La Fortuna
 Notice how close Fortuna is to Arenal Volcano. |
 Downtown Fortuna. According to local history, the early non-native residents in the area had no idea what kind of mountain this was. And it did start erupting in the late ’70s, and continues to do so. |
 Dave found a very nice hotel for us to stay in — had air conditioning and a TV. Mostly, I cared about the AC, because it dehumidified the air enough to gradually dry our clothes. |
 Another view of main street Fortuna. Got to see a lot of it as we walked back and forth, making phone calls to the car rental people, waiting for them to call us, arguing that no, we were not going to drive that car farther, let alone over 100 miles back to San Jose, and that they needed to make arrangements to get it fixed. |
 Church grounds and the local park were pretty. I would have liked to go tour the volcano exhibits at the national park, but … no wheels.
The brakes were grinding so bad by then that I did not want to drive that car another mile. |
 For a weed in the landscaping, I thought this was rather pretty. |
 Finally got it worked out that we would leave the car at the Hotel, and that we would take the bus back south.
The rental car company wanted me to find a local garage to get the brakes fixed and they would reimburse me but I refused – they should have maintained it better. So we left it in La Fortuna for them to come and pick it up. In their favor, I will say they later refunded me the entire amount I paid to rent the car, but it pretty much ruined our plans for the trip. |
 Bus route is the easterly (rightish) demarcation on map. We took the “Directo” – the bus allegedly going direct to San Jose with only five stops. Some twenty-five to thirty stops later, we did arrive. The buses are heavily utilized, often stand-room-only, |
 View from bus window, back toward Pocosol and Monte Verde. |