Nothing is quite so relaxing as water, I’ll never be able to go a long time without being in water. Makes sense then that when the options in La Fortuna include a few hours at the Los Lagos hot springs followed by dinner, I was all over that like white on rice.
Things got hairy the next day, starting with canyoneering in the Lost Canyon. Scrambling over boulders, splashing through the riverbed, sliding and slipping between four rappel/abseil lines. To make the adventure even more interesting, the canyon face runs away from you, scooping backwards so you have to just let go and zipline backwards to the ground. Or like I did, jump as soon as you’re allowed and fall as far as possible. The longest rappel is 220ft and it’s a strange feeling falling backwards watching the trees rush away rather than towards you.
At just the time when you think you’re doing well to be mostly dry, you have to straddle the canyon, swing your legs up into a tuck and drop into a deep hole…full of cold water. Of course. Because we weren’t allowed to use the footpath that we could see along the side. It was all such a big thrill and I screamed like a little boy to be doing something crazy for the first time again.
Feeling colder than we thought possible in Central America, we continued on to part two of our mambo combo, white water rafting on the Sarapiqui river. At a grade 2-3, it’s not as technical as the Balsa 5+ full day trip I did last time I was here so it was cool to actually enjoy myself without fearing for my life. The rafts take four victims at a time so Matt, Beda, Jason and Andrew got Knife the guide and we got Jack who reminded me of Martin, the saucy salsa teacher in Antigua. JP and I shared a raft with an older couple of rafting rookies so we got to be up front, setting the pace and copping 95 per cent of the frigid water in our faces, taking our breath away each time. A highlight off the water was the stop for pineapple and watermelon sliced up on the bottom of an upturned raft. All boats made it back so I gather they knew what they were doing. A ton of fun as always, and just for something different, our guide was the only one to fall out, and on our first rapid…not me this time! 😉
La Fortuna, with your hot springs, canyons, wild rivers and my nights in special company, thank you for another awesome time!