La Fortuna de San Carlos is only two hours away from the Juan Santamaria International Airport and offers many activities in an eco-tourism ambience. One may combine physical and mental relaxation with adventure.
La Fortuna de San Carlos
There are various options to access this beautiful region, among them a shuttle bus service between San Jose and La Fortuna and another between La Fortuna and Liberia and/or Flamingo. The area also has a domestic national travel service from San Jose or a charter service for the entire country. There is also an option to rent and drive your own vehicle. If your coming or going to Monteverde it is possible to shorten the way by making the crossing by means of horseback or a trip that combines crossing Lake Arenal by boat and then utilizing the services of a four-wheel drive taxi to arrive at Santa Elena.
Sharing with Ticos
What better way to spend your vacations than to be in constant contact with nature and stay in small or medium sized hotels, usually administrated by their owners. According to the opinion of hundreds of tourists, the local people are friendly, helpful, and show great interest in achieving an effective communication with the traveler.
Caño Negro, for example, is a wildlife reserve located close to Los Chiles only three kilometers from the Nicaraguan border. This spot is considered to be one of the most beautiful places on our continent for bird watching, including the Needle Duck (Anhinga anhinga), the Pink Spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja), the Stork (Mycteria americana), the Jaribu (Jaribu mycteria) the largest bird in Central America and the Neapolitan Cormorant (Phalacrocorax olivaceus).
Arenal Volcano
Besides the great variety of birds, this tour includes a boat ride along the "Rio Frio" an activity that allows the tourist to observe Congo monkeys, spider monkeys, white-faced monkeys, three toed sloths and reptiles like caimans, basilisks, and turtles.
The adventure would not be complete without a horseback ride along a rocky path on the south west side of the Arenal Volcano that takes about an hour. This tour carries you to the entrance of a beautiful waterfall. Catarata del Rio Fortuna at which you will hike for about four hundred meters across the mountain. On this walk you will witness to a beautiful 70 meter waterfall, where it forms an attractive natural pool in which it is possible to refresh yourself and swim. You can also get to the rear of the fall to observe it from an angle truly deserving to be recorded as unique event in your life. Also, did you know that the Peñas Blancas River and the Toro River are used by two or three different companies in the area to offer you white water rafting? The options for these activities are based on your physical condition and age. There are class I, II, III and IV, either half day or full day.
Lake Arenal, for its part, offers the opportunity to do some aquatic sports such as rainbow bass. Other activities that are offered on this beautiful lake are "crossings" or boat rides that, especially at sunset, offer a truely natural spectacle.
Of course, a visit to this geographical zone must include, above all, a visit to an active volcano. Arenal Volcano and is full activity is truly and unique spectacle. It is a hike along the side of the volcano that allows you to observe the expulsion of rocky material during daylight hours.
It is breathtaking when night comes and changes everything into a show of nature fireworks. The lava flows at night convert into "rivers of red". This material is emitted out of the crater at an average temperature of about 1000 degrees centigrade (about 1850 degrees F). The lava cools as it descends, leaving canals on the mountain. This tour is made possible by local tour operators with a visit to one of the thermal spas that Arenal has to offer, from the spa that offers massages and facial masks in an infrastructure that includes bar and restaurant services, to the simple entrance to the thermal river on the side of the road. In this sense it is worth pointing out there are various options to the price and service.
The Town
Before June of 1968 this sector of the province of Alajuela was a remote area and practically unknown to the rest of the country. It was precisely in that year that "Arenal Hill" became known as a volcano. At those times the few families populating the area that were dedicated to agriculture and livestock didn´t know that the "hill" was a volcano, a fact that was suspected only by a few that who had climbed to its highest peak. The locals, according to researcher Jorge Barquero, said "that inside the crater there were large trees and when they passed the night, they took refuge in places where they could feel some warmth due to small releases of steam".
It was on June 29th, 1968 when the "Arenal Hill" revealed its condition as a colossus of nature. The eruption was predicted by seismic activity the night before, a fact that culminated in the expulsion of a huge quantity of gasses, ash and materials.
For about fifteen years, La Fortuna de San Carlos was a few houses built near the Catholic Church. It was hardly a town located seven kilometers east of the Arenal Volcano, a mountain that reaches its maximum altitude of 1,633 meters above sea level. Today, the development of tourism as a commercial activity in our country has resulted in the creation of one of the world´s most interesting regions with a major offering for many activities related to eco-tourism.
La Fortuna de San Carlos, located 253 meters above sea level, establishes itself as a stopping point for thousands of tourists attracted by a constantly active volcano. La Fortuna have worked during the last ten years to offer the traveler diverse activities for a varied stay, full of adventure in a natural environment....with its own affection and warmth of a community fully dedicated to the hospitality industry"
If you are tired of the hustle and bustle of the city, or you are a nature and adventure lover, take our recommendation, and let La Fortuna de San Carlos and its natural enchantments offer you a vacation that, without any doubt, will be etched in your memory forever.
Ecotourism and Nature 
