Pura Vida

Volcan Arenal
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The Costa Ricans have a saying: Pura Vida.  This literally translates as "Pure Life" but it is used constantly by to the Ticos in conversation; as a substitute for hello, goodbye, you´re welcome and just by itself to signify that life is pretty peachy.  Anyway it sums up my two days in La Fortuna.

I left Monteverde yesterday morning to lovely sunshine - typical!  This was great for the journey however.  A jeep transported us for an hour or so through stunning scenery, including Volcan Arenal itself as we grew nearer.  A boat ferried us across Lake Arenal and then another jeep took us from there to the hostel.

A howler monkey
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In the afternoon I booked to go on a tour, which proved to be an excellent idea.  I was picked up at my hostel by some really friendly Ticos and we gathered some more people on the way to the jungle at the base of the volcano.  On the way one of the guides somehow spotted a monkey up in a tree.  I have no idea how he did this because it took me ages to see it even when someone was pointing it out to me!  So there we were, looking at monkeys with the massive volcano in the background.  The volcano is the second most active in the world and constantly gives out steam from the top.  During the day you can just make out hard lava rocks tumbling down the side, and every so often a noise like thunder signifies a mini eruption.

Me and a slightly mardy Safiro
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When we got to the jungle we were split into two groups, each with a guide.  Our guide was really nice and so amazingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable.  Within minutes of starting our hike we saw a big troop of howler monkeys, a sloth being exceedingly sloth-like, a couple of spider monekys, a snake and masses of brilliantly coloured birds.  Thankfully the snake was quite small and not too scary!

The hike lasted around 90 minutes and took us all the way to the bottom of the volcano just as it was getting dark.  The clouds around the top cleared at just the right moment and we could see the lava rocks, bright red, coming out of the crater and falling down the volcano like fireworks going the wrong way.  It was absolutely incredible and I could have watched it all night.

Catarata La Fortuna
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Then it was time to move on and we went to some hot springs, heated by the volcano.  There were 10 pools ranging from tepid to scalding, with nice bath water in between!  There were two bars so chilling out with a pina colada was the order of the day, followed by lolling about in the water and watching the volcano some more with some really nice people that were on the tour too.  What a great day!

This morning I woke up and went to watch Costa Rica vs Germany.  The Costa Ricans absolutely love the fact that they are in the world cup and the commentator even got excited when Germany scored!  Pretty much the whole country shut down during the match, even the banks.  The Ticos are very polite whilst watching footie.  They don´t really shout at the telly and are quite quiet until CR score, at which point everything goes mental!  I went with some Americans so it was fun telling them the ways of football, I think I managed to sound quite knowledgeable!

Then I went horse riding to a really beautiful waterfall.  My horse was very well behaved and was controllable which was really nice, so we weren´t just nose to tail all the way.  We arrived at the top and had to climb down to the bottom, where there was an aquamarine pool ready and waiting to be swum in.  Pictures to follow - forgot to bring my camera to internet cafe!!  Then unfortunately we had to climb back up again, but had a really nice ride afterwards.

There´s a bbq at the hostel this evening and talk of going to a discoteca to check out the locals salsa-ing to crazy music.  Then tomorrow it´s a day of travel to my next destination....