costa_rica

We stayed at the Irazu Hotel & Casino just on the border of San Jose. Entering the hotel there was a cantina playing very loud music which made us concerned about getting a good nights sleep for the following day's adventure. Fortunately, our room was in the back away from the noise.

After we got settled, we went down to the cantina with the intent of scoring a beer. This was our first experience with the Costa Rican money, colonies. We had exchanged $200 for 113,200 colonies at the airport but had no idea how to buy a beer. A girl sitting at the bar noticed our confusion and helped us. The beer cost 2,000 colonies, about $3.50. The cold beer really tasted good because it was pretty hot and humid even at 10pm.

Breakfast was included and served next door at Denny's. The next morning we were picked up by a van for the drive to Arenal. It took 4 hours to get to Arenal and it was as bumpy as everybody said.

Today we took a 4 hour van ride to Arenal Volcano National Park. We got stuck in the rumble seats. It was extremely bumpy. My hemorrhoids may never recover. We passed a lot of tin roofed shacks. I don't know if our path just took us through the slums or the whole country is poor. Barbara says the average yearly income is only $8,000.

The ride to Arenal was definitely uphill most of the way where we got our first views of the beautifully lush country side. We are at the rest stop, your typical souvenir shop. We were in the white van.

At the end of our ride we pulled into a resort at the base of the Arenal volcano. We can see the mountain from our bungalow patio however the top is covered in clouds so we haven't seen it yet. It is still an active volcano so I'm not sure why we are so close. I guess Barbara just likes to live dangerously.


Our bungalow patio facing the volcano

We had a visitor in our room.




The top was covered in clouds during our visit.	This is a postcard showing the volcano flow.

Beautiful gardens with signage at the resort.

Bananas on a tree near our room.



After a relaxing lunch in the open air restaurant we took ride to Canopy Los Canones where I got to experience the excitement of crossing the rain forest canopy from tree top to tree top on 12 different zip lines. It was an exhilarating ride to say the least. On one line I applied too much brake and got stranded in the middle of the run some 1000 feet up. I followed instructions, turned myself around and pulled myself hand over hand to the platform. On the next run I came in too hot but was able to cushion my stop with my feet against the tree. After that I had the technique dialed in and had no more trouble.

I saw Toucans, wild turkey, crocodiles and several monkeys.

Howler monkey

After the zip line I found Barbara. I went down the 75 foot water slide. I was never afraid on the zip line but the water slide scared the #%$¤¥* out of me. Finally, Barbara joined me in the hot springs.


Today, we took a 3 mile hike through the Arenal Hanging Bridges rain forest. We signed up for a 3 hour tour lead by a naturalist and ended up being the only ones on the tour. Miguel gave us a first class tour over 4 hours long. The tour included 16 bridges suspended over the rain forest canopy. We timed it perfectly to miss the rain; however, it was to early to see many animals although there were reports of a very poisonous flur-de-lance snake spotted on the trail and killed shortly before we arrived. The experience was still thoroughly enjoyable.

I was fascinated by the leafcutter ants.

I think this was the best view of the volcano while we were there.

One the way back from the rain forest tour, we noticed this tree with Toucans in it (above). They are a beautiful bird.

We also spotted a white face monkey.

Tonight, we took a taxi to The Springs Resort & Spa for dinner. This is the most expensive resort in the area boasting 18 pools, including some hot springs heated by the volcano. We ate in a fabulous restaurant with a great view of the Arenal volcano and had a wonderful meal to end our stay in Arenal. We never did see the top of the volcano due to cloud cover but we did see evidence of the eruption in 1968 and 2005.