This past weekend I visited la Fortuna, a town at the base of Arenal volcano. Arenal volcano is Costa Ricas most famous volcano and has made an appearance in movies After Earth. The town received it’s name after the 1968 eruption of the volcano. The eruption destroyed two towns to the west leaving the now name La Fortuna or the Fortunate untouched.
To get to la Fortuna we left Heredia around 2. Took a bus to San Jose. From San Jose took a bus for 2.5 hours to a town called ciudad Quesada. From ciudad Quesada took another bus for about an hour to la Fortuna. We arrived in la Fortuna around 730, checked into our hostel and got food at a typical soda(small family runned restaraunt). Waited for our other friends to arrive who took a later bus and then started drinking. Then we went out to a club called VolcanLook.
The next morning we woke up around 8-830. Ate breakfast at the same place we had dinner the night before and took a taxi to the la Fortuna waterfall. The waterfalls were absolutely gorgeous. To get there you take a short 10-15 min hike through the jungle down a bunch of steps.
At the base of the waterfall was a pool of cold water that felt amazingly refreshing. I wish we could have stayed there all day because it was so relaxing but we had the hot springs to get to. So after about an hour and a half of chillen by the waterfall we hiked out of there and took a taxi to the natural hot springs. The hot springs were amazing and felt wonderful after the cold water of the waterfall. The hot springs are literally a 45 second walk off of the road. When we got there, there were a bunch of locals and tourists hanging out in the water. The water temperature was about the same temperature as a tub. It was unlike any place I’ve ever experienced. Sitting there in the flow of hot natural water, surrounded by exotic jungle plants and animals. The sun wasn’t out but it didn’t matter.
We left the hot springs around two. Ate lunch and left around 3 to start the journey back to Heredia.