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We saved La Fortuna for almost last, although at one point we were only eight kilometers away. Had we continued around Lake Arenal on our circumnavigation outing we would have reached and crossed the Arenal dam and soon after arrived in La Fortuna. Instead, we waited until we had been in Heredia a week and drove from there.

Volcan Arenal seen from Hotel San Bosco, La Fortuna

La Fortuna is a small mountain town that attracts lots of tourists wanting to see Volcan Arenal, the only active volcano in Costa Rica. Small as it is (less than ten blocks square) it has a good variety of hotels and restaurants at reasonable prices. Our hotel boasted a nice pool and a view of the volcano from the first-floor terrace. Sadly for us the rainy season obscured all but brief glimpses of the volcano and those only in daytime whereas the chunks of glowing lava expelled from the crater are easier spotted at night as they roll down the hillside. In the daytime, they are more like grey streaks that you can see move with binoculars; but it is hard to believe that that is what you are seeing as they seem so very small from so far away.

Volcan Arenal seen from La Fortuna

The drive to La Fortuna from Heredia was delightful, along winding narrow roads through green, lush, rolling hills. It was on this drive that we had one of our few enounters with Costa Rican police. Coming around a bend into a small village Gerry caught sight of the speed limit a little too late and was pulled over for doing 40 mph in a 25 mph zone. The policeman was very polite and very friendly and after some discussion let us off with a warning and a friendly wave goodbye.

Horseback riding tourists returning from La Catarata de Fortuna

There isn't much to do in town, other than watching the volcano, that is worth a major detour. We took a walk up to a local waterfall and were definitely underwhelmed by all but the price ($5 each). There are also hot springs you can visit on the road to Lake Arenal but we couldn't drum up the energy.

Eating in La Fortuna is pretty good, however. There are some quite fancy restaurants, but our favorite was always the small restaurant that offered the traditional lunch plate called a cazado. It invariably consisted of white rice, red beans, some kind of grilled meat, with fried banana and salad. We thought that the Costa Ricans made the best rice of all the central American countries: dry and tender, just like we like it. We also thought they gave the best value in terms of the quality to price ratio. Costa Rica was also the place where we started drinking the tap water again and flushing toilet paper. Forgive us for mentioning such impolite topics, but in the more northerly countries of central America, as well as Mexico, you are required to place used toilet paper in a bucket. Ugh! It's dirty, smelly, and very insanitary. Bravo Costa Rica!

Jan and Gerry at La Catarata de Fortuna

We spent an afternoon driving out to the Arenal dam, although we still didn't completely close the loop. Gerry walked across the dam, leaving Jan to contemplate nature and her New York Times crossword in the car. Both of us were surprised to hear loud calls from howler monkeys that must have been in the forest on the far side of the dam. We had heard these very vocal monkeys several times before (in Tikal, for example, and Ceibal in Guatemala), but had only once caught a brief glimpse of them on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua.