La Fortuna Challenges Andrea With Waterfalls and Rapids.

It was another rainy morning when we loaded up the bus for our drive to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is known for the Arenal Volcano, hot springs, and other adrenaline activities. It has a bigger town center than Monteverde with ample restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops. La Fortuna also has a central square with a church where locals like to hang out. Our hotel was not directly in the downtown area, but it was only a short walk away. 

One of the first things we noticed when arriving at our hotel were the leafcutter ants that were everywhere! They were walking along the dirt driveway, around the perimeter of the swimming area, and along sidewalks. They were always perfectly in line and each ant was carrying a piece of bright green leaf. We were impressed with their work ethic and wondered how they adapted to the sudden downpours or mindless tourist stepping in their path. I made sure to take a video to show my students. 

Our first full day in La Fortuna was a busy one. We were up early to board our transportation to go canyoneering. Canyoneering is when you repel down a waterfall (part way), and then walk through the rivers in the canyon to reach the next waterfall to repel down. This isn’t something I had ever done before, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. It ended up being one of my favorite things. Unlike ziplining, I wasn’t looking down, so there wasn’t any fear from the height. Instead I was looking directly in front of me at the waterfalls and the incredible rain forest. The bright green foliage surrounding the waterfalls made for quite the view.

Venturing through the river was slightly challenging, however, as you didn’t always know how deep it would be or if your foot would land on a stable rock. The most challenging part of canyoneering was walking back to the starting point. It was a long and steep path up to the top with very high steps.  My legs burned the next day from that walk, but it was worth it.

After canyoneering, we went to a lodge for a traditional lunch of rice, beans, plantains, and some potatoes. We then got back in our van and drove about an hour to where we would begin our white water rafting adventure.

White water rafting isn’t something I had really done before. I had gone once in Peru, but it doesn’t count as there were no rapids. It was a rather boring and uneventful rafting trip. This trip, however, would prove to be very fun and eventful! There were four of us in the boat along with our guide. The four of us had no experience with rafting, but we were all excited for the adventure. Before we got into the river, our guide gave us a quick tutorial. The most important thing was to never let go of your paddle. You were to always hold onto the end so you didn’t accidentally hit someone with it or lose it in the river.

The next thing was that you need to move your whole body when paddling, not just your arms. Finally, it was also important that we all paddle at the same time. That proved to be the most challenging part. You don’t have to paddle the whole time when you’re white water rafting, but when your guide tells you to paddle, you better paddle. I was sitting on the right side of the boat behind Alex. I used her as my guide to make sure I was padding in unison. She was supposed to be in unison with Kaitlin who was across from her. Well, according to Cori, who was behind Kaitin (are you keeping up?), Kaitlin’s paddle wasn’t even making it into the water. This revelation caused us all to start laughing which took our focus away from paddling.

Our constant laughing didn’t please our guide. At one point he told us we needed to paddle more and talk less. Oops!  He definitely wasn’t laughing with us. We felt we had disappointed our guide. Nevertheless, we had a great experience. No one fell out of the boat though people fell in the boat, and we all had a good time. It is definitely something I would love to do again. 

The next day in the La Fortuna area was less adventurous. We took a boat tour down a river to search for wildlife. It was a similar boat for white water rafting, and we had to paddle! However, there was less pressure as there were no rapids. We took the tricks and tips we used the day before to stay in unison. (This would be me shouting, “one, two, one, two”. It’s the teacher in me.) Along our journey was saw another sloth ball, spider monkeys, birds (again, there are always birds), and lizards. We didn’t see as many animals as I would have liked, but it was beautiful and relaxing. We even stopped to have a pineapple snack. They love feeding you pineapple!

That evening we went to tour part of the national park at the Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately it was overcast and the volcano was covered with fog so it wasn’t clear for our tour. However, we were able to do a short hike and learn a little history about when the volcano erupted. Just don’t ask me to tell you about it because I might not have been paying that great of attention. (I’m a terrible student)

On the drive back to La Fortuna we stopped at a hot springs river. Our guide was excited for us to experience the river and had even stopped at a convenience store to buy some drinks for us to enjoy while in the hot springs. The only hot springs river I had been in was in Iceland. I had assumed this would be similar, pockets of hot and cold water. Boy was I wrong. Upon arriving at the river, I could tell it was a popular spot as it was quite full.

Luckily there were different sections to the river and the groups of people found their own corner to sit in. The entire river was warm. I’m talking like a warm (not hot) hot tub. It was unexpected! We all climbed down into the river and then our guide handed us our drinks. We stayed in the river well past sunset, and it was dark by the time we left. I think we would have stayed longer if we could. Nature is pretty amazing!

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the Pizza Ranch to order some pizzas to be delivered to our hotel for dinner. It was then back to my room to pack my bag in preparation for the journey to Sarapiqi the following day. Sarapiqi, home to bullet ants, a poisonous frog in my tent (we were “glamping” ), and where, do I dare say it, I became interested in birding (just a little). Stay tuned.