Costa Rica - Arenal Volcano and Monteverde NP

Some of the most famous and stunning scenary in Costa Rica are its National Parks. Costa Rica's protected areas encompass more than 25% of the country's total landmass, many of these protected areas are national parks. As our journey took us from the Carribean Sea to the Pacific Ocean anyway we would need to cut across the middle of the country passing a couple of these parks so  was a perfect time to take a look for ourselves.

Our first destination was La Fortuna, home to one of Costa Rica's most active volcanoes.Between 1968 and 2010, the Arenal Volcano was extremely active – it spewed hot rocks, smoke, ash, and lava from its top almost every day. We spent two nights in La Fortuna, a small pretty town almost entirely made up of tour operators, small hotel, bars and restaurants. We found ourselves a nice hostal with a pool and a pool bar.  During our travels we always keep bumping into people we have met previously, normally from a week or two earlier as most travelers follow a similar route. However in La Fortuna we bumped into Jonny again who we last saw more than 6 months ago in Chile. From everywhere in town you get a good view of the volcanoe some 8 km away, unfortunately the days we were there it was a little cloudy, so we could not see the peak. We took a taxi to visit a waterfall and have a refreshing swim 8km away, surrounded by a cloud forest.

After 2 nights we left La Fortuna and headed to Santa Elena, which would be our base for visiting the Monteverde Cloud Forest. Santa Elena only looks a short distance on the map, but due to a lack of roads it can take forever to get there. Two options to get there the bus which sticks to the roads and therefore makes a long detour and takes 6 hours to cover what is 40km in a straight line.The second option being the popular Jeep-Boat-Jeep option which takes 3 hours. We was quoted $25 for this from our hostal, but after asking around we found a tour company around the corner offering the same for $16, also none of the companies use jeeps anymore. This was a very scenic journey glad we chose this option.

Arriving in Santa Elena at lunchtime, gave us the rest of the day to do something. In the area around Santa Elena you have two famous National parks and many companies offering canopy walks and zip lining. We spent the afternoon in the cloud forest where there are a number of bridges high up between the trees surrounded by clouds. This was a 3km walk through the forest which included 9 narrow suspension bridges some as long as 180 meters high up between the trees. This was quite a surreal and very scenic experience, until about 3/4 of the way through the route it started to rain heavily, and so we had to run to the end to find shelter. The next day we went to the Monteverde Cloud forest national park, this is a hugh park with many trails through the forest. The National park ranges in height from 800 to 1800 meters, with many opportunities to see cloud forests, waterfalls and wildlife.

Next stop the beaches on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.....





La Fortuna 

Very refreshing ... Brrrrrr

You can zipline across Here

Monteverde