La Fortuna

La Fortuna is the town that serves as base camp for Arenal Volcano and everything that surrounds it. The waterfall — La Catarata de La Fortuna — drops seventy metres into an emerald pool where we swam after descending five hundred concrete steps through tropical forest. The climb back up was the hardest physical work of the trip and worth every gasping step. Halfway down, you can already hear it — not a roar but a sustained, pressurized hiss, the sound of water falling far enough to turn into mist before it reaches the bottom.

The pool at the base is cold in the way that mountain water is cold — it hits your chest and your lungs contract and your skin tightens and then, after thirty seconds, your body adjusts and the cold becomes a kind of clarity. We floated on our backs looking up at the waterfall and the canyon walls draped in ferns and moss and thought about nothing at all. That is the gift of cold water and loud sound — it empties your head of everything except the present moment.

The town itself is small and practical — a grid of streets with sodas (the Costa Rican term for small family restaurants), tour operators, and supermarkets. But the surrounding area is packed with activity that ranges from genuinely wild to theme-park polished. We went white-water rafting on the Pacuare River, one of the top river trips in the world — Class III and IV rapids through a jungle canyon with waterfalls pouring in from the sides. The Pacuare is a four-hour drive from La Fortuna, and worth every minute of the road. The canyon walls rise hundreds of feet, draped in vegetation, and between the rapids the river goes flat and green and you drift through silence so complete it feels theatrical.

The Mistico Hanging Bridges offered a quieter forest walk at canopy level — three kilometres of trail with fifteen bridges, some of them fixed and some suspended, swaying gently as you cross. We saw a keel-billed toucan at eye level, which is a different experience from seeing one in a tree far above. Eye contact with a toucan is an event. We canyoneered down waterfalls, rappelling through spray, and ended every day in the hot springs, which range from luxury resort pools at Tabacon and The Springs to local spots like El Choyin where you soak alongside Costa Ricans who consider volcanic thermal bathing a normal Tuesday.

The Venado Caves, forty minutes north, took us underground into a limestone system where we waded through waist-deep water, squeezed through narrow passages, and found formations that looked like melted architecture. Our guide pointed out fossils of marine creatures embedded in the walls — a reminder that this volcanic landscape was once ocean floor.

When to go: December through April for dry season. The waterfall and hot springs are excellent year-round. Rafting is best from June through October with higher water levels. Morning activities are advisable as rain typically arrives in the afternoon during green season.