La Fortuna & Monteverde - Costa Rica

We were all tired. It had been a wet, crowded, bumpy bus ride and when we arrived in La Fortuna it was damp and clowdy. We checked into our repective accomodations, the Berkeley bunch staying at the upscale Pura Vida, with air con and cable TV, and me at Gringo Pete's with with 8 person dorms and lockers for your personal effects (keys for the locks were extra). But hey, only $2 a night!

La Fortuna is a base from which you can explore Volcan Arenal, one of CR's most active volcanoes. During my visit here two years perior, we had been rewared with spectacular views and a midnight erruption with large chunks of glowing red volcanic rocks shooting out of the crater like missles afire and exploding on the steeps below. Sounds great huh, but we got none of that this time around. The volcano was hidden in a think showd of mist and fog and apparetnly hadn't been visable in weeks. It was so dense in fact that is was impossible to tell if there was a volcano there at all and Leif and Eli were sceptical.

With no projectile pyrotechnics on display, we consoled ourselves with the other main attraction in La Fortuna: the hot springs. With numerous underground water systems that are superheated by the emerging magma, Fortuna has an expance of day spas with built-in pools along the stream bed and are the perfect temperature for a soothing dip. We spent hours soaking in the relaxing spring water, making sure to hit up the bar for a refreshing cocktail between soaks. As good as this was we realized that that was all we were going to get out of Fortuna, we cut our losses and headed up to Monteverde the next day, taking a jeep, boat, jeep transport to get there.

The town of Monteverde, and the nearby Santa Elena, are perched up in the highland mountains, just below the cloud forest line. Thousands of visitors flock here each year to walk or zipline though this impressive jungle and search for rare species of birds and flora and fauna. Not able to sell everyone on the zipline tour, we opted for a hike through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve instead. Walking along in the damp mist you felt minuscule compared to the overgrown trees and ferns. Even the shrubs that grew off the tress were massive and you understood that you were staring at centuries of life and were walking on ancient ground. This mysticism was compounded by the mist that encapsulated every part of the forest, from the jungle floor to the tops of the canopies. And, it blew through it in big gusts spraying sheets of condensation over everything (and everyone).

I usually don't take walks, always going for the fast-paced ziplines or supercharge dirt bikes instead, but its always good to stop and smell the fungi from time to time. To take in all the sights and sounds that you would otherwise not bother to see or hear. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to buy a pair of wool socks, and start eating granola everyday, but, at leat for that day, I defiantly felt at one with nature.