La Fortuna, Part 1

Hello there!

So here I am in La Fortuna, what seems to be one of the more touristy places in Costa Rica (and on everyone's list of places to go because not only did I have dinner with the couple I met in Turrialba, but also ran into the guy I did the turtle tour with here today!). But I am staying at Gringo Pete's which is just lovely. Not very big (I swear it only fits like 30 people max), super cheap and provides the cheapest rates in town for the millions of different tours you can do.

This morning I decided not to do a tour at all and instead headed out on my own (well, with 2 of the other people in my hostel) to the Catarata de La Fortuna, or in other words the waterfall. It's a 70m high waterfall in the middle of the rainforest that is unbelievably beautiful! I´ve just realized that this computer may fit my camera memory chip, but I didn't bring my camera with me so I'll try to upload some tomorrow. Anyways, it was quite the walk down into the canyon where you can actually swim in the pool that the falls goes into (although not right under it because it is WAY too strong). We found a tour group that seemed to be coming from the other side of the canyon, so we took our chances in heading back up the other side. It was a cool little hike with a swinging bridge and some zip-lines at the top, but as we were walking down the road to find the exit, someone stopped us and told us it was private property and we weren't allowed to get out that way! So back down to the bottom we went, back across the river and all the way up again the way we came down in the first place... ugh! We were going to walk the 5km back downhill to the hostel (we took a cab up), but after the 2 whole trips down and up we were hungry and tired so grabbed another cab.

It hasn't really been all that long since I've updated, so not much else to say. Got my laundry done for the first time since I've been here and it feels GREAT! It's so humid here that everything ends up feeling damp at all times even if you haven't worn it. I'm getting used to it, but it still feels awesome to have nice clean, dry clothes to put on. On tonight's schedule is a tour to the hot springs (for those of you that have been here, I'm getting taken to the free hot springs, which I believe is just a couple of swimming holes next to the river that feeds the crazy spa-like hotsprings) and then to see if the clouds will part for long enough for us to get a glimpse of the lava on the volcano. Then tomorrow morning I'moff on a tour to go rapelling :-) Can't wait!! If anyone around the hostel shows up that wants to do a crazy long hike with me, I may stay an extra day because there is an about 6 hour hike that goes to the top of a different, dormant, volcano with a lake in the middle of the crater that you can swim in. From what people have told me it's a crazy hard hike up but beautiful once you get there. Anyways, more about all that, and hopefully some pictures, tomorrow.

Hasta luego!
Kaila

P.S. There is an option to leave your name for the comment instead of anonymous, but if you are going to leave an anonymous post, please sign your name at the bottom... I know all these are likely my mother, but who really knows?