La Fortuna is a little tourist town at the foot of the Volcano Arenal and is the jumping off point for the areas volcanic activities. Whilst the activities in the area are fantastic the prices here have gotten out of control! A hike to the crater lake is quoted as $65 per person ($45 with some negotiation). We did it independently and you still have to pay a private road toll of $10! We stayed at Hotel Dorothy about 200 metres out of town. It’s quiet, cheap for the area ($8 pp including breakfast) and our room had a perfect view of the volcano.
The first day we decided to see the local waterfall and hike to a crater lake next to the main volcano (Cerro Chato). Being to cheap to pay for a cab we hiked the 5kms to the waterfall and then the 1km down to it. Despite the $7 entrance fee the waterfall is remarkable. The pools are crystal clear turquoise water and the waterfall pool is fun trying to swim against the strong current and sitting in the bubbles caused by the falling water. We then hiked the 8km return to the crater lake, which was unremarkable, but we got to experience our first volcanic earth shudders and booms, half expecting molten rock to pour down on us. Thankfully we got a lift with some Spanish tourists back to our hotel, saving us from another 5kms.
After seeing the prices of the tours and the set transport rates to the sights we decided to rent our first car of the trip. We hired a car for 24 hours costing us $50 (should have been $40, but we our hotel got a $10 commission) and saved money by combing the remaining sights into 24 hours.
First we headed out to the Baldi hot springs to make the most of the $20 entrance fee. It’s nice enough, getting a little old and they blast horrible 70’s music into most of the pools (whilst posting signs not to disturb the tranquil nature of the hot springs). They have two waterslides which are amazingly fast and could easily injure you. The biggest down side was they charged $5 for a coke, $7 for a beer, so sitting in the warm water sipping drinks all day wasn’t an option for us. The other problem was 40 degree water when it’s 35 degrees out isn’t that pleasant especially when there are no cold water pools or showers! The whole complex is much more enjoyable at night, when the air is cool and you have a chance at seeing the volcano spew forth some lava (we saw it although its rare and the lava is better viewed on the other side of the volcano)
We left Baldi to eat dinner and drive around to see the lava spewing out of the volcano. Unfortunately there is that much lava, but we did get to see an explosive eruption and ground shaking grumble. Despite the lack of lava it’s still an amazing sight and has the same addictive properties as staring into a fire.
The next day we went to the Hanging bridges and walked their set 3km nature walk. We were lucky enough to see an eyelash viper. This snake is entirely bright yellow, it’s head is the size of Kahlia’s thumb at the eyes have a cartoon shaped eyelash flap of skin above them. Besides this the walk didn’t really live up to it’s pricey entrance fee.
During our driving we also got to see a family of Mapache (Central American Racoon) and an ant-eater.
