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Published: April 7th 2019
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For our last day in Fortuna it was a full one! We started out by heading to Fortuna Waterfalls, apparently just a short walk down the road. Fortunately we brought 'Sammy the carolla', because it would have been quite a hike! Before the hike that is actually quite a large and well groomed park. There were many steps going down the waterfall to swim - they say about 500 but there must have been much more on the way up for all the complaining from our little friend, Scott. Probably the most complaints this whole trip. Maybe something to do with the temperature of the water? Scott didn't swim, but he did wander about in the shallow pools below the main waterfall. There were a couple of schools of pretty big fish to scare off, so that was fun.
Jen and Rob managed to make it in both the upper pool where the force of the waterfall was quite intense and wavy, even. The lower pool was pretty gentle though there was a definite current! At the top of Fotuna Waterfall there were a couple of gardens to explore - a butterfly garden as well as an orchid garden. They
were both beautiful and impressive and small. The collection of flowers definitely attracted a number of butterflies we hadn't yet seen, and well - we were not there in orchid season it would seem. We saw root grafts, Latin names and pictures of orchids mainly.
Next on the list was the promise of pizza. Unfortunately the many pizza ovens in the area were not yet fired up. So, we had some 'tipica' lunch and set off for our next adventure: Proyecta
Asis, a wildlife rehabilitation centre. This two hour tour ended up being a favourite part of our trip. We had a wonderful guide named Carlos who had an infectioos connection with each of the animals in the centre. It was interesting to learn about the different species, sad to learn about how animals arrived at the centre, and fascinating to hear about how and which animals would one day be released to the wild. Scott's favourite guy was Rocky the Raccoon (Balboa not Beatles) who had been struck by a car. After physio he's regaining some sight and balance.
Many animals are grouped into families or pairs before they can be released, like a group of pigs
who need two more to be introduced to their pack to be successful in the wild. Sadly, many of the monkeys who started out life being adopted by humans will never become wild as they have few instincts. They need to be taught at a young age the ways of the world. Moral of the story - don 't adopt wild animals or should-be-wild animals. Protect important habitats.
That night we had our standard rice, beans, salad and bad wine. In the morning we woke early (to Scott's delight) to go to the river and try out the free hot springs. Getting up early was the right move since we were first on site and had the whole place to ourselves! We explored a few of the pools including one where Scott and Jen could whirlpool around Rob. Talk about a science class, thank you mother nature! In some ways it was also a strange place, as though they had tried to stop or shift the river? Anyway, there was a collapsed wall of sorts that formed a couple of the pools.
From here, we packed up and did the final return drive to San Jose. Had a
lovely evening at hotel mango with our coldest pool yet. Morning came early and after two five hour flights broken up with a shot stop in Toronto we were home! Back to some happy doggies and to hopefully rid ourselves of our heat bumps and hold on to some great memories. Thanks Costa Rica!
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