3. In the rain forest: Holidaying like the land people do

For phase 2 of my Costa Rican adventure, I hopped a ‘shared shuttle’ (a little minibus that comes and collects all the people who’ve booked the same route and transports us). Our driver was very friendly and also very keen to get us to our destinations as soon as possible; if a car went too ‘slowly’, he’d drive right up behind them and then drop back slightly, repeatedly, until he could pass them by. The speed limit, even on the dual carriage way,was between 80-90kph but we tended to stick to around 120. I popped my seatbelt on… After an hour and a half of driving, we stopped into a service station, where the driver announced we were having a 35 minute break. It turned out it was less of a desperation to get us to Fortuna quickly and more about getting the longest possible break, as our departure time for the second leg would always have been 11am! However, I very much enjoyed our stop as the wildlife that hung out on the side of the road here included an iguana, some little sleeping bats and a massive pair of red macaws who were preening themselves in the trees! Later on our journey, we also pulled over to look at the huge Arenal Lake then watch a lady feeding some odd looking animals that scampered out the vegetation when she arrived with food. They were coatis apparently - known locally as pizotes and relatives of the raccoon!

After 4.5 hours, I arrived at my hotel in La Fortuna, and was presented with a fancy welcome drink, thick I enjoyed on my little porch seat. The town that is surrounded by rainforest and sits at the foot of the Arenal volcano (1,670m high - the tenth highest volcano in CR. It’s a little under half the height of Teide, Mum!). The volcano formed around 7500 years ago so is geologically ‘young’ (Teide begun forming around 200,000 years ago, Mum). Following many years of inactivity, the last major eruption was the. 1968, which destroyed a nearby town. Since then, it continued spewing lava and remained active until 2010. Although not classified as entirely ‘active’ now, it does often release puffs of smoke apparently - and continues to be closely monitored! Locals claim the town was named for its good fortune in escaping volcanic destruction and / or the fertile farming land that it provides. The town, typical of a lot of countries that have growing tourist industries that capitalise on tourist dollars, used to be a farming town but has now converted itself into more of a tourism hub offering adventurous and nature attractions. I am here for 5 nights and hope to explore as much as I can (by which I mean I shall go and see some nice nature and animals not that I shall be launching myself down the side of a volcano on a zip wire or hooning about on a quad bike; I’m post 40 now - and mainly refuse to pay the exceptional prices they’re charging for such activities.

A brief exploration of the town revealed a central ‘park’, lots of traffic and an abundance of shops selling tours or souvenirs and plenty of restaurants. Seems ideal! I also noticed that outside the huge church in the park, there were 3 crosses. I arrived the day after Good Friday … not sure if I missed or it’s happening later but I’m wondering if the plan is perhaps to reenact the crucifixion. Also unsure if the ceremonial sacrificial victims have been selected yet but I think it’s for the best that I don’t hang around too close for any length of time. As well as a number of locals laying about of the grass at the park, presumably waiting for the second coming, there was also trees filled with loud squawky green parrots, which I thought was much more exciting!

For my first trip, I went in pursuit of sloths! I found an attraction that seemed like it was suitable named to suggest it would lead to success and booked a guided tour. Off we went through the little paths into the forest with instructions to keep an eye out above and look for ‘balls of brown fluff’! Unsurprisingly, there was no way I’d have ever spotted a sloth without a guide but we eventually found some three-toed and one two-toed sloth (who had a tiny baby with her!). We spotted a male (with an orange marker on his back) feasting on some leaves and a female in the process of changing trees. Sloths live almost exclusively in the trees, coming down only once a week to dig a hole, do a poop in it then return to the trees. They don’t poop from above as it would make them easier for predators (jaguars) to track & pursue - but the act of descent and pooping is the time they are most vulnerable. Danger poopers! This infrequency with pooping also means that when they do have a poo, they lose up to a third of their body weight! I feel like they ought to be able speed climb back into their tree after dropping that kind of burden off!

Fortunately, once a sloth had been sighted, the guide would set up his super score thing on a tripod so we could all peer through it to watch the sloth and then he took a photo for each of us through the scope. In addition to sloths we also saw some pretty lizards and a pair (baby and parent) black and white owls. I did not expect that in Costa Rica but as some of you will know, I was possibly even more excited by that than the sloths!

