PERSIGUIENDO JOELLE

Hace dos días, Joelle visitó Catarata Río Fortuna con sus compañeros de clase. Hoy buscamos el mismo destino, salvo vamos a pasar por encima de Cerro Chato volcán para llegar allí.

Two days ago, Joelle visited La Fortuna Waterfall (Catarata Río Fortuna) with her classmates. Today we seek the same destination except we will climb over Cerro Chato volcano to get there.

Laura and Hannah arrive at the Arenal Observatory Hotel, the meet up spot, with our guide at 8:45am, still excited at starting their day with a typical Costa Rican breakfast of black beans and rice with fried plantains and a fried egg.

“It was sooo good,” Hannah exclaims rolling her eyes back in delight.

The Coconut Larabar I quickly choked down before running the 7 miles to our meet spot is long gone. Only one thing sounds better than beans and rice and that’s dry clothes since it rained throughout my run.

“The rainy season began two weeks ago,” Bernanrdo announces as we pull rain ponchos on and begin our hike. Bernardo is a wealth of local knowledge. In the first half mile we’ve seen a green Parrot and a variety of Tucan’s through his waterproof binoculars, along with a gob of other colorful birds with big beaks and bigger names I’ll never remember. Too bad, Papa isn’t here yet to remember them all. He wouldn’t forget a single bird and have a spectacular picture of each. Although with Papa along, we would never get around to our objective of chasing Joelle to Catarata Río Fortuna.

Lush is short of describing the first mile of our hike. Overgrown pastures dotted with grazing horses and cows are ringed with dense rain forest climbing swiftly up the sides of Arenal volcano on the right and Cerro Chato on our left. Thick pockets of white clouds cling to portions of the vibrant green hillside. Unable to pierce the clouds, the sun instead paints a brilliant silhouette of Arenal’s conical summit. So breathtaking, Laura may not make Catarata Río Fortuna either if we don’t return her camera to my waterproof backpack.

My watch beeps, the GPS indicating we hit the mile mark. The trail turns left and runs straight up the South ridge of Cerro Chato that separates canyons on either side. A climb of 1,300 feet over the second mile equates to a 3-inch rise for every 12 inches of run – a 25% grade. AKA: Straight Up.

Torrential rains have carved deep narrow sluices into the volcanic rock. Between the foot compressions in the sluices and a lattice work of massive tree roots that hold the trail together, there is just enough to cling onto to spider your way up the ridge.

The locals call the rain forest in three layers – dry, rain, and cloud forest. Right on queue, it starts raining again in bosque llueve (rain forest). The girls opt for rain jackets gradually soaking themselves from the inside out. Ever the contrarian, I strip and stuff everything but my board shorts and shoes back in the pack making me look more surfer than hiker.

The whole scene looks a lot like a scene right out of the Arena in Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games Movie. Fortunately all the Howler Monkeys we hear in the distance are reported to be just as friendly as all the Ticos – slang for Costa Ricans.

Each rest stop along the spider climb, Bernardo regales us with more local lore. Cerro Chato is believed to have last erupted 3,500 years ago. Its cone has since become a lagoon. Its taller neighbor, Arenal Volcán, last erupted in 1968. The west facing half of the volcano is still bare while the eastern facing half is covered in dense rain forest.

The eruption came as a surprise killing 87 people. One of the signs of a pending eruption was the cold river water flowing through Tabacon turning warm. There has been no measurable activity at Arenal since 2010 but the river has remained warm ever since 1968. It made for a great soaking spot yesterday.

With all the investment that has gone into ecotravel and tourism in the area, the volcano is monitored closely for activity including changes in chemistry, temperature, and visually for smoke or venting.

Clouds engulf the summit of Cerro Chato and moss (lana) engulfs the trees marking our ascent into Cloud Forest (Bosque Nubes). The summit is a muddy bog as what water that hasn’t streamed down the volcano’s sides pools creating quick sand like trail hazards. The lagoon filled crater obscured in los nubes, our focus turns to the now challenging route down. We climbed 1,400 feet from the Observatory Lodge. The descent to Catarata Río Fortuna is over 2,000 feet of more challenging, extremely wet and slippery terrain.

At first we gingerly watch our step as to avoid the extra muddy spots, but soon realize we must embrace the rain forest conditions and the girls are laughing every time they nearly lose their shoes from the suction of the mud they miscalculated. Our mud caked legs quiver with exhaustion as we arrive at the same parking lot above Catarata Río Fortuna where Joelle’s group walked off their tour bus fresh for the 500 steps descending to the Falls.

Fortunately lunch and picnic tables are waiting for us. We linger over chicken sandwiches the way you do a campfire on a zero degree-day. The only real motivation left is making it back to Tabacon in time for Laura and Hannah to clean up for their appointments at the spa - ironically mud wraps. Oye!

A pic of the three of us in the same spot Joelle and her group stood two days ago means we finally caught her. Hannah confesses being an only child is way too much parent time. That’s as close to a verbal admission she misses her sister as we’ll get. We all miss the Jo and are excited to experience the photos her group posted from here a few days ago.

The 500-step descent to the bottom of the waterfall is quite easy without roots, ledges, and slippery mud to navigate. In a flash, we’re in the water and washing away evidence of the trail over Cerro Chato. Water dropping 225 feet brings some punch. Around the plunge pool a large round room is carved from the canyon walls that could pass for Eden if it weren’t so easy for tour buses to access. The water isn’t the Thermals of Tabacon. Though the cold is refreshing once your breath returns.

The girls are off for some well earned, albeit ironic, pampering at Tabacon Spa while I sort out dinner plans for an evening in La Fortuna.

Buenas Noches de Parque Nacional Volcán Arenal.