Lake Rio Cuarto is the deepest lake in Costa Rica and truly a hidden gem. I haven’t seen pictures or heard of this place prior to me visiting. Most tourists never end up here, unless they stay at the exact same eco lodge I stayed at, Hotel Del Bosque. They arrange all the tours on this lake and carry people to and from the hotel and the lake. We already rented a car for the duration of our trip and we just drove there ourselves. If you’d like to plan a trip to Costa Rica and do things like this, have a look at my Costa Rica itinerary.
Laguna Rio Cuarto
Lake Rio Cuarto is a very deep crater lake in the northern part of Costa Rica. You really have to go off the beaten path to find this place. This is such a hidden gem, that when we were here there were literally zero other tourists at the lake. Laguna Rio Cuarto is the only lake in Costa Rica that is inside a volcano crater that is not part of a national park or a protected area.
It is 66 meters deep and has a dark green color to it. It’s shaped almost like a circle if you see it from a bird’s eye view. This is because it’s actually a lake inside of a volcano. It’s surrounded by a wall of dense jungle around it’s perimeter. This look really gives it that secret hidden gem feel.
How to visit Laguna Rio Cuarto
Even though this is a really small isolated place, there is some kind of administration to monitor and organize visitors. It costs $4USD per person to access the lake for the day. The easiest way to visit the lake is with a tour through Hotel Del Bosque. You can call the lodge and they will arrange a tour for your group. It might be just you and your group or it may have other people there at the time who stayed at the hotel. If you want to come here on your own with a rented car, just put it into Google maps and try to follow road. At the end, coming up to the lake, the road basically turns into a dirt track. I recommend using a 4×4 for tis trip. It’s just a straight drive south from the town of Santa Rica, on the Ruta Nacional Secundaria 250 road. The drive took us about one and a half hours. If you are coming here from San Jose, it’s about 40 minutes longer.
Rent a car and have them pick you up from the airport, they do that. They will take you back their place of business to get the actual car, sign papers and insurance.
- Take Route 1 (Pan-American Highway) heading northwest from San José.
- Continue on Route 1 until you reach the town of Naranjo.
- From Naranjo, take Route 141 towards Ciudad Quesada.
- Once you pass Ciudad Quesada, continue towards the town of Río Cuarto.
- After Río Cuarto, you will find signs directing you to Lake Río Cuarto. The lake is located about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the town center.
If you love nature and road trips in immersive misty atmospheres, then perfect. The forest that surrounds the lake seemed to have plenty of birds, poison dart frogs and other animals. I saw a couple fish in the lake itself, but it really doesn’t have much large fish or any aquatic life, due to it being inside a volcano.
What to do at Lake Rio Cuarto
“Are there any anacondas or crocodiles in here”? I asked the old couple by the entrance. They smirked at each other and said, “It’s okay” in a Spanish accent. Are you saying they are friendly or something my guy? They were trolling us of course. This was my first time on a paddleboard. I tried to stand up on the board and immediately fell into the water, but after a while I got the hang of it. Your body just needs to get accustomed to shifting balance based on the direction the board tilts. We paddled around the entire perimeter of the lake, really close to the edge because it looked too interesting to leave untouched. When you swim up to the edge, these is a tall wall of dense green trees. Here you can see monkeys, different types of birds and even sloths.
After paddle boarding in the lake for a while we went to the shallows and swam a little. There were very tiny fish in this part of the lake that would nibble on your skin. During high tourist season, people come here and do other watersports like kayaking or wake boarding using a jet ski. There are also these floating bouncy things that people set up to bounce high up into the air then splash down into the water. People also come here to picknick and enjoy the scenery with their families or friends. There’s also a river flowing through that diverts some of the water coming from the lake. You can swim in Lake Rio Cuarto. I know it might look scary and if you look down, like you’re staring into the abyss. But it’s perfectly safe, there’s no weird currents or water creatures like anacondas or crocs here at all.
This is definitely one of the coolest, off the beaten path things I’ve ever done. Every moment of this felt like an adventure, even the road trip here was fun.
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