I've had a very WET couple days in La Fortuna, whether I wanted to be wet or not. I arrived at 3:30 pm on Tuesday and after being showed to my room was told that the hostel was taking people to the free hot springs at 4! I couldn't decide if I should go because I had just arrived but I decided to quickly get ready and tag along. I didn't know what the free hot springs were until we got there. It was just the local river but it was hot water because it is heated by the volcano. It was gorgeous because it was so natural. There were huge volcanic rocks everywhere and lots of green of course. The river was like many different pools with little waterfalls between each. It was just our hostel for awhile but then some local families came too. I hadn't met anyone from the hostel at this point but I quickly made friends with a German couple, Christian and Marcella. Christian is doing almost the same trip as me but also going to Panama and Columbia. I will be about 10 days ahead of him so unfortunately we probably won't meet up again. Marcella was just visiting Christian in Costa Rica on her vacation. They were very nice and shared their beer with me! As everyone knows I don't like beer at all but I felt like I couldn't refuse! It was the local beer, Imperial, and I got about 2/3 done before I started gagging on the taste so I suppose it must be pretty good for people who like beer! After about 30 mins of the hot springs it started to rain. It was a nice rain at first but then it started pouring like I've never seen before! It turned into a thunder and lightening storm and ended up lasting for about 3 hours. Our bus was not picking us up for another 45 mins from when the storm started so we didn't really know what to do. I stayed in the water for as long as I dared but once there was a really loud thunder and lightening right overhead I quickly jumped out!! There was no shelter so my bag was soaked and unfortunately my phone was in there and I had forgotten my water proof bag I brought in my haste to pack for the river! I was quite worried at that point but the inside of my bag stayed dry enough. Finally it was 6 when we got picked up and I was shivering from the rain and ready to take a hot shower! Back at the hostel one staff member made everyone guacamole, salsa, and fried beans with chips and plantains. I had that and also ordered some spaghetti from the restaurant/bar. It was 2 for 1 cocktails so I had a couple drinks as well and chatted with everyone for a few hours. One guy there was going from Mexico to brazil and taking 9 months to do it! I learned that Argentina has really good steaks so I'm excited for that. :) the next morning I went to see a waterfall. It turned out to be more expensive than I wanted, with the cab ride and entrance fee but it was so beautiful. I hiked down a very steep and winding path to get to it (and back up after!). It was an 80 m waterfall with a swimming hole at the bottom and a river that ran off to one side. The water here was VERY cold!! But I went for a swim and got someone to take some pictures (I couldn't find anyone at the hostel to go with so I was there alone). Then I just sat and sunbathed on the rocks for awhile. It was really nice in that I had gotten there early enough that only a few people were there with me for the first hour. Then tons of school groups came and there was probably about 100 people there at the peak of things. My camera froze after awhile... I totally forgot it does that. And I didn't bring my phone so I didn't get any pictures of the river which was disappointing but ok. I had a tour at 3 so I went back to the hostel at 12. By the way, my Spanish is already getting pretty good! I was able to tell my taxi driver, who didn't speak any English, to come pick me up at 12! It was my first attempt at actually speaking to someone in Spanish so that was cool that it worked! My 3 o'clock tour was a 2 hour hike to the look out point for the volcano and then dinner and hot springs. The hike really disappointed because after 10 mins it started torrentially raining again and I was soon soaked to the bone. The walking path was soon so deep in water it covered my shoes and I could barely see for all the water running down my face. Not fun. However, the tour guide was a really knowledgable old man and humorous, so I did appreciate him. I couldn't get any pictures though because I didn't want to subject my camera to all the water, and there was nothing to see anyway because the rain blurred everything grey and clouds covered everything but the base of the volcano! Damn weather! Also the volcano has not really been active for 2 years so you cant see any lava spurting out, even though they advertise it like that. The last big eruption was in 1968 and killed 80 people. I guess awhile ago there were two canadians who hiked up the volcano with a guide while it was active, and a cloud of gases came down and melted them so now no one is allowed within a mile of the volcano, even when it's not active because its just too dangerous. They also have a huge man made lake you could see from the look out point which generates 45% of the country's electricity through water power. 95% of the country's electricity is generated through renewable means with water, solar, wind, and geothermal. They are soon going to be the first country with 100% renewable generation. Very cool! When the hike was finally over I was so excited to get to the hot springs and jump in! And they were great. It was a fancy hot springs resort with man made pools they pumped the water into. 25 different pools in all ranging from icy cold to burning hot. This is also where we got our dinner which was an AMAZING buffet with tables and tables of food! It was definitely the best meal I've had in Costa Rica so far. Unfortunately it was supposed to be a nicer restaurant but all we had were our sopping wet clothes so I felt really out of place in those! We spent 4 hours at the hot springs and dinner and got back to the hostel around 9! Now I am on my way to samara which is on the pacific coast for a couple nights. We saw a toucan on the drive which I was very excited about! It was the last animal I really wanted to see here. I've heard lots of good things about Monteverde, where I will be in a few days so I'm excited for that as well. All in all I really enjoyed La Fortuna and I'd definitely love to come back someday!