It is raining yet again in La Fortuna. Unfortunately the Arenal volcano that I came specifically to see, is not even visible due to the low level clouds. I was supposed to stay in the area for one more night, but I have decided to head out a day early in hopes of hitting better weather along the Pacific coast. I booked a hostel in Monteverde where I am going to stay tomorrow and hung around the hostel for part of the day before I left on my 3 pm tour. Due to the weather, there was only two other people on the first half of the tour... mot
her and daughter from Turkey, who are currently living in the USA. The Arenal Volcano tour began with an hour and a half hike through a private park about 20 minutes from La Fortuna. The rainforest was so lush and green, with the most majestic trees and ferns. It was slightly raining out and from time to time you could see the rain drops falling off the leaves...it really created a very peaceful feeling. The first thing we saw was the toucan. What an unbelievable looking bird in real life. There are various kinds of them, with many different colours and they all have a very distinct cry. I am still amazed at what they looked like up close. We were then greeted by spider monkeys in the trees...this time it was only two of them, but one was a very large mother and her baby. They are so incredible to watch swinging from tree to tree. We also saw a two toed sloth in a tree and several oth
er kinds of tropical birds. Towards the end of our hike we could hear the howler monkey, but had no luck actually seeing one...that was until we were driving home and stopped on the side of the road with a group of other people and saw two sitting in a tree. They are very lazy monkeys and much bigger than both monkeys I had already seen. They kind of reminded me of a very tiny gorilla. The only thing that I did not enjoy about this tour, was the guide...too pushy and demanding and not enough time to take in the scenery. Either way we all made it through the hike with a few quick pictures and off to the observation area to see if we could see any lava on the volcano. Arenal Volcano is the most active volcano in Central America and the fifth most active in the world. It erupts ab
out every 10 minutes and shoots out rock lava. It was dormant for almost 500 years and everyone thought it was simply a mountain with nice green vegetation. This was until 1968 when it exploded and lava flows destroyed three villages and killed about 80 people. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating for us and the clouds never did lift high enough for us to see the volcano or the lava. So off we went, back towards town. At this point our tour guide dropped the two other woman off at their hotel and I continued on to the Baldi Thermae Hot Springs. This was the most incredible place I have ever been. I LOVED it!!! First I had a delicious buffet dinner in the restaurant area and then I spent two hours checking out the 25 different pools. All the pools are different temperatures. I have been told one of them was 152 degrees, but the hottest I found was 116...too hot for me. What made this such a magical place was the fact that I was there at night, it was misting rain, steam was rising in the
air, there was lush tropical plants all around with ambient lighting and local Latin music. How much better can you get!!! There is even three waterslides, a couple swim up bars and my favourite the hot tub. I enjoyed every second of my time at the hot springs...that is except for the one creepy guy from the US who started chatting with me and asked me out for drinks...thankfully there were 20 other pools to move on to!!! If you ever have the chance to visit this area, I would highly recommend putting the hot springs on your list of things to do. Well I am off tomorrow to Monteverde on the jeep to boat to jeep tour and eventually heading onward to Montezuma on the Pacific coast.
Until then...
her and daughter from Turkey, who are currently living in the USA. The Arenal Volcano tour began with an hour and a half hike through a private park about 20 minutes from La Fortuna. The rainforest was so lush and green, with the most majestic trees and ferns. It was slightly raining out and from time to time you could see the rain drops falling off the leaves...it really created a very peaceful feeling. The first thing we saw was the toucan. What an unbelievable looking bird in real life. There are various kinds of them, with many different colours and they all have a very distinct cry. I am still amazed at what they looked like up close. We were then greeted by spider monkeys in the trees...this time it was only two of them, but one was a very large mother and her baby. They are so incredible to watch swinging from tree to tree. We also saw a two toed sloth in a tree and several other kinds of tropical birds. Towards the end of our hike we could hear the howler monkey, but had no luck actually seeing one...that was until we were driving home and stopped on the side of the road with a group of other people and saw two sitting in a tree. They are very lazy monkeys and much bigger than both monkeys I had already seen. They kind of reminded me of a very tiny gorilla. The only thing that I did not enjoy about this tour, was the guide...too pushy and demanding and not enough time to take in the scenery. Either way we all made it through the hike with a few quick pictures and off to the observation area to see if we could see any lava on the volcano. Arenal Volcano is the most active volcano in Central America and the fifth most active in the world. It erupts about every 10 minutes and shoots out rock lava. It was dormant for almost 500 years and everyone thought it was simply a mountain with nice green vegetation. This was until 1968 when it exploded and lava flows destroyed three villages and killed about 80 people. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating for us and the clouds never did lift high enough for us to see the volcano or the lava. So off we went, back towards town. At this point our tour guide dropped the two other woman off at their hotel and I continued on to the Baldi Thermae Hot Springs. This was the most incredible place I have ever been. I LOVED it!!! First I had a delicious buffet dinner in the restaurant area and then I spent two hours checking out the 25 different pools. All the pools are different temperatures. I have been told one of them was 152 degrees, but the hottest I found was 116...too hot for me. What made this such a magical place was the fact that I was there at night, it was misting rain, steam was rising in the air, there was lush tropical plants all around with ambient lighting and local Latin music. How much better can you get!!! There is even three waterslides, a couple swim up bars and my favourite the hot tub. I enjoyed every second of my time at the hot springs...that is except for the one creepy guy from the US who started chatting with me and asked me out for drinks...thankfully there were 20 other pools to move on to!!! If you ever have the chance to visit this area, I would highly recommend putting the hot springs on your list of things to do. Well I am off tomorrow to Monteverde on the jeep to boat to jeep tour and eventually heading onward to Montezuma on the Pacific coast.
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