Carlos Rodriguez Mora has been a naturalist guide in the La Fortuna/Arenal area since 2004. Born and raised in the region, he's watched it transform from a quiet farming community into Costa Rica's adventure capital. He shared his take over coffee at his favorite soda near the church in La Fortuna town.
The forest never repeats itself. Carlos has walked the same night route maybe 3,000 times and never had the same walk twice. One week it's a glass frog he'd never spotted in that particular tree; the week before, a kinkajou feeding from a fig right on the trail — the first sighting there in eight months.
People assume nature guides get bored. The opposite is true. Every walk hands you a moment that makes you stop and think, "I've never seen that before." That's what keeps it fresh.
The single best experience in the Arenal area?
The night walk, without question. Carlos admits he's biased — it's his specialty — but the cloud forest after dark is a completely different world. Red-eyed tree frogs come out. Tarantulas sit on their webs. Sleeping birds tuck their heads beneath their wings. Bioluminescent fungi glow on fallen logs. And there's no one else around — just you, the guide, and whatever the forest decides to reveal.
A good night walk runs about $30 USD with a guide. It's the best $30 you'll spend in Costa Rica.
The mistake tourists make most often?
They don't acclimatize. Travelers fly into SJO, take a 3-hour shuttle to La Fortuna, and immediately want to tackle the La Fortuna Waterfall — 530 steps down and 530 steps back up in tropical humidity, after a long travel day, at a lower elevation than they're used to.
His advice: arrive, check into your hotel, have a casado for lunch at Soda Viquez (the fried fish version, 3,500 colones, best in town), and spend your first afternoon at Tabacon Hot Springs. Let the thermal water loosen your muscles. Go to bed early. Save the waterfall for day two, when you're rested.
Is Arenal Volcano National Park worth the $15 entry?
Absolutely — but manage your expectations. The volcano hasn't erupted since 2010, so there's no lava to see. What you will see is the 3.4 km trail through the 1968 lava fields, and it's fascinating: the forest is reclaiming the rock, and you can trace the progression from bare stone to pioneer plants to full canopy.
The Peninsula trail has the best volcano views. Carlos's tip: go before 7:30AM. After 10AM, clouds almost always cover the summit — he estimates 60% of tourists never see the top because they arrive after lunch.
What's underrated in the area?
Mistico Hanging Bridges. Everyone talks about zip-lines, and the adrenaline is genuinely fun, but the hanging bridges are 3.2 km of elevated trails through the rainforest canopy at a pace where you can actually see things — toucans, oropendola nests, howler monkeys. It costs about $28 USD and it's worth every colon.
The Eco Termales hot springs, too. Most visitors head to Tabacon ($99 USD) because it's famous, but Eco Termales is quieter and more intimate, capped at 100 visitors at a time, and runs about $47 USD. For the hot springs experience without the crowd, that's the one.
Is Monteverde worth the trip from here?
Monteverde is a different ecosystem entirely. La Fortuna is lowland tropical; Monteverde is 1,400 meters of cloud forest. The jeep-boat-jeep transfer ($30 USD, about 3.5 hours) is the way to go. Skip the all-road route — it's 5 hours on bad roads and you miss the lake crossing, which is beautiful.
Monteverde has the quetzal, and December to April is the best season to find one. Even without a sighting, the cloud forest itself — trees draped in moss, orchids everywhere, clouds drifting through the canopy — feels like another planet. It still moves Carlos every time he visits.
What should tourists know about Costa Rican food?
Eat at sodas — that's the single most important piece of food advice there is. Sodas are small, family-run restaurants, and every town has several. A casado (rice, beans, protein, salad, plantains) costs 3,000-5,000 colones ($5-9 USD). The tourist restaurants in La Fortuna charge $15-25 for the same quality.
Gallo pinto — rice and beans for breakfast, fried with Lizano sauce — is the national dish. Ask for "gallo pinto con huevo" to add an egg. Some people think it's boring. They're wrong. Good gallo pinto with Lizano sauce is one of the great simple breakfasts in the world.
What do tourists get wrong about wildlife?
They expect it to be easy. Costa Rica holds incredible biodiversity — 5% of the world's species on 0.03% of its surface — but most of those animals are expert hiders. You need a guide with a trained eye and a spotting scope to catch a sloth 30 meters up in the canopy. Without a guide at Manuel Antonio, you'll see capuchin monkeys (bold enough to steal your food) and iguanas. With one, you'll see three-toed sloths, toucans, poison dart frogs, and creatures you didn't know existed.
The other mistake: drones. Don't fly them near wildlife. Last month a tourist flew a drone near a nesting scarlet macaw and the bird abandoned the nest. National parks ban them. Guides hate them. Just use your eyes.
For a different kind of wildlife adventure, Nairobi offers safari experiences where the animals are the size of your car — a completely different scale.
If he could change one thing about tourism here?
He'd have people stay longer and move slower. The classic 7-day Costa Rica itinerary — San Jose, La Fortuna, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio — packs four transfers into seven days. That's a lot of driving and not enough forest.
His ideal version: three nights in La Fortuna, three nights in Monteverde, three nights on the coast. Nine days, three places. Dawn and dusk are when the wildlife is active — if you're on a shuttle bus at dawn, you're missing the best part.
Pura vida means "pure life," but it also means "slow down." The travelers who have the best experiences are the ones who stop trying to see everything and sit still long enough for the forest to come to them.
For a day-by-day breakdown of the classic route, read our 7-day Costa Rica solo trip journal.
Carlos runs guided night walks and volcano hikes from La Fortuna. Book through your hotel or find him at the guide association office near the church. Walks cost about $30 USD per person.
