Catarata, Volcano, & Termales

Catarata, Volcano, & Termales

As mentioned in our last blog post, the town of La Fortuna is the hub of much tourist activity in Costa Rica.  The town sits at the base of Volcán Arenal, and the surrounding hillsides are prime areas for waterfalls (catarata or cascada) and hot springs (termales.)  Now that we have transportation we have been out exploring and enjoyed visits to all three; there are many in Costa Rica.

Just minutes west of downtown Fortuna is the beautiful Rio Fortuna Waterfall.  In Spanish it is Catarata Fortuna.  The cascade drops about 80 meters, and is formed by the Tenorio River as it travels through the rain forest across the Arenal mountain range.  Finally, it plunges off the cliff forming the beautiful waterfall. 

View from partway down

Rio Fortuna Waterfall

Admission to the waterfall area was $12 which seemed kind of steep but not as steep as the trail down!   We’d been told various details about the walk down . . . 300 steps, no maybe 400 steps, and a definitive 500+ steps by the park attendant.  Regardless, in the heat of mid-day, it is a long way down and then you have to come back up.  The steps are in good shape for about half way down with handrails and benches every so often to stop and let your legs stop quivering.  The last half is a bit tougher with the steps more primitive and only a chain to hang onto.  There are a couple small bridges to cross and of course as you get closer to the bottom you can hear the water.

 

It was well worth the hike!  The catarata is impressive, the pools of water are tempting, though getting too close to the fall itself is dangerous.  Lots of people were swimming but I’m glad we didn’t have to hike out in a wet swimsuit.  We spent quite a bit of time down at the bottom enjoying the cooler air and delaying the inevitable trip back up the hillside. 

Impressive

Enjoying the pools

Cooling down

Once we started there was only one way to go . . . one step at a time.  I’d read reviews that it was 10 minutes down and 20 minutes up; it took us 30/45.  Bob went ahead of me, and I sort of hung back with a couple other women who were about my age, and like me, don’t really have steep hill hiking legs.  But we made it and it was worth the knot in my leg the next day.

 

We made it!

The reward for making it out of the canyon is there are nice park facilities at the top . . . clean bathrooms, an overpriced souvenir shop, and a very good restaurant/bar.  I highly recommend the lemonade but something stiffer might have been satisfying as well.

We are told there are many beautiful cataratas in Costa Rica with varying degrees of accessibility.  Rio Fortuna was an easy “let’s do this” attraction and one we’d recommend if you are in the area.

There are several volcanoes in Costa Rica; most have been inactive for many, many years.  But Arenal was active as recently as late 2010 and continues to rumble once in a while.  While on our 1996 visit to CR, we sat at Tabacón Hot Springs and watched the volcano let off steam and spit lava.  It was very impressive . . . this is a scanned post card (can’t take credit for the photo) from that timeframe.

Fireworks!

Arenal continues to be an impressive site.  Sadly, in 1968 there was a major eruption that killed 87 people and wiped out three small villages on the west side of the mountain.  The small town of El Barrio, located on the east side of the mountain, was unharmed and renamed . . . La Fortuna.  The meaning of the name is obvious.

There have been many sightings of the volcano on this trip with changing visibility.  But one day the clouds lifted throughout the afternoon and there it was . . . quite a sight!

Base of Arenal

Clouds lifting

Impressive Full View!

 We made a day trip to El Castillo, a small village on the west side of Arenal.  There are a couple tourist attractions there, a butterfly garden and an ecozoo (snakes, spiders, frogs).  We didn’t visit either but our Canadian neighbors gave both a thumbs up “eh!”  Leaving the village Bob stopped and picked up a couple hitchhikers . . . something I would never do . . . but Phillip and Christina from France were delightful!  They rode down the hillside with us and we were all trying to communicate; they were speaking French with limited English.  We don't speak French but Bob did just retire from Areva, a French company.  As it turned out the common language was Spanish!  It was a fun exchange.

 

Phillip and Christina

Dropping our hitchhikers off, we entered Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal, part of the greater Arenal Tilaran Conservation Area.  Entrance to the park was $15/each for an international visitor but only about $2 for a Tican.  The park has well defined hiking trails, parking areas and nice restrooms.  We hiked up a relatively flat trail, until the last 50 meters where we had to scramble over some rocks, to the 1992 lava flow.  Looking straight up at the 5437’ high volcano was impressive; turning around we had a nice view of Lake Arenal.  There are some other commercial ventures for sightseeing near the volcano but we were pleased with the simplicity of the national park and the views were very nice that afternoon.

Admission

Trail system

 

 

View of Lake Arenal from Volcano lookout

Arenal

Arenal view from the Lake

Due to the geothermal activity of Volcán Arenal, there are a number of hot springs in the area ranging from very expensive upscale resorts to the simple inexpensive springs frequented by the local Ticans.  Guess which one we chose!  Our visit to Termalitas was a very relaxing afternoon, and for $6 it was even better!  Actually there is a free springs some of the locals go to but we were warned to not go there due to bacteria in the water and snakes on the rocks . . . no gracias!  We may visit a couple of the other springs while we are here, especially Tabacón, which we visited in 1996.  It has been in our memory for nearly twenty years and we’d like to see it again.

 

We remember our earlier trip fondly, and it’s been interesting to see the progress Costa Rica has made (mostly more paved roads) and also the changes in the culture.  Tourism has definitely made a big dent in improving the infrastructure of the country.  But along with that we’ve noticed some of the unique Latin American charm we experienced in 1996 has given way to accommodating tourists . . . there’s WiFi, satellite TV, and cell phones everywhere.  The traditional Tican meal of gallo pinto (rice and beans) has been replaced with pizza on every corner.  Costa Rican people, especially women, dressed very modestly in 1996.  Now they are wearing jeans and t-shirts.  There's a tourist attraction around every bend in the road rather than the miles and miles of beautiful jungled forest (bosque) we traveled through in 1996.  I guess our insight for today is that while we appreciate the positive impact of tourism it can also have a tendency to make things like anywhere else.  Sad.

Just follow the Sings!

Thanks for following along on our journey!