Río Celeste

WaterfallsAlajuela,Costa Rica

Fragile nature — stay on the trail, leave no trace.

A Costa Rican rainforest river that turns opaque turquoise where two clear streams meet, walked to on a forest trail past pools and boiling springs.

September·Quiet month

Sep–Oct

September and October are the wettest weeks: sustained downpours can mudflow the river brown for days and the six-kilometre trail runs slick. Nothing closes on a schedule, the park still admits hikers daily, though after severe storms it may shut the trail.

Year-round The Los Teñideros confluence, the turquoise river and its waterfall sit in Tenorio Volcano National Park, open daily year-round; the colour runs clearest in the dry season, and heavy rain can wash it brown.

Río Celeste turns a vivid sky blue at a single spot. At Los Teñideros, two clear, colourless streams come down off the Tenorio volcano and meet, and below that point the river runs an opaque turquoise for kilometres. It is not dye and not algae. Scoop a glassful and it is perfectly clear; the colour exists only at river scale, a trick of light played by mineral particles suspended in the water. From Los Teñideros the blue winds through the rainforest of Tenorio Volcano National Park in northern Costa Rica, past a still lagoon and over a thirty-metre waterfall. The Maleku, whose ancestral land this is, have held the river sacred for far longer than anyone has been able to explain it. One trail, about six kilometres there and back, leads into it. You cross wet forest loud with birds and frogs, with howler monkeys overhead, toucans in the canopy and, if you are lucky, a coati crossing the path. A mirador looks out over the blue lagoon with the Tenorio volcano rising behind it. Then 253 wooden steps drop to the foot of the Río Celeste waterfall, where a ribbon of white water falls about thirty metres into a sky-blue pool. It is one of the most photographed sights in Costa Rica. You cannot swim anywhere along the way: entering the water inside the park is forbidden in order to protect the river, and every visitor arrives in a timed entry slot booked at the gate. Elsewhere on the trail the ground gives off sulphur where the volcano vents straight into the streambed.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come on a bright day and shoot near midday — the blue reads deepest when direct sun hits the water, and flattens to a dull grey-green under heavy cloud or in early-morning shade.
Reserve a timed entry and start early — the park opens at 8am and stops admitting hikers around 1:45pm, so a morning arrival gives you softer light, thinner crowds and time to walk the whole trail.
Wear real hiking boots and bring a rain jacket — the six-kilometre trail turns to slick mud after rain, and 253 steep steps drop to the waterfall and climb straight back up.
Swim legally at Poza del Danta — you cannot enter the river inside the park, but this free public pool just past the entrance lets you float in the same sky-blue water.

Things to do

1
See the water turn blue at Los Teñideros
This is the one place where the colour is born: two clear streams tumble in from the forest, join, and within a few metres the water clouds into sky blue in front of you. Stand at the little wooden platform and watch colourless water become turquoise across a single pool.
2
Take the wooden stairs down to the sky-blue pool
Follow the trail through dripping rainforest, loud with frogs and birds and with howler monkeys overhead, then take the long wooden staircase down into the gorge. At the bottom a narrow ribbon of white water drops into a round pool the exact colour of the sky — the reason most people come at all.
3
Climb to the mirador and the hanging bridge
Two stops along the loop lift you above the water. A short climb reaches the mirador over a still blue lagoon — the one place where the sky-blue water sits calm rather than rushing, with the cone of Tenorio behind it. Come on a clear day, or the peak is lost in cloud. Farther on, a suspension bridge crosses high over the river, and from the middle you look straight down at the turquoise current sliding through the forest.
4
Smell the volcano at the boiling Borbollones
At a stretch called Borbollones the river seems to come to a boil: volcanic gas rises through the riverbed in strings of bubbles and the sharp smell of sulphur fills the air. It is the Tenorio volcano breathing beneath the forest — proof that the volcano colouring the water is still alive.

Watch

Nearby

41 km