La Fortuna Falls

Trip to the waterfall was awesome. Catch a taxi to the entrance of the park where the waterfall is. Admission had gone up from what my book said. It was $10 pp to enter but worth it. The falls were BEAUTIFUL!

It was about a 10-15 minute walk down to the base of the waterfall. Once you get there, you’ll be amazed and the grandness of this waterfall. It is HUGE. We didn’t swim in the actual section where the waterfall was (as the water is too strong there) but we swam further down stream where others were swimming. The water was SUPER cold!

It was a MUCH more difficult hike back up the very steep steps. Once we reached to top, we shouted in victory and bought some more water!

If you have any energy left, it’s a nice hike back to the town. Just over an hour hike I’d guess.

Don’t go unless you’re in decent shape. There is no elevator! You have to walk down a lot of steps that are really rugged. Tourism in Costa Rica in general is not done like the National Parks in the US with the perfectly straight paths and fancy everything. There’s a path with rocky steps going down a long ways. It’s a nightmare to come back up, even if you are in shape and if you’re not (like me) then it’s extremely difficult to handle. It is a nice waterfall though and probably worth the trip if you can handle it…..but Costa Rica has a lot of waterfalls on the other hand….La Paz is nice.

If you travel to La Fortuna (probably for Arenal), it is worth a morning’s time to go to La Fortuna Falls. It’s a nice hike (not too hard) and a peaceful, pretty waterfall once you get there. I recommend it. It’s a pretty long walk from the main drag in La Fortuna, so I recommend a taxi. You can arrange for them to pick you back up a few hours later, so you don’t have to wait.

La Fortuna Falls is absolutely beautiful; breathtaking. The water is incredibly cold, and the falls are dangerous to swim in: if you get too close to them you will be sucked under, possible causing death, and if you swim too far away from them you will most likely be pushed onto the sharp rocks surrounding. Meanwhile, the falls create waves that are strong to resist. But the swim is worth it – there is a small cave underneath the falls that is very pretty. All in all, it is a fantastic place to visit. I highly recommend it.