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Day 213: The long and rainy road north
Reaching one of San Jose's many bus stations at the very sociable hour of quarter past eight, I met a few other people looking to go to La Fortuna, a town in the north of the country. Having paid for our tickets, we climbed aboard the ancient bus, and were shortly off on our way out of the big city, along winding country roads, heading towards La Fortuna.
I'm sure the journey could have been easily completed within a couple of hours, but what with innumerable stops in various villages to pick up and drop off passengers, and the fact that the bus could barely manage the uphill inclines at a snail's pace, we arrived at our destination five hours later. From the station, we moved en masse (five of us), to a 'five star backpackers resort' out of town. Not too expensive, and still with dorms, the place was brand new, and with a bar and swimming pool, it seems like it could be a nice place to spend a few days.
After a little while faffing, as is always the way in a group of any size, we
finally made it out for a long and leisurely lunch in one of the local cheap eateries. I'm not bored of rice, beans and vegetables quite yet, but I think there may come a time. Having not done any laundry since I was last in Costa Rica, a trip to the laundry was long overdue, and whilst waiting for my clothes, and having already been drenched a couple of times by the heavy rain, I spent the rest of the day and evening, eating and drinking with a group of other people at the hostel bar.
Day 214: Volcanoes, hot springs (and some more rain)
Despite the rain continuing to batter the town and all who venture out in it, I was determined to see one of the area's features, an active volcano that spews out a bit of lava every few minutes. Ever-optimistic, and despite not being able to even see the volcano from town due to the rather extensive cloud cover, I booked a tour for the afternoon and evening anyway. Along with the three israeli guys, danish girl and dutch girl that I'd met the day before, we were picked up in a minibus
and driven along a very bumpy road to Arenal National Park. Despite the pouring rain, we had a good walk in the rainforest, with our guide pointing out all kinds of birds and plants, before we reemerged at the carpark, significantly more cold and soggy than when we'd set off. Driving along the well-potholed dirt track once more, we were taken to a lookout point to 'see' the volcano. By this time, it was pretty much pitch black, and the group of us stood, with eyes squinting, trying to make out where the volcano was supposed to be. After about five minutes, we did see a small flash of orange through the clouds as a little lava finally got expelled from the crater. It wasn't that impressive, and after a few more minutes of standing around in the torrential rain, we were just about to leave when a much larger eruption caused the top of the volcano to be illuminated. It didn't last too long, at my attempts at photographing the spectacle were far from impressive, but at least I got to see lava, which is a first.
Although destined to stay wet, our next stop was at the slightly warmer hot springs near to town. Mimicking the more expensive baths nearby that had been created by geothermally heated water, our 'hot springs' weren't really springs at all, but a complex of arteficially heated baths. It did seem a bit of a shame that they weren't natural, especially after all the fabulous hot springs I visited in New Zealand, but it was good fun all the same. With twenty-five plush pools, and temperatures from twenty degrees up to a scorching (and rather dangerous considering the number of inebriated people around) sixty-seven degrees, there was plenty to keep us occupied, even before we found the sauna and waterslides. Far too fast, one of the slides was also quite dangerous, with people hitting their heads and getting whiplash, as they descended rather quickly through the loops and into the water. Unfortunately the food and drinks were very much out of my price range, but I did get to see the end of a Boca match at a poolside bar all the same!
After over two hours of wallowing around in the various pools, we finally retreated to the changing rooms to put on some warm clothes and then head back to the hostel for food and drinks aplenty before bed.
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