Erupting Experience at La Fortuna

by Donal McLoughlin, accompanying photo by Linda Dunford

 

Yesterday we decided to do a little something more interesting with our day of travel. We booked ourselves on a trek to La Fortuna that uses various modes of transport, bus, boat and horse.

 

We were picked up at our hotel and drove for about two hours to a bus stop along the edge of Lake Arenal. There we met our guide 'Nixon' who introduced us to our horses. Linda got the youthful frisky dude and I got the old and tired one. After rudametary instruction to both of us we started our journey. Nixon was the ultimate gentlemanly 'buchanero'. Through broken Spanish and English we chatted away as we ambled along the shores of Lake Arenal. He was full of information and showed us all manner of wildlife from monkeys, squirrels, ants, wasps, numerous birds (the colourful small ones to vultures) and took plenty of photos of us at especially picturesque spots. We rode for two and a half hours and then stopped for watermellon and pineapple at the shore. It was a nice pit stop as my ass was killing me!

 

Linda's previous horse riding experience, albeit limited, was obviously helping her! We continued our journey for 40 minutes before leaving Nixon and climbing under a few bushes to get to the boat to take us across the lake to La Fortuna.

On the boat we got a great view of the Volcano. It is almost always clouded over so we were very fortunate to have seen it almost completely clear. Only a small fog remained over the crater but that is smoke more than cloud. A bus met us after our twenty minute boat ride and brought us the rest of the way to La Fortuna. We had only just started our journey when we came across a very tame Koati (a bit like a cross between a racoon and an anteater) on the road, we found out afterwards that they are sugar junkies and will come up to you for whatever sweet stuff you have.

There is a tri-athlon race on here today so accommodation is scarce. We went to a place called the '5 star backpacker hostel' which was supposed to be $10 per person but when we looked at the room they told us it was $50. We politely told them to go and jump and looked further. We went to a accommodation recommended by the Lonely Planet, "Hotel Dorothy". They were full but the very helpful owner, Noel, got us a room at the place next door and negotiated a rate fo $8 for the room for us.

We went into the room and were looking forward to a shower as we smelt of horse and natural odours! But when we saw the state of the apparatus that was heating the water in we decided that we didn't smell all that bad. The water passes through live electricity and looks more like an apparatus for torture than washing. We were still contemplating our next move (eating was a priority) when Noel from the hotel came to our room to tell us that if we wanted to see the volcano that we should do it then as it was erupting and quite clear. We took his advice and booked ourselves in on the next tour which gave us 45 minutes for food. A quick tasteless bite to eat and we were off again.

We arrived to the volcano park and headed off to break in our hiking boots. Along the way we saw more howler monkeys but we are beginning to get used to seeing them so didn't get very excited. Our tour guide was great and showed us all kinds of local points of interest. He showed us the tallest tree in CR which the Mayan people felt had spiritual powers. They buried their dead at its feet and their spirits were said to live on in its body. Before we started we were told to look out for snakes and not to touch anything without getting clearance from them (safe enough there). There are so many different flora and fauna that are harmful to humans that it would be best to check before touching anything at all. We hiked for about 1 km, stopping here and there to listen to lava flow and to be told about points of interst along the way. Along the way we came across another family of howlers. They didn't like us being underneath them so one of they threw its 'pooh' at us. God bless their healthy insides, it was a good size and would have hurt us if they got a direct hit. Thankfully their aim isn't as well developed as the rest of them.

We stopped at the point where lava came to during the 1992 eruption. At this point the tour guide spoke about nourishment for humans that can be found occurring naturaly in the forest. He first showed a plant that tastes like asparagus and then knocked on a rock beside it to encourage little termites to emerge. He said that they tasted like carrots so someone in the group suggested he eat one. He agreed if he had a volunteer to do it with him. Well...I am on a voyage of discovery and enlightenment so I stepped up to the challenge. I had to put a finger on the rock and wait for one to crawl on me. I looked at the size of it and thought I would need at least two to get a 'proper taste'. Sure enough, they taste like vegetables! Linda wasn't all that amorous towards me after that, I needed toothpaste first.

We continued further through the park until we were about 2 km from the crater, the noises grew louder and the light faded. We stopped here for 45 minutes and sat on some old hardened lava watching the sunset. We had a great view of the sunset over the lake behind us and ahead of us the smoke coming from lava falling down the mountain. We had to wait until almost nightfall before the red lava became visible to the naked eye. It was amazing to think that we were viewing the formation of rock and that the earths crust was in such turmoil under our feet. Volcan Arenal is the third most active volcano after Mt. Etna in Italy and Kilauea in Hawaii.

We turned around and made our way via flashlight back through the forest to the buses. As we walked through the forest we were surrounded by lots of little fireflies and were exposed to the strange sounds of the jungle. The bus brought us back closer to town and into the 'baldi termi' natural springs. These baths are filled with hot water from springs heated by the volcano. The pools are in divided into 10, all in increasing variants of temperature. We went into the first one that was nice, the second was warm and after that they became increasing difficult to get into. You had to slowly sink into them paying close attention to how your various body parts reacted to the heat. No.10, which is the hottest, was insane. We stuck our finger into it and with a reflex reaction yanked it out. You could cook lobster in it. We only stayed in the baths for an hour and got a quick bite to eat. More pasta and no meat, we are craving what we can't have! Linda had a guest in here dinner, a moth flew directly into it and jumped around a bit after she had taken about 10 bites, so she was done!