Arenal to Cataratas de Cotes
December 8, 2009

Swiss Chalet
Lake Arenal
German Bakery
The road into the waterfall

Yesterday it was time to leave Arenal and head north and west. The original plan was to backtrack to La Fortuna and then take Hwy 4 to Upala and then west on Hwy 6 to south of Bagales. Well at the end of the dirt road with all of its potholes leading into the park was a sort of police station (one man police station) and I asked how the road was around the lake. He told me “no probema para la camino” . Well on the map it looked like less that a dirt road and 4 years ago we were told that if you did not have 4 wheel drive it was not a road to take. But what the heck we are adventurers and what could we loose. So off we went.
Sometimes things turn out right. The road was paved all the way although very narrow. But almost not traffic so that did not present too much of a problem. It snaked up and down the mountainsides next to the lake and we were in the rain forest. Here you see trees growing 150 or so feet high with thick vegetation of ferns and climbing vines that cover the lower 50 feet of the forest so thickly that you can not see more than 6 inches into the undergrowth. Then every so often you are given a break in the forest on the driver’s side of Lake Arenal which is huge and took us some three hours to go half way around. Just amazing the views and the scenery. Worth every minute of the serendipity of the drive and possibly one of the most scenic drives we have ever taken.
Another surprise of the trip was to stop at a German bakery on the ride and have apple strudel and coffee. Yes there are real Swiss chalets in this country and people whose ancestors came here from Germany and Switzerland in the 1800’s and settled. Whole villages of them and they still speak German as well as Spanish and English.
We left the lake at Tilaran and continued west to Canas where we met up with the Central American Hwy 1. Now it was north to just past Bagales where we again left the road for Cataratas de Cortes (waterfall of Cortes).