Costa Rica is the land of pure living or Pura Vida. We spent a week exploring the hiking trails in the lush rain forest region of La Fortuna. Although I specifically planned our trip during the dry season because we would be spending a decent amount of the week outdoors I quickly learned that Costa Rica weather doesn’t care so we had a week of heavy rain and dense fog with a few dry spots sprinkled in. What is a trip to the rain forest without a little rain though? Costa Rica is a highly touristy area so the rain added a component of adventure to our hiking. The sad part was even with my DSLR camera waterproofed there were not many options for the typical epic travel photos. I always bring at least three types of cameras so there was plenty of time to practice a skill I am working on improving: videography.
We started in San Jose with a trip to the central market. We only had a small window of time right after arriving to the airport that evening so unfortunately we arrived right as the vendors were closing. San Jose is a densely populated city and traffic is horrible, if it weren’t for an hour Uber both ways we may have made better time.
La fortuna
The next day we made our way up the winding roads to La Fortuna. Little did we know that this would be the last time we saw the sun for a week. La Fortuna is a small town situated at the base of an active andesitic stratovolcano volcano. Aside from the volcano, a main attraction in this tiny tourist town is the Fortuna waterfall which takes five hundred steps to get to. Yes, that is five hundred down and then back up – hello leg muscles! The rain made those stairs harder to climb however at the bottom we had a little surprise. Not one but two waterfalls! Due to heavy rain and tons of water we had a chance to see a second waterfall off to the side of the cliff that is usually a dry rock wall. Personally I thought the smaller one (pictured above) was more enchanting.
Arenal Volcano Hike
The clouds around Arenal were so low during our trip that they covered much of the Volcano. We only saw about 75% of the volcano on the best day with the least amount of rain. The Arenal hike takes you on trails through the lush jungle and will be a few hours to finish. It’s a great experience because you get close enough to the volcano to realize the massive size which, with the clouds, was hard to grasp from the road. Our hotel concierge, Luis, told us that for the past few years the clouds always cover the top of Arenal so there is never a great view of the entire volcano. I am not sure how true that is, but it sure made me feel a bit better at the time!
Two activities that we added into our itinerary when we arrived to La Fortuna were the hanging bridges and the thermal springs. The hanging bridges take you on a trek through the canopies of the tallest trees in the area. We saw a few howler monkeys and a couple of rain drenched tourists. The best part about the muggy weather is that it kept a lot of people away so we had a few of the bridges to ourselves. This made for great photo ops.
Before arriving to Costa Rica I called a friend that had just visited to ask for tips. One thing she emphasized was that we had to go to the thermal spa. We were a little worried about the tourist factor, but found a spa called Paradise Hot Springs with nice reviews and booked it immediatly. I can not agree with her more – go to the thermal spa! I don’t know if it was the delicious pina colada, misty tropical climate, or the therapeutic mineral water, but it was absolutely amazing! Paradise was clean and not overly crowded with children as we heard about the others. Thank you for that awesome tip Jakki.
Rio Celest
For our final hike I decided that we would take a two hour drive to see a river called Rio Celest. This river is like a gem and named for it’s magical turquoise blue color. The water itself is not actually blue, it is blue to the human eye because of the minerals reflecting from the sun. Sounds pretty enchanting right? Of course, it rained all day long. When we arrived to the entrance a park ranger informed us that the river was totally brown due to the weather and that we should rent rain boots because of the mud. We laughed at her advice and decided after a very long drive that we wanted to hike with out any lame boots. We figured why not get the complete experience. This hike, or as Craig calls it, “The WWI Experience” was intense. It consisted of hiking through thick sticky mud for hours, sliding on rocks, jumping over pools of water only to fall in anyway, and once again getting rained on the entire time. We stayed in good spirits and even with mud up to our ankles we enjoyed the beautiful river and waterfall which to our surprise was blue and not brown. Maybe not as blue as if the sun were out, but blue enough to make us happy. If you go plan for at least three hours for this hike and rent the boots it will be so much easier.
San Jose
On our last day we drove through the winding countryside back to San Jose. The sun finally did come out during the drive and we had a chance to see the beautiful views we had been missing all week.
Overall Costa Rica was a fun experience. The food was pretty basic, but if you’re looking for some great beans, rice, and chicken this is the place to go. I’d say five days is enough to get the idea of the rain forest and fill your itinerary. I think next time we may take a ride to the coast and see what all that great surfing is about.
Until our next adventure… here is a little video I put together.
Clearwater photographer | www.Joyelan.com | La Fortuna Costa Rica Road Trip
