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Oooh Volcano
Arenal from the lake. Pretty cool pic if i do say so myself! La Fortuna and the invisible volcano…
After two wonderful nights in Monteverde we set of around 8 in the morning heading for a small town nestled at the base of Arenal volcano called La Fortuna. I have to mention the fantastic drive down the mountains as we approached Lake Arenal; possibly one of the most impressive drives I’ve ever been on. Unfortunately, due to excessive alcohol intake the night before, many of the other people on the tour didn’t appreciate the winding decent from Monteverde and were more concerned with not vomiting on each other in the back of the mii-bus, much to my amusement! Once we arrived at the western shore of the lake we boarded a small boat to take us across the lake, saving us about 3 hours of road time. Crossing the lake you can see Arenal looming in the distance in all its glory. Got some great pics. Once we reached the other side it was a short taxi to our hotel in La Fortuna, originally named La Fortuna Hotel. It’s the only big multi story building in town so you cant miss it. Probably more expensive than the other accomadation around town but it
Wet bar
Very cool place to get pissed. Just make sure to bring about $100 was very nice and has a cool lounge/restaurant area on the ground floor. Happy hour was 4-7 pm, 2 beers for the price of one!
La Fortuna is a fairly small and unassuming town, almost totally dependant on the tourists attracted here by the volcano. There was a handy laundrette right across the street from our hotel; $1.50 per Kg. The main activities here were white water rafting; grades 2-4 and various tours of Arenal including Baldi Hot-springs just outside town. One of the things recommended to us by our tour leader was to take a taxi up to a view point adjacent to the crater where you supposedly could see the lava spewing out from Arenal. So off we went around 6 pm to take the 30 minute taxi up to the view point at a cost of $35, between 5 people. We were sceptical prior to departure that the stormy weather may hamper our view of the crater but we were reassured by the taxi guy that it wouldn’t be an issue.
Nice
This photo doesn't do it justice really. Howeer, 30 minutes later we were sat in the taxi watching the lashing rain beat against the window and wondering why we just wasted $7!
If the weather is not fine then don’t bother doing this tour as you will not see a thing!! We stayed up there for about 40 minutes and sore nothing but darkness punctuated by the odd fire fly.
The next day many of our group went white water rafting but we decided against it as it was quite expensive (around $65) and we felt we would have plenty of opportunities to do it over the coming 6 months and 3 continents! So instead a few of us opted for a nice relaxing day lounging around Baldi hot springs just outside town. A taxi to the springs was about $5 and the entrance fee was a pretty hefty, but totally justified, $20. Baldi was definitely more than just a hole in the ground filled with hot water. More like a water park than a spa but containing attributes of both, I would highly recommend a trip out here. It’s a large place; most of the small pools of hot and cold water a situated near
the entrance while the larger swimming areas, water slides and waterfall pool are at the rear of the complex. We were there on a Sunday and its definitely a place where the locals have a family day out. There are 3 water slides emptying into a large pool area where all the kids gather round to laugh at the stupid gringos flailing around like maniacs as you come flying out of the slides with a splash! Word of warning though: food and drink is very expensive in the springs so bring your own lunch.
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