatures.  The one with a bar in was particularly nice, until the bill came - boy do they overcharge.  Yes, yes they do.  $9.50 for two soft drinks.  The buffet was to die for.  No, sorry to die from, it was not good, but the coffee was spot on.

So having done the hot springs, the volcano, the waterfalls and a nature reserve that was La Fortuna pretty much done (not being interested in the canopy zip-lining nonsense) and it was off to the cloud-forest of Monteverde the next day for more nature, less volcano.