Las Hornillas: a Walk-Through Crater, and a Sauna on a Boiling Pool

Las Hornillas is a crater you walk into. That is the unusual part: an active crater on Miravalles, with fumaroles venting, sulphur-stained rock and mud pools boiling in the open air, and a path through the middle of it. Before that comes a waterfall, with time to swim in the clear pool underneath it, and then a walk through tropical rainforest with two hanging bridges and three waterfalls hidden along the way. At the crater the order goes like this. The sauna first, built over a naturally heated boiling mineral pool. Then volcanic mud, taken out of this same crater, spread on and left to dry. Then the hot springs, with Miravalles in front of you. Pick-up is from the office in Playas del Coco, from Plaza Santa Rosa in Liberia in front of the Sucre Pharmacy, or from El Jardín at Nacascolo, the biggest souvenir shop and restaurant in the area.