La Fortuna, Costa Rica

I really want to go back to La Fortuna, Costa Rica because while my family and I were there we had a lot of fun. The things that we did were: Arenal Volcano hike, a tour of a really cool farm, and my favorite, the hot spring rivers.

Arenal Volcano

I really liked the Arenal Volcano hike. The national park only let us go to the foothills because the volcano is still semi-active, having had a big eruption 1968 and a smaller one in 2010. On the hike we saw lots of lizards. Most of them were about five inches long with a blue stripe down their backs but others were about 10 inches and brown with dark dots. On the hike there was also a massive Kapok tree that is 400 years old and so big that if there was a tunnel through it you could drive a car through if you wanted. The tree had very large buttresses. Buttresses help the tree stay standing in large storms. If I could return to the Arenal Volcano National park again, I would do the zip-line/canopy tour and climb the observation tower.

The next day we went to Finca Luna Nueva. The name Finca Luna Nueva means “New Moon Farm”. During our visit, we went on a guided walk through the farm. On the walk we saw ginger plants, turmeric plants, a tree with a fruit called water apple (basically a apple but it has more juice and looks a little different), coconuts, chickens, cows, and a baby cow that was born the night before. After the hike we went to the observation tower. You could see very far from up there even though it was a cloudy day. Then we went down to have lunch. Lunch was very good. There was fish, salad, greens, yucca (a yellow plant that tastes like potatoes), watermelon salsa with yucca chips, and chocolate cake for dessert. I would love to visit this farm again because they had very nice food there and the tour was really awesome.

My favorite part of our visit to La Fortuna was the hot springs (Aguas Calientes). We spent three or four hours straight sitting there absorbing the heat and getting massaged by the miniature waterfalls. It was not very deep, the deepest it got was sitting up to your chest with a miniature waterfall massaging your shoulders. I think anyone would like these small hot waterfalls. They were calm, gentle, relaxing, with beautiful rain forest surroundings. The waterfalls are free!

In conclusion, I really did like La Fortuna and I would like to go back there someday. I had a lot of fun and there are still lots more things to do there that we did not get to do while we were there, like zip-lining, hiking, lots more swimming, and more hot waterfalls!