Our final morning at Tortugero was a blur of last-minute pool visits, breakfast and packing to depart. Getting out of Tortuguero involved a two-hour boat ride through some amazing canals through jungle and farmland, followed by a one-hour drive over an unpaved road, followed by a 30-minute ride over paved roads (hooray for paved roads!). At that point we met up with the rental car. The meeting point was a restaurant in the small town of Sequires, called Caribbean Dish. It seemed to be the meeting point for many tour groups. Quite the melting pot (and not just because it was hot). Quite chaotic. Because we were a little early we had a chance to try the buffet. Not bad. The rental company finally arrived with our car, a tiny dihatsu 4-wheel drive. We opted for the $10/day GPS, which turned out to be a lifesaver on several occasions. Our first driving experience, a 3 hour drive, was sunny and then rainy, then sunny and then rainy again. It was a Saturday and the roads weren’t too busy. Approaching the town of La Fortuna we got our first view of the Arenal Volcano. This is what we had come to see, and we were pleased to see it was puffing smoke. We had heard from several travelers who had come before us that the cloud cover can hide the Volcano for weeks at a time, so we felt privileged to get this first viewing. We then drove through La Fortune, completely around to the other side of the Volcano, and across the dam which holds back Lake Arenal to reach our lodging, The Lost Iguana.
Our first evening at the Lost Iguana consisted of immediately checking out the pool and bar scene, which fortunately at this hotel, were combined. The lower pool is regular temperature, but the upper pool is almost like a sauna it is so warm and it has bar stools that belly right up to the bar. Chris and I sat at the bar having a few beers while Natalie frolicked in both pools. The rain continued, but in this position it didn’t really matter. What one would imagine heaven might be like.
Later we found ourselves at the hotel open-air restaurant with a front-and-center view of the volcano. We had a so-so dinner (the food was the most disappointing part of the Lost Iguana) with amazing views of the fiery lava flows. All of the rooms at the Lost Iguana face the volcano and have spacious balconies. The night sky was cloud-free and the volcano gave us a great show and Chris got some fabulous photos of the volcano is action. Then for some strange reason we all woke up around 4 AM to discover the Volcano was putting on an even more impressive lava show. Completely unreal.
See more photos of the trip from Tortuguero to Arenal!!
The Next Day: Costa Rica: Arenal
The Whole Trip: Costa Rica: The Summary