Lavas Tacotal hotel near La Fortuna was our homebase for two nights.
Lavas Tacotal hotel near La Fortuna was our homebase for two nights.
This is the dining/breakfast area...
...adjacent to the main pool.
Then you have to walk past a series of bungalows...
...and finally reach a pool bar and, further down, two units with apartments.
Today we first drove to a nature trail in the foothills of Arenal volcano.
The clouds looked ominous, but fortunately the rain stayed its hand
till we were back in the car.
The trail started in the grassy plain surrounding the volcano...
...but soon delved into the rainforest with its amazing array of natural flower pots.
At one point, a strange creature emerged from the forest, roughly
half way between us and a Swiss couple walking a bit ahead of us,
and after
briefly pondering its lunch options (basically a choice between Eastern European
and Western European meat) started to amble in our direction.
We responded by shooting of our cameras, hoping that the critter
would understand
that we had been armed with the most modern digital weaponry known to man and thus not
to be messed with or eaten. And it worked. The creature (later identified as "coatimundi")
approached to within 8-10 feet and then dashed around us in a big circle,
continuing its way to the nearest coatimundi cantina.
The first third of the trail circled a small lake...
...with plenty of semi-hidden benches where you could rest and enjoy the scenery
(despite the cloudy sky, it was hot and humid, so some rest was in order)
Unlike the well paved trail in the hanging bridges area, this one was natural,
so it actually felt like we were hiking rather than sightseeing.
Parts of the trail were so steep that the owner provided a piece of rope for easier climb.
Most of the forest was just a cacophony of green, only in well lit places
punctuated by a red flower...
...or blue berries (which would probably color match your face had you digested them)
The trail eventually led to a little hill on the side of Arenal (on the left)...
...from which we could see the Lake Arenal and also
the famous Monte Verde mountains in the background.
After the hike we circled the Arenal volcano and headed for
the Rio Fortuna waterfall on the other side.
The road was paved only to a nearby hotel, so the last stretch of the road
(about a mile or so) was either unpaved or covered with crude cement blocks
which facilitated climb in some tricky passages. When we made it to the
parking lot, there was only one other non-SUV car there. On the plus side,
this part of the road turned our car seats into Swedish massage chairs. For free.
The waterfall trail started (where else?) at a souvenir shop...
...but after an easy walk you would come to a viewing area overlooking the jungle.
Those with strong hearts could take a long and steep staircase...
...leading to a pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
After this excursion we returned to La Fortuna - the
unofficial capital of the Arenal area.
Costa Rica is not known for a sophisticated system of street addresses, so the
directions to our hotel were:
10 miles west of the Catholic Church - and here it is.
Other than that La Fortuna is just a regular Costa Rican town...
...with a fairly well maintained central park.
By this time however the weather started to deteriorate again...
...so we went back to the church - where we left our car - and drove back to the hotel.
The rain was over by 5pm, so we took a little improvised hike in the neighborhood...
...which mostly consisted of hotels and their bungalows.
To get away from civilization, we took a little side road
into the country and walked on it
for about a kilometer.
It got dark soon and the surrounding woods began
to emanate noises that we did not hear during the daytime.