After the sloth forest walk, I went on a little tour to see and learn about some of the local crop production. I found our guide really quite difficult to understand. I think his English was good but he had a tendency to speed up as he went through each sentence, mumble and wander about looking in all directions as he talked. He’s never done an end of primary school production with his year 6 teacher bellowing from the back of the hall to speak louder, slower and look at the audience when he speaks! However, at each stop we saw the plants and a bit of the production process then got given little treats during the explanation - a cup of coffee, tastes of raw and roasted cacao beans, chocolate and some sugar water (which would then be evaporated and turned into sugar!

Day 2 of activities in my ‘try to see some of the country on land rather than only from under the water’ CR plan found me on a trip to more of the local sites. Our first stop was Fortuna Waterfall where the bus delivers you to a place roughly in line with the top of the falls and it’s just an ‘easy’ 500 steps down to the pool that the waterfall crashes into at the bottom. We arrived there at 9am (having signed waivers to say we understood the physically demands required to reach and return from the falls!) and temperature and humidity were already high (daily highs of 36°C and 93% humidity!). The steps down were warm … getting back up was killer. I rewarded myself with a pot of ice cream with chocolate drop topping once I’d made it.

After that, we headed to the foot of the Arenal Volcano National Park (really, I suspect, yet another excuse to charge you entrance prices and more spending!).

Here, we walked around 650m ascent up to the lava field rocks that were left from the 1968 and 2010 eruptions. You can’t get higher than that because the ground is too unstable. And the volcanoe is still ‘too active’! About half way, we had the choice of splitting and taking either the ‘high intensity, steeper but shorter’ route or ‘the other one’. I went for the other one, for which the main appeal - aside from reduced risk of expiration caused by my aversin to hill walking - was that I was no longer surrounded by ridiculous men who’d all shed their tops and insisted on marching up the trail like peacocks while attempting to out do each other with tales of previous hikes, times, ascents and penis size. The route the rest of us took was plenty challenging enough but far more relaxed, and we stopped to watch some spider monkeys swinging through the trees on our way. Both groups arrived at the meeting point at a similar time and we did the final trail up to the lava rock view points where you can see the volcano peak (when it’s not surrounded by clouds!) and views across the rainforest.

Once we’d walked back down the track, we stopped for lunch and then finished the day with a visit to some natural hot springs. A river that you wade into and then lie in as it washes oddly warm water over you, a result of the geothermal energy in the area. I don’t really like hot tubs - I wouldn’t choose to sit in a bath with a group of people all sharing their water - and I didn’t find the hot spring river much different. I’ve also seen the film Dante’s Peak so I know that one minute, you can be enjoying a hot spring and the next minute, you can be boiling alive in a bubbling pool of lava-heated water. The guide assured me the river would rejuvenate and replenish me with ‘good energy’ while washing away any ‘bad juju’ so I waded in and lay there for bit. It’s odd what land people enjoy.

During my waterfall and volcano day, I walked 4 miles and climbed the equivalent of 71 flights of stairs (and then back down again!). So with burning and very stiff calves the next day, I set out on my next day of adventuring, this time to the ‘hanging bridges’ which are a series of walkways, static and suspension bridges constructed throughout some of the rainforest. I was in a tour with a group of middle aged American women and me. Our guide, Brandon, asked our names several times, repeated mine back to me each time he asked then proceeded to call me ‘England’ for the rest of the day! We saw some monkeys, birds, frogs and all sorts of cool rainforest plants. Today I ‘only’ walked 3 miles, in a slightly cooler but still quite humid microclimate in the forest and climbed the equivalent of 15 floors.

I feel like I have excelled myself at adventuring and seeing the land sights - and spending a small fortune to do it. My final day in Fortuna tomorrow will be spent doing minimal steps, avoiding any steps or hills, relaxing with my book, a spot of souvenir shopping and frequenting eateries. How exciting! After that, on Thursday, I shall head back to the coast for a final adventure trip then muchos relaxation!