After the cloud forest of Monte Verde, we headed to La Fortuna.  The bumpy dirt road through the valley was a spectacular way to view the ranches perched on the greenest mountains I have ever seen.  We then took a little water taxi across a large man-made lake to save some driving time.  There were several howler monkeys in the trees on the shoreline.

La Fortuna is a touristic little town with the main attractions being Arenal Volcano, one of the most active in Costa Rica, La Fortuna waterfall and many adventure sports such as rafting and canyoneering.  All things we did were in very wet conditions so we were unable to take many photos.  Unfortunately, we never saw the volcano, it was masked in clouds for the two days we were there.  We were able to hike to the waterfall and had a great swim in the natural pool underneath it.  Down river we played a little Tarzan on a rope swing into a deep pool  We also had a really fun day of rafting, with some close calls to add to the excitement.

Our last stop in Costa Rica was the capital city of Costa Rica, San Jose.  This is a sprawling city, with not much to see.  Oddly enough, we had some killer Chinese food while we were there, go figure.  We also had to say goodbye to some great friends we made while traveling the last 3 weeks.  We really hope to either visit them or have them meet us somewhere within the next year during our travels.

Our next stop: Panama City.