Chet and Karen's Adventures--South of the Border: Arenal!!!

We arrived in Arenal by way of minibus, boat across Lake Arenal, and another minibus. Arenal is located on the east side of the mountain chain that winds its way through Costa Rica. The main town is called La Fortuna and is located at the base of the enormous Arenal Volcano. The volcano was relatively active up until 2010, when it entered into a dormant phase. Lava used to be visible at night flowing down the mountainside. Where Monteverde was quite chilly (we were wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts), Arenal is very warm and humid. It feels like we are back in the jungle again.

Wind turbines along the dirt road from Monteverde to the boat launch.

A third of the way across lake Arenal. The volcano is just visible among the clouds.

Our first full day here we decided to visit the La Fortuna waterfall. The falls are located about 6 km from town so we decided to hitchhike. Unfortunately no one picked us up, so we ended up walking the whole way. Lucky for us, it was a beautiful walk.

A view of Arenal volcano. Seen on our walk to the waterfall.

The falls were very impressive. The water thunders down from 75 meters above, pounding into a large pool below. It was a popular destination and there were a lot of people there. Fortunately the water was quite cold and no one could stay in for long. We hung out for a bit, ate lunch, and took lots of photos. Hitchhiking back we were lucky and caught a ride almost immediately.

Karen in the pool at the base of the waterfall.

The next day we decided to visit one of the attractions Arenal is most well known for: hot springs. There is a river here that is heated from the volcano to hot tub level temperatures (90s for sure). Developers have taken advantage of this and there is a swath of resorts boasting to have the "best" hot springs. Most of these resorts have outrageous prices ($100+) for day passes. Some say this is to prevent locals from coming to the resorts and limit the clientele to strictly tourists.

Since we are on a budget we decided to go where the locals go for their hot spring experience. It is located next to a giant resort called Tabacon. Tabacon actually used to own this part of the river, but lost it to the public in a lawsuit. Now it is a free, public access hot spring called Tabaconito (little Tabacon).

We hitchhiked out to the springs as it was a solid 14 km walk along a road with no shoulder and taxis charged $25+. The hot springs weren't what one would think of as traditional hot springs (a still pool that reeks of sulfur). This was a full on flowing river, or rather a stream, that had been heated from the volcano to 90+ degrees. The river was crowded with locals (we were the only gringos) as it is Semana Santa, a major week long holiday. We walked upstream and found a pool with no people to claim as our own. The water was hot, almost uncomfortably so as the air temp was quite high as well. It was still quite refreshing to soak. Once out of the water, with a breeze blowing the river was amazing. We stayed for several hours, alternating soaking and enjoying the light breeze. We timed our exit perfectly, arriving at the road just as the one bus that runs a day started to drive by. We flagged it down and caught a ride back to town.

Karen enjoying a soak at Tabaconito

For last bit of touristy tourism, Chet and I took a river cruise safari down a river called Caño Negro. The boat trip was about two hours with lots of wildlife viewing. We saw many, many different birds from King Fishers to Little Blue Herons in addition to spider and howler monkeys, a sloth, iguanas, jesus christ lizards (the lizards that walk on water) and many caiman (caiman are reptiles similar to crocodiles but smaller in size and less verocious).