So we arrived in La Fortuna in the north of Costa Rica after a 5 hour drive (we paid for an interbus shuttle so it was comfortable and air conditioned...what luxury!!). We were exhausted when we arrived, still suffering the effects of the sleepless night, so we pretty much went to bed as soon as we got to the hostel! We are staying at Cabinas Lupita which is run by Lupita (funnily enough), who is really sweet. It is clean and comfortable which are now only two priorities for somewhere to stay!!

Today we decided to get a tour up to the volcano at night to see lava and a visit to some hot springs. We spent the morning trawling round all the different tour guides (and there were a lot), to make sure we scoped out the best deal. We thought we had decided on one (3 hours later) when we stumbled across RedLava Tours. He went to a different viewing point than everyone else, explaining that the direction of the lava flow had changed (even had photos to prove it), and said that the hot springs were the "natural ones" unlike Baldi which are man made...he had our attention, we were intrigued...

We weren´t sure that the weather was going to be good enough to actually see any lava, and sensing our doubt Luis (tour guide) said that if we didn´t see anything tonight then we could go back tomorrow for free. He was certainly the only one to offer that so we told him we would hold him to his word, took a risk and booked it!

We set off at 2pm Tico time (aka 2:30), and drove up to the national park with about 10 others. We walked up to the viewing point to see the volcano during the day. You could hear it rumbling and even see smoking rocks flying down it!! We then took a bit of a hike though the rainforest, past the waterfall, over a hanging bridge and back in time to see the sunset over the lake which was beautiful! Unfortunately by this point it had totally clouded over and we didn´t see any lava. True to his word, Luis said he would take us back up tomorrow.

At about 7pm we headed off for the hot springs. We really weren´t sure what to expect since we were going to the "locals hang out spot" rather than the one for the Gringos! We parked the van in a small car park by the side of the main road. We were told that we shouldn´t take anything, no clothes or shoes or cameras. So we stripped down to our swimsuits in the pitch black in a car park!! We then proceeded to walk down the side of the road, across it and into the forest on the other side. You can just imagine what the passing cars thought of 12 semi naked, very pale tourists walking along a road!! We ouch´d and ow´d our way down a very rocky path but made it to the river and hot springs intact.

This part is really hard to explain!!...to our right was a steaming hot spring in the pitch black(!), surrounded by rocks and forest, and to our left was a large, square concrete tunnel thought which the Volcanos river flowed through to get to the pool. It was very surreal!! The water was gloriously hot and after some time in that pool we clambered our way through the tunnel and at the other side was another hot spring, slightly lit by candles and torches!! After 30 minutes in the water we had all turned into prunes so made our way back. The current under the tunnel was really strong so we lay down, arms and legs spread and slid our way back to the entrance. Very strange, very surreal but so so much better than any of the man made springs...great night!!