Semana Santa Costa Rica Style!

Semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter, is a big deal to Ticos. Thursday and Friday are a national holiday but many take the entire week off to head to the beach or visit with relatives. For us tourist/exchange students this means a shorter week at work but longer lines at the bus terminal. Where to? La Fortuna, Volcan Arenal and Monteverde cloud forest.

La Fortuna is a very touristy town mere kilometers from the base of the active volcano Arenal. The volcano is known for its largest eruption in 1968 when its ashes covered much of the region and buried two nearby towns. More recently, lava flowed in 1991-92 and gaseous eruptions killed tourists in 2000. Today, the mountain is home to numerous naturalist tours and hikes as well as many extreme sport activities such as rappelling and zip-line canopy tours. Arriving in the afternoon on Wednesday, I wandered the streets of La Fortuna in search of something to do. Drawn in by the accented call from a pretty Tica shouting "Tours, zip-lines!" I approached the desk and was shortly suckered into a package "deal" that would keep me entertained for the next two days.

Day one consisted of rappelling. For those of you who may not know, rappelling is the act of lowering one's self down a sheer rock face with the support of little more than a rope threaded through a body harness. That’s right, your gringo friend with a fear of heights entrusted his life to a couple of ropes… The good news about rappelling is that since it is all done facing the wall it’s actually pretty easy to avoid looking down entirely. This particular tour was made up of a trek through the beautiful forests at the base of the volcano interspersed with rock faces ranging from 50 to 200 feet in height. Not to worry, they started us off nice and slow with instructions on the proper technique and the height of the rappels increased gradually, allowing us to adjust as we went.

Day two was an all-inclusive "combo" package that started off with zip-lines. This activity is similar to rappelling in the sense that you’re in a harness hanging by a cable high above the ground. The main difference? You’re facing forward and moving at speeds up to 75 kph (or about 45 mph). Talk about a ride! After a couple of lines we took a "break" to rappel 260 feet down the sheer rock face of the canyon over Rio Fortuna. Although this was the largest rappel I had completed, the way down was not the most memorable part. Once reaching the bottom in a semi-controlled fashion we were met with an unpleasant surprise. How do we get back up? Oh, that’s right; just climb the 260 feet back up a free hanging ladder loosely slung to the rock face. This was hands down the most frightening experience I have ever had. The man ahead of me would periodically shake the ladder forcing me to grab a hold tightly. My life depended on the sureness of my footing and a single cable attached to the guide below me. As I reached the top I had a new found appreciation for solid ground. After several more zip-lines that provided an incredible view of the La Fortuna falls from different angles, we stopped at a hut built in the style of the Maleku native tribe of Costa Rica. They taught us the traditional greeting “Capi, capi” and a bit about their history and culture. The day was finished off with a swim in the pool at the base of La Fortuna falls and then a horse-ride back to base camp. Top that off with a traditional casado of rice and beans and I was one happy camper.

Our transport to the Monteverde cloud forest gave us another extraordinary view of the volcano from Arenal lake, an artificial body of water that covers what used to be the town of Arenal prior to the eruption of 1968. In Monteverde, we chose a much more subdued series of walking tours including an evening tour where we were able to see several giant tarantulas, a sloth, a cute raccoon and a kinkajou, or honey bear, which is a relative of the raccoon. A walking tour over the “hanging bridges” proved to be fairly tame when compared to the other high flying adventures from the weekend. Here I also had my favorite meal of the weekend, an arugula and fig hamburger garnished with plantain chips, delectable. The last evening, outside our hostel, we were treated to a closer look at the two-toed variety of sloth as one shambled along the power-line toward its favorite tree just across the street. This poor fellow only had three limbs, having lost one to electrocution according to the owner of our hostel. Furthermore, our guide the previous night must have been right about sloths being blind as his destination was one sad looking excuse for a tree. There certainly wasn’t enough foliage to make the dangerous trip over the power-lines worth it. Treacherous is the life of the urban sloth!

All in all, I had a great weekend with lots of time spent over and under the trees.