Waterfalls can change

In 1994, Cristina, Ramon and I hiked down to the Fortuna waterfall while Wito and a 10-year-old Elena stayed up at the top and waited. I remember the road being a muddy, rocky unpaved road, and the trail a muddy, rocky rough trail that required using ropes at a few places. We may have seen a few people at the bottom of the falls, but I don't remember passing anyone else on the trail. It was primitive. It was desolate. It was free.

Man, how times have changed.

First of all, the road is paved. That's no surprise, with how much tourism has grown in Fortuna. We arrived at the waterfall area, which used to be pulling over to the side of the muddy road and hiking down a trail. Now we were greeted by a huge parking lot filled with cars and buses, and a massive entry building where you buy tickets. The tickets cost $18 for me, and the national price was $9. So for the five of us, we paid $54 to "hike" down to the Fortuna waterfall.

I put hike in quotes, because after you sign a waiver and get a wristband, you pass the gift shop, and the restrooms, and then the restaurant. You cross a little bridge, then you can look at the falls from a gleaming stainless steel-railed observation deck. You take your obligatory photo and/or selfie, and then you start down the 500 steps to the bottom of the falls. Yes, the entire hike down is a series of modern stairs, with clever handrails that are shaped like logs and branches. There are convenient break areas here and there, more for the climb back up. Despite the Disneyfication of Fortuna falls, you can still swim at the bottom...if it hasn't been raining. Because it had rained so much the day before, and was still sprinkling lightly off and on, no swimming today (and they don't give you any kind of reduced price when it's closed for swimming).

So we hiked down the stairs, took some pics of the falls, and then hiked back up the stairs.

It was not worth $54.

What a difference 25 years makes.

Supposedly, the money earned from admission goes towards social services in the town of Fortuna. At least that's better than, say, padding some rich gringo's pocket that bought the falls.

The new Fortuna waterfalls was really the perfect ending to our week in Fortuna. It was the cherry on top, solidifying the undeniable conclusion that Fortuna has become an overpriced tourist trap. We made the best of it, finding relatively inexpensive things to do during our week. And it would be a reach to proclaim that I'm never coming back to Fortuna. But I think it's safe to say that I never want to spend a whole week in Fortuna again. 3 days max. And even that might be one too many.

The best thing to happen at the waterfalls was this: we saw a dog that looked like the happy dog from in town yesterday. When we got closer to it, it was the same dog! How was it in town one day and then at the falls (about 8km away) the next day...at the same times we were at both. It was very mysterious, but made for a good memory.

After the waterfall, since we were already in bathing suits, we drove to Rio Tabacon, AKA Chollin, AKA the free hot springs. This is just past Tabacon, the resort. We found a place to pull over and I stayed with the car, but Cristina came back to let me know that a guard had told her that we could park at the place where people were parking for Tabacon. It’s public parking there. That way, the car would be safer.

At the end of a short path, the river goes under some kind of old overpass. There are pools on both ends of the overpass, which essentially creates a concrete tunnel. The water was hot, but not uncomfortably hot. Of course, these pools are completely natural, or created by people moving rocks around. No pavement (except for the overpass tunnel thing) or tile, which meant that it could be rough on the feet. I definitely recommend some kind of water shoes. I only had my Merrells, so I went barefoot.

Cristina and Elena went farther up the river, where more people were (mostly locals). I didn’t want to negotiate the rocks with bare feet, so I stayed close to the overpass.

After spending some time in the river, we headed back into town, bought flowers to take to dinner, and got some pastries from Mus Manni (and some sweet breads to take to dinner.)

At home, we got cleaned up and showered (so much sand in the bathing suits!) and then walked up to our hosts house for dinner. Halfway up there, we realized Elena wasn’t with us. I went back for her. She was asleep in her bed. Deep. Took nearly shouting to wake her up.

Dinner was nice. They grilled beef, and made salad, beans, potatoes, grilled veggies, and platanos. I learned another way to make platanos, which is always handy. We chipped in where we could, helping prep the potatoes. They had also made an eggplant lasagna, on the grill, but the glass dish it was in cracked from the heat, so it was wasted.

We spent several hours with them, chatting about everything from school and college in CR (Carol is a primary school teacher) to running Airbnbs, to the ins and outs of touring Costa Rica. They had three lovely porch swings by the tables, which we all tried out at various times.

Back at the house, we thought about packing up, but decided to put it off till the morning. We did our last load of clothes, knowing that we would not have a washer and dryer again until we got home to Florida.