San Jose to La Furtuna

[added pictures] I would have to say my first adventure began the morning leaving San Jose over to La Fortuna to see Costa Rica's currently active volcano. Waking up way too early and being more than half asleep I met Ali, a married American from Wisconsin, Alma a cute Israel living in NYC and Jeroen a very tall and thick bearded Hollander at the local bus stop. The bus ride itself was uneventful but once we landed in La Fortuna we were bombarded by local tour guides trying to get us into this and that hotel/hostel including a one very persistent Costa Rican name Julio. Now my first gut reaction was, ok, I'm about to get totally ripped off here, so after giving Julio a hard time for a good 30 mins in negotiation he came out as a genuine good guy and my personal tour guide over the next 2 amazing days.

Day 1 - Julio took me everywhere from local restaurants to the town festival to Baldi's Hot Springs where I met up with Ali, Alma, and Jeroen for some awesome night swimming in a total of 25 steam hot pools. Now these hot pools were blistering hot being over 40 degrees C and heated from the volcanic lava that still spews from Arenal. And if the numerous hot pools weren't enough they had 3 water slides which sent the unknowing visitors at blazing speeds where you literally have lift off at certain parts within the inner tube and swirl almost completely upside down...I think the 3rd water slide broke my ass.

Day 2 - I awoke at the Arenal Observatory Lodge (http://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com/EN/) to make the complementary 8:30am walking tour but 5 mins into the tour, being surrounded by 3 couples making kissey faces to each other, I decided to run away screaming and couldnt do so quick enough. I made my way back to the reception to ask what hard treks they have in store for unknowing touristas like me. So they tell me about the infamous Cerro Chato Volano trekk (sister volano to Arenal) where you can hike to the top of the volcano and see the lagoon in the centre of the dormant beast. After mentioning at least 3 times how difficult it is, I figure, hell I trekked through South East Asia whats a little volcano...man was I dead wrong. Luckily 2 mins into the trek I meet 3 fellow Canadians Ashleigh, Jessica, and Alana (who's uncle actually owns the entire Observatory lodge). Now I've done some serious hiking but nothing like what we went through. This hike was 1.3 kilometres straight up through mud and sludge through the tropical rain forest that's grown around the volcano while it sits silently dormant waiting for its day to erupt again. After 5 stops, almost passing out at least once and 2 hours later we made it to the top for a view that was well worth the burning legs and knees about to give out. If I hadn't have met the girls I would have totally turned around after 30 minutes.

With perfect timing, afternoon torrential rains hit us hard on the way down (little did I know that its their raining season) but there is nothing as refreshing as being complete drenched in warm hard rain washing away the mud, sweat and soothing the many cuts and bruises earned from the trek up Cerro Chata. But if the rain wasn't enough of a reward the completely deserted waterfall on our way back was, which became our own private little afternoon paradise.

That night, barely being able to walk and nursing my old man knees I randomly ran into Julio who was giving Ali, Alma and Jeroen their own tour of the volcano. Together we all spent over an hour simply sitting and watching lava covered boulders fly out from the mouth of Arenal at over 120 kms an hour. And to end off the night we all jumped back into Julios van and drove over to the local natural hot springs. Now these hot springs were actually just under a local bridge servicing the dirt road to and round the volcano to town which was in complete darkness. Our only light source was 2 flashlights and the head lights of random cars lighting up the trees above us as they passed over the bridge. The water was so hot and soothing words cant describe it. After a couple of hours of sliding across concrete road tunnels that the hot river water surged across only to plummet into hot pool after hot pool I slept like a baby being lulled to sleep by the bubbling and popping sounds coming forth from the Volcano throughout the night.

My next stop, Santa Elena in Monteverde to walk in the cloud forests.

P.S...I hoping to upload the pics at my next stop that will hopefully have a USB port so I can copy them off my cameras. But trust me, they're well worth the wait.

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