It was a long, slow, winding drive to La Fortuna; but we enjoyed every bit of it. Seeing the beautiful countryside, towns and local Costa Ricans doing life is an adventure in itself. The last couple of hours of the drive were along the shores of Lake Arenal with views of the cloud shrouded volcano Arenal. Before checking into our hotel, we got the details from the guide company for our overnight trek across the mountains. The town of La Fortuna is the tourist hub of Costa Rica with a much larger European presence than the Pacific beaches. Our hotel had a nice view of the volcano.
We left on our two day hike around noon with our guide Franklin who had lived alone in the mountains for ten years. We weren’t sure about this stout older man in knee high white rubber boots, but he proved to be a knowledgeable mountain stud. So off we went with 2 other Americans 3 Germans and 1 French woman on a 20km hike through the mountains with an overnight stop in a rustic mountain shelter. It wasn’t long before we forded a small river and then started the 3000 ft. climb through tropical forest. Our Camino legs have gone rusty, and we lagged a little behind the younger crowd. Our guide filled us in with forest information: natural insect repellent, edible termites and plants. The shelter was even more rustic than we envisioned; wooden bunks with thin foam and old soiled sleeping bags and pillows. We even had a huge hole in the floor with bare earth and who knows what else lurking underneath the shelter. The candlelight dinner was cooked on a traditional wood stove by our 75 year old host. His two dogs kept the wild animals at bay all night long with barking. Of the ten hours that we laid on our hard bunk, we maybe got four hours of sleep. The next morning we absorbed the amazing view of volcano and surrounding mountains and tanked up on beans, rice and eggs for some more hiking. The camaraderie with the others reminded of nights on the Camino. The rest of the hike took us to ridges and open meadows with fantastic views and into the cloud forest of Monteverde and the town of Santa Elena. The hardest part of the trip was the 4 hour impossibly bumpy van ride back to La Fortuna.
The next morning, before leaving the area, we took a hike through a forested park with swinging bridges. We enjoyed the leisurely stroll through the amazing forest. Then we drove six hours through the highlands and down the southern coast to the famed Manuel Antonio National Park. Getting a mandatory online ticket to a guided tour proved quite taxing. With much anticipation we entered the park which made TSA entry look like a breeze. However, the experience was very disappointing. Throngs of tourist bumping into each other, trying to look through their guides telescope at a tiny lizard or camouflaged bird soon got old. We did see a few monkeys and some balls of fur real high in the trees that were supposed to be sloths. The picturesque twin beaches were packed with people and the only eating was allowed in a large cage. For the record, we don’t recommend Manuel Antonio Park; it is overhyped.
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