La Fortuna
Hiking and swimming holes
14.08.2011
It was another early morning rise on Friday for the hike up Cerro Chato. The description of the hike according to the tour I took is as follows: Cerro Chato Extreme Hike is an intense 4-5 hour rainforest hike through lush rain forest to the extinct volcano Cerro Chato. Once you arrive at the crater, you can then drop down to a crystal-clear aqua-green lagoon. You'll have time for a break, take some photos and to prepare yourselves for the hike back out and down to the base of this beautiful mountain. And… if you have enough energy left, once you’ve accomplished the extreme part, take your time to hike down to the base of the 150-ft La Fortuna waterfall to cool off in the rushing tropical waters. My tour guide was picking me up at 7:30am. When I booked the tour the previous night the guy at the hostel who was helping me get a booking had to call a few places because they didn't want to take just one person. Because of this I thought it was just going to be me and a tour guide. It ended up being me and 10 other people which was great! Two of them (Nadia & Mayte) were staying at the same hostel as me too. They were from LA. There were 3 others from the States and 5 more Canadians. The hike was intense! It was 2 hours of straight up hill!! When we finally got to the top the clouds had rolled in and we couldn't see Arenal volcano anymore 
I did get a nice shot of it from my hostel and at the base of the hike. After reaching the summit we had to go down into the crater to reach the Emerald Lake. The swim in the lake was quite refreshing after the very hot and humid hike. I says the water was "refreshing" because it was cold. Like the ocean back home, cold but you still go in. I was the first one in and it took a lot of coaxing to get the others in. Most eventually did. After the swim we headed back down to the base and enjoyed some lunch. Then we ventured to the waterfall and I went for another swim, again coaxing most people in. Later that evening I went to the Baldi Hot Springs [http://baldicostarica.com/] with Nadia and Mayte. The hot water felt wonderful on my sore muscles. We ended up bumping into Chris and Anneke, the German couple from my journey to La Fortuna along with Adam and Kara, 2 other Canadians from the Cerro Chato hike. Nadia, Mayte, Adam, Kara and myself hit up the swim up bar to enjoy some delicious pina colatas and mojitos!! The next day I took a jeep-boat-jeep to Santa Elena, a town located in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.
Arenal Volcano - View from my hostel
Arenal Volcano - View from base of Cerro Chato
We made it!! The group at the summit! (clouds preventing us from seeing Arenal)
Hiking down to the Emerald Lake
150-ft La Fortuna waterfall
Swimming in the waterfall hole
Drinks at the Baldi Hot Springs
Posted by eppalea 15:17 Archived in Costa Rica
Hi Eppa: It is amazing to read your blog, and think of how much you have experienced in such a short time. Keep up the good communication. Glad to see that you have met some nice people. Stay safe and have fun.
Uncle Jerry
17.08.2011 by Jerry.Berthiaume