Blogs from Arenal, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 2

Photos of Tabacon Thermal Springs...... read more

Wednesday 6th January 2016 Woke to more rain for a 7.30am start to go on the hanging bridges walk though the cloud forest as it is aptly named. We are really getting good use of our $5 ponchos. The walk involved a steady climb and then crossing ravines at forest canopy level by means of 6 suspension bridges, which swayed as we walked across them. This was a bit un-nerving. We didn’t see much wild life along the walk due to the rain but it was enjoyable nonetheless. The afternoon trip was described as a ‘boat safari’, which we thought, would be a gentle trip on a raft or canoe. We looked nervously at each other when they started pumping up our small inflatable, handed us paddles and showed us the river, which was flowing too ... read more

Wake up in the morning, feelin' like P. Diddy. Lol, just kidding. I woke up early because my stomach was hurting :( All the girls were still asleep. It's fine though. It felt so peaceful standing outside our cabin, taking in that fresh air, listening to the hummingbirds sing, and staring at the clouds passing by the volcano. Something so beautiful about nature, something the city will never have. I love it. I felt so immersed in that moment. I wanted to get closer to the hummingbirds. I wanted to touch the volcano. I wanted to run across the field of green grass in front of me. In this area, it periodically rains on and off. It was still humid here, but a little cooler than Puntarenas. Soon enough, everyone was up. We headed on over ... read more

Now, today has been all about getting in to Costa Rica - to the volcanic town of La Fortuna in the highlands, set 6km from Volcan Arenal which violently erupted in 1968. This was to involve not one, but 2 flights on a 'small' plane. Jesus - I have jumped out of planes bigger than what I flew in!! Two of the hairiest plane rides I have ever taken, that's for sure! I uncontrollably let out a small squeak when the first plane dropped whilst coming in to land - something which amused those around me considerably as I cling white knuckled to my seat!! But I did manage to make a few friends on these flights, which made them somewhat less stressful. The second flight ended up being just myself and another single female traveller ... read more

There were two options to get from Monte Verde to Arenal. The first is on a 100% dirt road on winding roads for 3 plus hours.. no thank you.. and the second option was Jeep-Boat-Jeep. Which is the option that we took. We took about a 1.5 – 2 hour bus (jeep) ride to Lake Arenal, where we took about a 30-45 minute boat ride to the other side of the lake and then a 30-minute taxi (jeep) ride up to the Arenal Observatory Lodge. We are completely secluded and about a 30-minute drive from the town of La Fortuna. We were 10+ KM away from the main highway. It was a little further out and harder to get to, but once we were there, we didn’t have to do much traveling to enjoy the wildlife. ... read more