La Fortuna
Trip Start
Oct 22, 2006
1
7
18
Trip End
Nov 23, 2006
La Fortuna,
Costa Rica
Monday, October 30, 2006
Our transportation woes continued as we left Toruguero for La Fortuna. We knew we were up shit creek when they put us on the same boat that had broken down the night before. Big surprise...it fizzled out halfway to our port, but our sober captain was able to fix the problem. From port, we jumped on a bus that hauled ass up a one lane, pothole filled dirt road, passing cars, spitting up football sized rocks, and basically kicking the crap out of the undercarriage and suspension.
Our rally cross driver dropped the two of us off at Robertoīs - a restaurant in the middle of absolute nowhere, where we were instructed to wait for Eduardo
Arenal at night
. Alright. Sounds good. The next thing we knew a small guy, who oddly reminded us of Luis from Tortuguero, popped his head in the window of the restaurant and asked for Emmerr. Didnīt sound too Latin, so we just assumed it was our ride; a Rav4 driven by another non-English speaking guide. A few side roads into the trip the two of us fell asleep, something we didnīt find too sketchy until reflecting on it later. A random guy in an unmarked car picks us up at a small restaurant in god knows where, takes us through the backroads, and we both asleep. Super safe. That's Wolf Creek kind of stuff. He must have been an ok gut because he delivered us to our Hostel in La Fortuna - home of the active volcano.So,all weīve heard about La Fortuna since we got here is how amazing the Arenal Volcano is. Itīs almost turned into one of those legends where everyone talks about the amount of lava thatīs always spewing out of it, in a Mount St. Helens sort of way, or even Joe vs. The Volcano. Hearing this was very similar to when we moved to Seattle in the fall and everyone told us to wait until summer for the good weather. "Just wait til summer." "You gotta see the live volcano in La Fortuna. The lava is pouring out."
The thing they donīt tell you about La Fortuna is that the clouds rarely break to even give you a glimpse of the volcano
Arenal Volcano
. Hey, thatīs kinda like Seattle too. We plopped our bags down in our abandoned hostel and cruised into town to find some food and try to upload a couple pictures for the blog. And this is where out picture woes began. Apparently quite a bit of water seeped into Roryīs camera during the rainfall in Tortuguero and was screwing with his memory card. All of a sudden we went from having 400 pictures to 0. The worst of all was that we lost our group shot with Luis after the turtle tour, looking like a drunk elf on Christmas Eve. Since then weīve been able to pull up about a hundred, but that Luis shot...f-ing bummer.
In the midst of the camera debacle we ran into Josh and Nikki - the Kiwi couple from our bus ride to Limon - and joined them for dinner. On the way to dinner a stray dog took to our fancy and assumed the role of guard dog, attacking dogs that came too close and biting the ankles of passing motorcyclists, only to return to the four of us for a bit of affection. We affectionately named that cute little pup Killer.
We eventually left the Kiwis and headed back to our hostel to chill out in the hammocks in our front yard and gaze at the glow from the volcano in the clear night sky. It wasn't quite the lava flow we were promised, but the glow coupled with a smoke plume and accented by the moonlight was quite a sight
Backyard slide - horse crap everywhere
. It was so nice that the two of us fell asleep, which ended up being a much better option than our hostel beds which were lacking any form of bedding. At 9, we had an established hiking excursion with Nikki and Josh to La Fortuna Waterfall. As the four of us cruised through town into the boondocks, a small mutt joined us and continued on the trail with us for the 6km hike only to bail on us at the entrance of the waterfall for a German tour group. That two timing bastard.
The waterfall was more that the four us could have imagined, as the picture shows, with an accessible swimming hole at the base of it. When was the last time in the states that anyone was allowed to chill out at the bottom of a powerful waterfall? Never - this country rules.
We trekked back up the hill to find our mutt waiting for us (the Germans probably didn't let her on the bus) and began our walk back to town just as a thunderstorm hit us. It was yet another walk back in soaking rain. Halfway down we sought refuge at a hammock makers shop, but he and his 9 dogs made our stay a little awkward. The man was crazy - too much time with dogs and not enough human contact. We tried to pawn off our dog, but he wouldn't take a female into the pack; apparently he didn't want her doing what she had done with the Germans
Rory's new little buddy
. The four of us arrived back in town, our dog following had grown from 1 to 3, and had to jump in a van for a tour of the volcano, thus leaving our pack behind. Driving up to our viewpoint of Arenal Volcano our elderly guide told us that we wouldn't be seeing anything coming out, because we were going to the side that was inactive. And we paid for this?
Surprisingly this viewpoint didn't offer any vistas of lava, but it did give us time to receive the life story of our guide (his birthday is on the 10th, so we're all supposed to drink a beer for him) and to listen to some howler monkeys in the distance and the plop plop of the lava gurgling within the mountain, but that could very well have been Rory leaking out some gas. Yeah...it probably was.
Our next stop was Baldi Hot Springs, which is advertised as offering 17 pools ranging from 50 to 150 degrees with slides all over the place. False advertising - only 4 pools were open and the only slide open was fed by the 150 degree pool, and much to Emmett's surprise didn't offer any sliding, just sitting in extremely hot water. As the two of us sought refuge in a cool pool for Emmett's butt, we ran into our Canadian friends from Puerto Viejo (once again Canadian's are everywhere) and the Kiwis. Our stay at the springs was short lived though (there's only so much you can do with 4 pools, especially when the best any of us could do was get our toes into the scorching one), so we headed back to town for some dinner and to reunite with our dog from the morning's hike and Killer
The Hostel's backyard
. As the night turned into midnight the two of us along with Kirk wandered through town until we found a slide in someone's back yard; a very slick slide with an end lip only six inches off the group. Rory took the first go at it, finishing the ride with a baseball slide sending him six feet past the end, narrowly avoiding spots of horse excrement along the way. Emmett was able to stay on his feet after a very acrobatic move, saving himself from the humility of ending up face first in a pile of horse poop.
Rory - point for distance
Emmett - point for style
Weīve set out our next challenge. A timed event involving a huge pound cake con creme, a Trit (the best ice cream sandwich ever) and the beer Rock Ice con Limon. Who can take it down the fastest? The pound cake is uber dry and the beer tastes like a mixed of 1/2 beer, 1/2 salt water, with a splash of lime. Imagine Keystone Ice, but 10 times worse...con Limon. It is straight up nasty. Stay tuned to see what happens.
