Costa Rica is a 51.100 square kilometer (19,730 square mile) natural playground: close your eyes, point in any direction, and you will find something of exceptional beauty and great interest. Two weekends ago, my finger directed me north and west as I headed out to La Fortuna, home to the famous and very active Volcán Arenal.

Arenal Volcano, now one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had lain dormant for almost 400 years when it decided to erupt again in 1968. The unexpected eruption sadly took the lives of 87 people as the lava tore through and ultimately destroyed the villages of Tabacón, San Luis, and Pueblo Nuevo. La Fortuna, fortuitously located outside the sphere of danger, survived the events of that late June day, and is now one of the most-visited sites in the country. Every evening, if one is lucky enough to be there on a day when the clouds have relinquished their grip on the volcano’s apex, visitors are treated to one of the most incredible spectacles that Mother Nature can provide: a lava light show.

The reason for our visit to La Fortuna was simple: our friend was having a birthday and the party was to be held at her boyfriend’s house just outside of town. For most of us, myself included, this was our first time to the volcano. Being young(ish), not too picky, and possessing pocketbooks far too light for our liking, we decided to do the trip on the cheap. The weekend began with a 6AM bus ride from San José to Ciudad Quesada (aka San Carlos) and later from Ciudad Quesada to La Fortuna. The grand total for transportation? Aproximately $3 (¢1600). The ride, though slightly bumpy at times, was stunningly beautiful: Fog lifted off the rolling hills, birds swooped through the sky, and the bus teetered along the edge of several mountain roads, giving us incredible views of the valleys below.

Upon arrival in La Fortuna, we headed to our hostel, Gringo Pete’s. Recommended by all the guidebooks, the hostel costs a mere $5 per person, per night for a private room with bathroom. Though certainly not luxury with its cinderblock walls, musty smell, and tiny room dimensions, Gringo Pete’s offers free coffee, a truly hot shower, lots of tourist information, and a great value for your dollar. After dropping our bags and freshening up, we went out to explore the town a little before hopping in a 4×4 taxi and heading out to Las Cataratas de La Fortuna.

To get to the Falls, you must hike down 600 meters (a little over 1/3 mile) of near-vertical steps. Though short in distance, the descent takes about 30 minutes, but is punctuated by such beautiful sites and sounds that you forget your vertigo and enjoy all that surrounds you. What awaits at the bottom of the steps is one of the most devastatingly beautiful and impressive things I have ever seen: a roaring waterfall, tumbling 70 meters down through emerald green moss and ending in a celestial blue pool. The raw power of the falling water makes swimming at the base of the waterfall, if not formally forbidden, very dangerous and strongly discouraged. Not to worry, though: calmer pools lie just a few meters away, offering swimmers cool waters (some might say COLD!) and perfect perching rocks with magnificent views of the waterfall. We stayed there for a few hours, enjoying the rumble of the water and the idyllic scenery around us. Though none of us wanted to leave, we had to return back to town to prepare for the evening’s party. Hauling ourselves up the summit was much more difficult than the trip down, not only because the steep hike required us to pause every few meters for beloved and much-needed oxygen, but also because each step took us farther from our new favorite spot, as the growl of waterfall grew fainter.

Finally back in town, we prepared for the evening and grabbed a taxi to get to the party. Amazing salsa, veggie kabobs, and meat awaited us, but the true highlight of the night came after dark, when we drove to the nearby hot springs. Arenal famously supplies the area with several pools of hot water whose entrance fees, when you take into account that they are naturally formed and can be accessed for free, range from exorbitant ($20) to There-Must-Be-An-Extra-Decimal-Place-In-That-Price-Tag expensive ($35). Luxury, manmade caves with built-in cup holders aside, the fancy hot springs don’t have much on the free ones, so you can guess which ones we chose. Lead by our tico tour guide (the birthday girl’s boyfriend), we made our way to the soothing termales. Flashlights held in hands with vice-like death grips, we walked a dark path, splashed through shallow water, and felt our way down a rocky descent to find ourselves in what must be the most pleasantly warm water in Costa Rica. A small waterfall massaged the aches out of our backs, rocks positioned themselves quite nicely beneath our rear ends, and the waters flowed around us as we chatted and enjoyed ourselves for upwards of an hour.

When we had grown too warm and tired of the hot springs, we piled back into the van and headed over to the Lago Arenal. Lake Arenal is the largest lake in Costa Rica, and though we only saw it at night, we enjoyed the cool weather, peaceful surroundings, and calls of the howler monkeys in the trees. We had planned to go to a lookout point that evening, but the volcano had become shrouded in clouds so heavy that even fiery falling molten rock couldn’t cut through their thickness. This is a common occurrence and they say that only one in eleven million people will ever see an erupting volcano, so we tried not to be too disappointed as we headed back to Gringo Pete’s, our eyes still virgins to the famous orange event we had hoped to see.

The next morning, after walking around town and buying a few souvenirs, we hopped on the bus back to Ciudad Quesada, our hearts happy, heads full of great memories, and our wallets only $30 lighter (that’s for the whole weekend!). Very satisfied, it was a wonderful trip, but even so, I know that someday, I will be that one in eleven million. It’s only a matter of time.