LEAVING SANTA ELENA:
We left Santa Elena on Tuesday afternoon and headed to the town of La Fortuna for a couple of days. This is the town at the base of the Volcano Arenal (dormant in 2010) and Cerro Chato (an extinct volcano). In order to get to La Fortuna from Santa Elena, we opted for the taxi/boat/taxi route. After packing up and saying goodbye to La Pension, we loaded into a volkswagon minivan with about 15 other people and headed out of Santa Elena. It was a tight squeeze for about 2 hours down a winding dirt road. We drove through a lot of farm land and coffee fields on our way. We even had a stare-down with some road construction equipment....they got out of our way before it got ugly. As we neared the lake, the road became narrower and narrower until it just disappeared. We pulled up alongside another bus at the edge of the lake and everyone got out on the shore. There was no boat dock, just a boat waiting at the edge of the water for us. We could see the volcano in the distance. The boat ride wasn't bad and it didn't take more than 45 minutes. It started to rain about half way through the boat ride but I was still able to get some nice shots of the volcano as we got closer. Our exit point was no different than the entry except everybody had to hike up a hill to get up to the next short taxi ride. Once at the top of the road, our group split up according to where everybody was staying.
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| The road through the country |
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| Stand of with the crane.....we won |
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| Living fences.....come on people, this is a really cool idea. |
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| Not really sure where we are going.....I know the lake is close but it doesn't look like much of a road. |
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| Our boat "dock". You can see Volcano Arenal in the background. |
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| Inside our boat |
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| Me on deck with Volcano Arenal in the background. We are getting closer. |
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| As we got closer, Arenal begins to be shrouded by clouds. Apparently this happens everyday. |
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| The hike up to the road from the boat "dock" #2. |
FARO ARENAL:
Kristin and I headed to Faro Arenal, a hotel (cabinas) owned by a wonderful couple, Rosa Maria y Rafael, that are friends of Mary. When we got to our cabinas, it was dusk so we didn't get to see a whole lot but we decided to walk around anyways. We did find a house across the street that had two very tiny orphaned kittens....we played with them....of course. The next morning we got up and had breakfast looking at the volcano Arenal and then Rafael took us on a tour of his orchard/garden behind the hotel. Rafael was then gracious enough to drive us to the Volcano Arenal National Park, stopping along the way to show us where the natural hot springs were.
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| My Cabina at Faro Arenal |
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| Kristin and the very cute 3 week old kittens |
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| The inside of our cabina |
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| This is how oregano grows in Costa Rica! |
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| Sugar cane behind Kristin and Rafael |
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| Rafael and Jagger showing me around the back orchard |
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| This was our view as we ate breakfast |
VOLCANO ARENAL:
While driving to the park, I kept track of the kilometers so that we could walk back if it wasn't too far. Once we got to the park, we went on a nice hike through several different environments. We started out walking through what looked like a lot of switch cane where we were told to beware of snakes. As we went higher in elevation, we entered the more familiar rain forest. As we entered the lava fields, the flora seemed to be more scrub like. Along the way, we kept encountering signs that warned of entering areas of high volcanic risk....we decided it was worth the risk. The lava fields were as close as we could get. This side of the volcano was opposite of what we had seen during breakfast. The volcano was still devoid of any plant life on a large portion of its side....this is the side that had erupted in 1968. We had quite a view from the lava fields. After hanging out for about 20 minutes, we decided to head back down. We saw a ceiba tree that was about 400 years old...it was massive! After leaving the Arenal park, we decided to walk to get some lunch and then walk to the hot springs. We stopped at a restaurant on the road and discovered Agua dulce frio con limon.....OMG, delicioso! It started to pour down while we were at the restaurant.....typical of our hikes. We stopped at a tourist information booth to look at a map and the guy thought we were crazy for walking....he claimed it was another 9-10 kilometers to town. We decided to keep walking anyway. He was wrong....the sign down the road said 11 kilometers to town.
