Isla de Ometepe » La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Diary:

Up at 4:15am to begin an epic travel marathon, ultimate destination La Fortuna, Costa Rica. The process went as follows:

1. Bus from Altagracia to Moyogalpa (which broke down, resulting in us missing the first ferry)
2. Ferry from Moyogalpa to San Jorge
3. Taxi from San Jorge to Rivas
4. Taxi from Rivas to the border crossing Peñas Blancas
5. Bus from Peñas Blancas to Cañas
6. Bus across town in Cañas to some other random bus stop
7. Bus from Cañas to Tilarán
8. Bus from Tilarán to Arenal
9. Private minivan from Arenal to La Fortuna

Lugging our overweight backpacks on and off all these crowded conveyances (most being recycled school buses with no luggage space), not to mention across the Costa Rica border, turned out to be quite an ordeal and left us exhausted and feeling very old. However our itinerary had left us with no other choice.

But our dogged persistence paid off and by dusk we had all arrived (with all our packs intact) at La Fortuna in Costa Rica, at the foot of Volcán Arenal. Arenal is the most active volcano in Central America. Unfortunately, the rainy season we were traveling through made viewing the volcanic activity at the summit almost impossible because of all the persistent low-hanging clouds present day after day. So to our great disappointment, we had to curtail all our plans for volcano hiking and climbing.