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Published: February 17th 2011
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We're back from our 4-day trip to the town of La Fortuna near Arenal National Park & Volcano. It was a good trip with a challenge or two. But the challenges give me something to write about in my blog!
As I mentioned in my last blog we left on Valentine's Day we took a cab, about 45 minutes, from Atenas to a larger town north of us called San Ramon. From there we caught a public bus to take us to La Fortuna, the closest town of any size to Arenal National Park. That took about 3.5 hours. The bus schedule stated it was a 2-hour bus ride but there was very dense fog and rain for most of the ride when we ascended the mountains. It was obvious we were getting into the rainforest. It was probably a good thing that due to where I was sitting on the bus I couldn't really see the road ahead, behind or on either side. It was obvious as there was very little chatter on the bus when it was very foggy and the road was windy. Once we were at a lower elevation and visibility was better the chatter resumed.
In off and on hard rain and low clouds and warm temperatures we checked into our hotel, Sueno Dorado. I took a number of photos of flowers and plants on their grounds. Our room was not fancy but comfortable and no suicide shower!
Near our hotel were hotels with Hot Springs. The largest seemed to be Baldi. We walked around the place to see some of the 25+/- different hot spring pools they had all attractively set in lovely tropical settings. Each showed the temperature of their water. From cool to very hot. We decided to wait and decide on Tuesday if we would go to the Hot Springs.
We went into town for dinner and returned to our room before too late. Our plans for the following day would likely include shopping and seeing Arenal in some way, shape or form...weather permitting.
We had breakfast at Benedicto's, the restaurant connected with the hotel. The food was good and service was decent. The hotel & restaurant recently changed hands and is now run by two young men, one 28 and the other 19! They sure seem to be trying hard. I hope they succeed.
Shopping
in La Fortuna was next. We spent the next 2-3 hours checking out several stores with artisan items as well as taking time to check out their Central Park and adjacent Catholic Church...pretty much the norm for Latin America towns.
After lunch we went to a travel agency to find out the options for a rainy day in Arenal National Park. We opted for a hike to a waterfall that would be leaving soon. The tour bus ride was a good 45 minutes at least and took us up high into the park. Once there we divided into two smaller tour groups, one English speaking and the other Spanish. Now it would have been great practice to go with the Spanish speaking folks but it made more sense to stay with Barb & Mary so we would end the toru at the same time. I really don't know how long the hike was but it was the most & steepest hiking I had done in a long time. With the patience of the tour guide and everyone else I made it!
The guide pointed out various animals, plants and a spider on our way down to the falls.
Some of which I will download photos of. Once at the falls we had time to take photos and even got a lava mud facial mask if we wanted it. By the time we started our hike up out of the falls it was starting to get dark. So was all hurried along as much as possible.. me holding up the rear.
What we saw and experienced on the hike was memorable. Walking through the misty dense jungle offered so much to see and enjoy. The plants, animals, the weather as well as out guide and other tourists on the hike. There were people from Switzerland, Italy and Holland just to name a few.
So that night we had a delicious celebratory dinner at Benedicto's then went back to our room to rest up before our busy Wednesday as we would be heading to Monteverde.
Stay tuned for second entry of our 4-day trip!
Ciao,
Barb
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sis
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Love the hydrangea flowers-all of the photos were fantastic! And it sounds like the cloudy, misty effect was nice for when you were hiking-it enhanced the experience I guess you could say. Your hotel looked lovely. The name of that trumpet flower is on the tip of my tongue but it won't come to me but Tom grew it one year here. I will have to ask him what the name is. I am sure that it's a very good thing you couldn't see out the window on that bus ride! The equivalent to a white-knuckle airplane ride I bet.