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| path through snake heaven |
We finally reached the river that Rafael had shown us earlier and since it was only sprinkling at this time, we decided to partake in the hot springs. I am really glad we did. We walked down the path toward the river and found a hole in a fence (as had everybody else) that allowed us to head upstream. There were individual pools along the river. We walked until we found one that wasn't occupied. The water was about 90 degrees. We lounged around for about an hour and then realized it was about 4:30....it gets dark here around 5:30....and we still had a long walk ahead of us. We pulled ourselves away from the river and headed home.
Well, it was now about 7:30 and it was dark....and we were still walking back to town. We finally admitted to ourselves that walking back might not have been one of our more brilliant plans. We stopped at a soda for dinner as we got close to our turn off. At least from there it was only 2-3 more kilometers. We were very happy to get to our cabina that night (around 8:30-9). All in all, with our hike around Volcano Arenal park and then (literally) around Volcano Arenal, we walked a total of 21 kilometers that day. We decided that we would take it easy the next day.
THE NEXT DAY....CERRO CHATO:
We got up the next morning and asked our hosts about getting to Cerro Chato and the La Fortuna waterfalls. They said they weren't far so we decided to let them drive us there and then we would walk home afterwards....easy day, hah. Rosa Maria dropped us off at Cerro Chato which is a caldera lake at the top of an extinct volcano. The girl at the entrance told us it was a 3 kilometer hike to the top and that it was very steep. She was right. We started up the hill on the path and after a few rolling inclines, the hills got serious. Cerro Chato decided only the tough would make it to its lake. It was actually sunny during our hike, which was apparently unusual, so it was pretty hot climbing. We took a break at the half way point....what a view! We were pretty high above the town of La Fortuna already. Once we entered the forested side of the volcano, we were ready for the shade. It was literally like climbing widely spaced (and high) steps up the side of the volcano. We passed two groups that had had to sit down during the climb for a break. Apparently a lot of people don't make it to the lake....we, of course, are stubborn. We reached the rim and started circling the caldera. We could see the lake below but there weren't any paths that we could see. The going around the rim was pretty muddy and required some balance beam walking. The path down to the lake was pretty steep climbing but, well worth it. We shared this gorgeous lake with a couple from Israel, a woman from Portugal and her swiss boyfriend, and a couple form the USA. We all took a leisurely swim across the lake and then swam back and everybody shared the food they brought.....mainly bananas and cookies. Then the hike back down.....it went much faster due to the fact that it had begun to thunder and Kristin and I were bound and determined not to get caught on the side of the volcano in the rain. We succeeded....at least it held off until we got off the volcano. I would have to say that this hike rivaled the grand canyon hike I was on several years ago. The pictures cannot do our path justice.
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| This doesn't look so bad |
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| the half way point.....the town of La Fortuna is down there somewhere |
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| cute little lizard that stopped to pose |
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| The frog thought "if the lizard gets his picture online, so do I!" |
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| The next part of the hike got a bit steeper |
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| I am definitely a biology teacher...I got excited that you could see the phloem and xylem of this fallen log |
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| maneuvering through the mud |
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| A glimpse of the lake from the rim |
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| This was the path down to the lake from the rim...pretty narrow and steep. |
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| We reached the lake! OMG it was gorgeous....and cold. |
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| the crater lake as the sun peeked through. |
LA FORTUNA WATERFALL:
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| Give me an A! Give me an R!......... |
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| It looked like a miniature golf place....but no, it was just a hotel. |
LEAVING LA FORTUNA AND HEADING BACK TO RAINSONG:
Travel day was long. It started at 5:30 in the morning when Kristin and I walked 45 minutes to town so that I could catch the 6:30 bus to Ciudad Quesada (1 hour). From there, I switched buses and headed to San Jose (about a 3 hour ride). Once in San Jose, I had to catch a taxi to take me to another bus terminal across town that would take me to Puntarenas (2 1/2 hours) to catch the ferry at 2 pm. The ferry takes about 1 1/2 hours. In Paquera, I caught the bus to Cobano (about an hour) where I had to wait for my taxi to take me back to rainsong (another 45 minute ride). I got back home to Rainsong after traveling for more than 12 hours. Glad to be back but ready for bed. Charlie of course needed some loving before that would happen.
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