August 21, 2009: La Fortuna

Owen: We have electricity! After a waking up at 4:30 in the morning, and riding the tractor down to the base camp for four hours, we started off to La Fortuna. We arrived at noon and ate a hardy lunch. We then went to the Desafio tour company and listened to some presentations and got free beer (and for the little ones: juice). We made up our schedule for the rest of the trip and by that time it was about 2 in the afternoon. It had already felt like a full day!

Next, we got our laundry together and dropped it off and headed for our rooms. Our room is super nice! Two air conditioners, a fridge, big shower, a safe, and wireless Internet! Woohoo! The brothers and I went out to get food for the next couple days at a super market. We picked out supplies for PB&J’s, bought chips and a few drinks. Upon returning, I took a short nap and when I was woken up, it was time to leave for today’s adventure. We made a stop at a viewpoint and dined on pizza while watching frequent volcanic eruptions about 2 km away.

Then it was off to the hot springs! They were crazy nice! The average temperature of the pools was about 104 I would say, with the hottest being a 153-degree pool, which nobody would do more than touch, until Sean and I ran across it. I now have no toe hair thanks to that lapse of judgment… After swimming in several pools, we made our way to the top two. The first, I could not help but feel bad for my dad for missing out on this. He would have loved this; it’s his sort of thing. It was a big open pool, with several islands where trees grow, and a benches to lie on and a swim-up bar not far away. All over the pool, which was about 106-108 degrees F, there were little cool pools, about 70-80 degrees F. This was amazing and so relaxing! The next and last of the top pools was a hot pool with a giant rock in the middle. Coming off the rock were several waterfalls. A very tranquil location, but disturbing the calmness, was three decent sized waterslides. On one, you reach about 50 km/hr! It was awesome. Now it’s about 10 and I am beat. What a long day! Tomorrow, rafting all day is on the agenda, classes 3-4 on the Rio Torro. PARTY!

Liam: This morning started to early at 4:30, we ate a quick breakfast then hopped on the tractor. It was very boring for about four hours of riding, it was basically the same as the way up but not as fun and we saw no cool animals. When we reached the base camp, everyone got his or her belongings together and packed into a waiting bus. It was about a three-hour bus ride to La Fortuna, when we got there we went to a tour agency. There was a basketball hoop at the tour company’s land, but there wasn’t a ball to play with. After we left the tour company, we went to our hotel. After a 3-hour break we got on a bus and drove to a viewpoint of the volcano near the town, Arenal Volcano. Even though there was a cloud cover we could see the lava shoot out of the volcano about every fifteen minutes. We ate pizza while we watched the volcano, then got back into the bus and drove to the hot springs, which Owen already covered.

Sean: Well, my heal is on the mend so I am feeling better about life. Diana, a nice lady from Canada, helped patch me up and I feel as though I will be able to be included in some of the more adventurous activities now!

As the boys said the tractor ride down was not very fun and almost everyone in our group is suffering from some sort of stomach ailment at this time, except for us boys and a few others. Needless to say, it has been a long day.

Still, we capped it off perfectly. Arenal volcano is spectacular! Even through the clouds we were able to watch the lava erupt from the large cone. However, once again, it was too dark and too difficult to get any photos…Oh and the hot springs were phenomenal. I had fond memories of visiting them during my study abroad and I was not disappointed in what we found. There are about 50 different pools at Baldi Hot Springs and they have a very wide range of temperatures.

Anyway, Here in La Fortuna there are a lot of outdoor activities that we plan on partaking in. It has to be one of the most popular destinations for adventure tourism in Central America. There are a lot of tourists and a lot of adventure companies.