Alicia & Rich's Roads to Everywhere London to Australia on the route less traveled

Our next trip is to La Fortuna, which is a small town at the base of Vulcan Arenal. Vulcan Arenal is a very active volcano - so active in fact that at night you can go and see the red lava rocks flowing down its side (during the day they just look ashen grey).

Because of the proximity to the volcano, La Fortuna has a number of natural hot springs. Most are now commercialized and have either been developed into something akin to water parks, or form part of the numerous luxury hotel resorts. We visit a water park version called Baldi Springs, which has loads of different pools, all at different temperatures to suit your mood. Some are too hot to even get into, and others have water slides. Alicia's boring and refuses to get her hair wet, which leaves her soaking in the water and only me to test out the slides. She missed out. After a couple of hours we've got our money's worth, and besides, we look like prunes. It's time to leave.

Next day we go visit the town's waterfall and get to test out our Suzuki's 4 wheel drive option on the way. After parking, there's a long steep walkway that leads down to the falls, which we are very aware will become a long steep climb to get back. This is emphasized by all the people we pass bent over double wheezing and coughing as they make their way up. Hopefully it'll all be worth it.

It kinda is. It's not really fair on this waterfall because the last falls we saw were Iguazu Falls - which can take the Pepsi challenge against any other falls in the world. This one is not so spectacular BUT it is picturesque and there's a nice pool at the bottom that a few people are swimming in. A dipped toe is as wet as we get - the water's freezing.

Having dreaded the uphill leg of the trek, we actually negotiate it with relative ease. We must be in better shape than we thought.