La Fortuna

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I arrive in La Fortuna for Costa Rica´s Independence Day, September 18th. I went out in the morning to take a look at what festivities were taking place. The town was having a reverse sort of parade. Instead of groups parading around the town in a line, a bunch of groups were lined up along the road and slowly moving to the ´starting´point where they did a dance or performance for what looked like a group of judges. Most of these groups were children who did traditional dances, but there were groups who marched, played instruments and one who paraded around promoting greener living. It was an interesting even to watch but it started to rain so I headed back to the hostel.

That afternoon I scheduled a visit to the Arenal Volcano which included a dip in the hot springs. The visit to the volcano was pretty limited as we only went to the hotel at the base of the volcano and walked the area around the volcano´s base, we did not actually hike it. It was also pouring rain while we did the walk so it was not entirely pleasent, nor did it afford the best views of the volcano. We then went on to the hot springs for which it was probably a good thing it was dark and rainy. They were the less commercial hot springs, just off the highway and below a bridge. It was fun though and our guide supplied us with rum.

Afterwards I returned to the hostel and hung out with some of the people staying there. At this hostel I met quite a few Germans. I met two the night I arrived, Lotta and Stephanie, Lotta was studying in San Jose and Stephanie was visiting her. In Germany university does not resume until October so there are still students travelling in September. The following night I met three other German students studying Spanish in San Jose. There was also an older American gentleman there who had just retired from being a high school teacher. We were both leaving in the morning on the same shuttle for Monteverde.

It was a relaxing night and I went to bed early.

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