Where did we leave off? Oh right, with the most insane dinner (Glass pod in the sky? 7 courses including 2 desserts? Wine pairings that included 2 ounces of rum? That’s insane.) So, it was our last night in the area and in the morning, after breakfast, Oscar picked us up for the incredibly long 100km to the hanging bridges of Mistico Park.
So the thing about Costa Rica is that even though something seems close (or, at least, close by Canadian standards) it will still take forever to get to because the roads are narrow and windy and up & down mountains. So our 100km drive took us about somewhere near 3 hours? In Costa Rica’s defence, we did stop at a lookout at one end of the Arenal Lake to take in the stunning views of the lake, all the way down to the volcano. And we also stopped to see some howler monkeys at the side of the road.
Anyway. This volcano and its lake. There was a massive eruption back in the 60s, which ended up burying a couple of small towns and activity in the volcano continued on well into the early 2000s. Somewhere in there, the lake was expanded with the creation of a massive dam and is now the largest water reservoir for hydroelectric power in the country. The expansion of the lake led to 2 towns now being in the lake, so those were obviously abandoned and relocated. There’s a church steeple of one of the towns that still pokes up out of the water when the levels are low. So it’s a big lake and very beautiful. And there’s LOTs of wild life around. As we were nearing the Mistico Hanging Bridges, our main activity for the day, we stopped along the side of the road to see the first monkeys we’ve seen so far - howler monkeys. I’m on a quest to see all four kinds so this was very exciting. And noisy. But mostly exciting. Soon after, we arrived at the park and met our guide for our guided nature walk through the nature reserve with it’s 6 hanging bridges.
A guided nature walk sounds very fancy but honestly, if you don’t go with a guide on these walks, you will miss so much. We weren’t even on the trail yet when our guide spotted a viper. A VIPER! Much smaller than I expected, actually. But the point is, we saw so many interesting birds and bugs and whatnot and we never would have seen them otherwise. Like the broadbilled motmot! He’s so pretty. AND MORE MONKEYS! This time, its was the spider monkey. And I think we were pretty lucky to see them - they were just young little fellas having a play in the trees on our way out.
Once our guided walk was done, it was into La Fortuna for lunch, which was delicious, like everything else we’ve had so far, and then to our hotel for the next couple of nights, which has it’s own hot springs (also something that sounds fancy but it’s not - there’s a volcano heating everything up and EVERY hotel has its own hot springs) and has views of the volcano! We’re told not to expect to be able to see it much as the clouds generally cover it so we took in our fill of it while we had the chance. Once we were settled into our room, we definitely went down the hot springs, which were gorgeous and had a bar! So we enjoyed a lovely cold beverage in the warm waters, trying a couple of different spots as it was essentially like a long river that has been divided up into areas. Dinner was a bit of a bust - the hotel really caters to tourists, including the dining options. Certainly not our best meal.
The next morning, we were off to our Rio Celeste Full Day Adventure! That sounds really exciting, doesn’t it? Well, it started with a really long drive - nearly an hour and a half. But once we arrived at The Tenorio National Park, our guide took us unto the park where the river is this incredible bright turquoise colour, which is caused by two rivers coming together with very different makeups but when they combine, you get this stunning turquoise, which is just amazing. Unfortunately, there were some closed paths so we couldn’t do the full hike and see where the two rivers combine but we were able to see where another river joins the already turquoise river so that was pretty neat. But extra unfortunately for us, this wasn’t a private tour and we had someone who had vastly overestimated her abilities and someone else who wanted to stop and look at every single tree in the forest. Which was frustrating for us as we wanted to be moving! But lunch after was delicious and made up for it.
Once back at the hotel, we took another trip down to the hot springs, knowing a bit better about where we thought the best spots were and then headed into La Fortuna for dinner. And this is how we really knew we were at a hotel meant for tourists who don’t tour the way we tour - the front desk wouldn’t call us a proper cab. We used their “shuttle” service which cost us an arm and a leg but we did have a really good dinner plus ice cream after (and even got some chocolates and hot chocolate for back in the hotel room.) We also wandered around town a little to make the trip into town worth!
For our last day in the area, we had some good stuff planned - ziplining and a farm tour. The farm tour came HIGHLY recommended by our friends who were here a few months ago and yep, they were right. We took a cam out to Finca Educative Don Juan where we were the only people on our tour so yay! Private tour! We were taking around the farm, shown all sorts of awesome things like cinnamon bark and stevia plants and most excitingly, cacao! We got to try a cacao pod and then saw the process used to make chocolate. We also got to use our muscles and juice some sugar cane! Oh, and got to try what is basically moonshine, which was a bit of a shock to the system. Then it was onto a yummy lunch that is made with what is grown on the farm. So good!!
We finished up with the best zip lining we’ve done so far on our travels! We were a bit worried because it was getting rainy and foggy and who knew how it was going to go but it turned out pretty well! We started with a short ride up a to the top of the lines, seeing the forest below. Once up at the top, we saw a lovely toucan, which was unexpected. Then, it was time to get back down to the starting point through the series of 6 lines (and a practice line) - one of which is almost an entire km long. It was much different than zip lining we’ve done before where you didn’t have to keep a hand on the line, which was good cause I HATE that part of zip lining. But it also meant that I was really bad at stopping myself and plowed into the end barriers with pretty much every line since you have to watch for the guides’ signals and I never saw them. It’s fine. The barriers were padded. But because of the clouds & mist, the early lines were a bit of a mystery, you just got sent off and had no idea where the end was or how long til you got there. The later lines cleared up a bit for us, including for the longest line, so that worked out pretty well. We were able to get some glimpses of the volcano from another perspective, too - I think we’ve seen it from all angles now :)
Now, it’s off to Manuel Antonio for our last leg of the trip. We have a long drive to get from where we are to where we need to be but we’re heading to the spot where I have my best shot at seeing sloths and where all the capuchin monkeys are!
