San Jose & La Fortuna

March 16th brought the end of our stay in Puerto Viejo, and we were scheduled to arrive in La Fortuna on the 18th. That gave us a full day to kill, which we did in San Jose. San Jose is a necessary city to go in and out of for travel purposes, but should otherwise be avoided at all costs. Like San Jose itself, our hostel was cheap, dirty, and all around unpleasant. We killed our layover day by taking another coffee plantation tour, this time at Doka Estate. It was a fun tour, and the operation was a little more advanced than the one in Boquete. Peter was feeling ill for most of the day, so really had a hard time enjoying the coffee. However, we brought back a few bags of coffee from this tour for future enjoyment!

We also went to La Paz waterfall and wildlife Sanctuary. Honestly, we were kind of getting sick of waterfalls by this point, but it was included in the package so we enjoyed it!

The following day we took a public bus to La Fortuna, which was $4 a person. Despite the fact that Peter had to stand most of the way there, it was worth saving a few bucks! From the bus stop we walked to our hostel, and to our dismay, it was our third hostel in a row without AC! Fortunately, La Fortuna is in the mountains, so this one was a little better. Plus there was a "wind machine" in the room, which kept a nice breeze flowing for us (it was a box fan...).

Our first full day in La Fortuna, we took a tour called the "Two Volcanoes" which was actually really great. The hike in the morning took us to the base of the Arenal Volcano, and it was hot and humid and all around a tough hike, but the view was fantastic. After we hiked down, we had the opportunity to jump in the lake, but we elected just to sit and watch people doing backflips into the water as the iguanas slinked away. We had a hearty lunch, and then took a much easier hike on the other side of the volcano. At the end of this hike, we were able to swim under a waterfall, and actually got to go behind and under the water. It was amazing! We ended the day by soaking in some natural hot springs and we got to sample the local sugar cane alcohol. The next day was a "work day." We did laundry, went for a run, shopped for groceries (which were ultimately stolen from the fridge), and did some work on our computer. Of course we spent time lounging about, reading and relaxing.

Also while we were in La Fortuna, we took a "canopy tour," which consists of ziplining high above the forest, which was amazing! We went incredibly fast through the trees, and we even got to bungee jump/giant swing at the end of the tour! One of the workers hit on Hannah, so that put a bit of a damper on the experience, but we would still highly recommend it. Afterwards we spent the afternoon swimming in the pools and laying in the sun, which was included in our tour. For the most part we try to avoid paying for tours and just explore on our own, but La Fortuna is an extremely popular tourist destination, so it is hard to find things to do that aren't tours in the area. On our last full day, we avoided paying for a tour by hiking/walking about 6km and then descending more than 500 stairs to the La Fortuna waterfall, which was perhaps the biggest one we have seen! We swam in the pool under the waterfall, but the current was very strong and made swimming difficult. We found a calmer spot and spent time relaxing and cooling off in the water. When it came time for us to leave, we hitched a ride with some family we met from Washington DC, for which we were very grateful!

Our time in La Fortuna felt very touristy, but by this point we appreciated it. We only had one more city to go before flying back to the US, and we were so excited!