Costa Rica - Arenal Volcano

We drove up to Arenal Volcano on Tuesday morning. It was about a 3 hour drive. Miraculously I haven't felt car sick with all the winding driving we've been doing in the Costa Rican countryside. We had lunch when we reached the town of La Fortuna then we were off to our hotel. Originally we'd planned on checking in and going for a hike at the La Fortuna waterfall. That went to the wayside when we saw our hotel though.

Arenal Nayara was off the main road and down a dirt road. Upon entering the main lobby we were greeted with a welcome drink and a cool scented towel to cool off with. We were taken by a golf cart on a tour of the grounds, which actually aren't that big since there was only 24 units total. Our room was absolutely gorgeous. A beautiful porch overlooking the volcano. Both an indoor and outdoor shower. And a jacuzzi on the porch. Best of all each unit is secluded.

The pool was likewise gorgeous and this is where we decided to plant ourselves for the rest of the afternoon instead of going on a hike. There were whirlpools within the pool and a swim-up pool bar that I used extensively. I decided to get a massage since I can never resist a spa. Prices were high but they had a 15% off coupon. Since I was in volcano territory I had a volcano mud massage by Lillian which was excellent.

Because we were lazy and the massage was later in the day, we decided just to eat dinner at the hotel. I had the onion soup which was good and the paella which was okay. The Husband had the tortilla soup which was okay and tropical chicken breast with mango sauce which was good. Prices for dinner weren't too bad considering it's a hotel.

The next day we tried canyoning. Now this was intense. Canyoning included rappelling down small waterfalls while using the rocks and sides of the waterfall as footholds or basically dropping yourself down large waterfalls and kind of free-falling. We also did some intense hiking through the jungle along and in the river. I say intense since we were hiking in the small river along slippery rocks. You had to watch every foot placement so you didn't slip and land on the rocks. There were many rock formations you had to climb down including one that had no footholds so you had to jump into a pool of water located right between two steep rock faces. I am shocked I didn't fall or scrape against the rocks and become a bloody mess although I did get fairly beat up during this whole excursion. Very cool but be prepared that it is exhausted. I thought we were just going to drop down the waterfalls, nothing was mentioned about this long hike. Also, this will be harder for shorter people since it's harder for your legs to stretch to find the footholds. I had a much more difficult time with this than The Husband since I'm about 5 inches shorter than he is.

That night we headed for the hot springs that Arenal is famous for. There's a couple different ones you can choose from. Baldi Hot Springs is like going to Daytona Beach. Completely cheesy, young and cheap crowd, lots of drinking. It is the cheapest option. I don't know much about Ecotermales but it's a smaller hot springs and often reservations are needed. Tabacon until recently was known for being the fancy hot springs. It's also pretty expensive. We decided to try the newest hot springs at the hotel called The Springs. This place just opened 6 months ago and were offering a great deal. 2 full days of hot spring usage for $40/person.

I had really been looking forward to the hot springs but I was quite disappointed. At first we were very impressed by The Springs but then it kind of wore off on us. It was quite Disneyesque. Everything was manufactured. They even had some fake tree stumps. They have 18 total pools. Several are cold, several are medium, and several are hot. There are 11 of these total right outside the back of the hotel. There are also 7 in the forest a couple hundred meters down a path. These are all hot There they had built a slide right into the hot springs that we really enjoyed. They were not hot enough for us though. It was like lukewarm bath water. We tried the hot ones near the main building and they were hotter. We had planned on eating dinner here but the prices were pretty exhorbitant compared to our own hotel so we decided to just head back. Likewise spa prices were ridiculous. The weirdest thing was the whole place was empty. Eventually they're going to have a large amount of rooms but right now only a fraction of the rooms are open. (Note: the rooms are high priced as well.) But apparently hardly anyone had heard of this place yet and there was no one. It was kind of eerie. So back to our own hotel for dinner.

The next day was our last day in Arenal. We were scheduled to go ziplining through Sky Tram/Sky Trek. We drove there ourselves since getting picked up was an additional cost and we already had a car. Leave yourself plenty of time to drive there. The road is terrible and unpaved. The ziplining was great though. You take a tram up to the top. Also in the trams are people who are only taking the tram and not ziplining with you so if some in your party want to take the weenie option this is it. The ziplines were the highest and farthest I'd ever seen. One is half a mile in length and you can barely see over to the other side. It made the ziplines we did in Belize look like a kiddie playground. Absolutely wear old clothes though. Our clothes and faces were covered with oil from the wires and needless to say the clothes are ruined.

After another afternoon lounging by the pool we headed into town for dinner. We chose a steakhouse Don Rufino's. We shared an appetizer of cheeses and Italian meats which was fantastic. Then we shared a bacon-wrapped filet which was decent but of course didn't match up to the filets we've had at the top steakhouses in Chicago. But I would recommend Don Rufino's anyway. The next day we would be off to Quepos so to bed early again. I've never gotten so much sleep in my life yet been so tired from all the activity as this trip.

View of the cloud forest while driving up to Arenal

Our bungalow

More of our room

View from our patio to the volcano

The jacuzzi tub

Bathroom and closet area

Outdoor shower

View from our hotel

The hotel. The landscaping was so lush and green.

Pool and swim-up pool bar where I had many umbrella drinks

The Husband rappelling down the waterfall

There's me

Sitting amidst the rocks while our guides dammed up the water

And when the guides released the dam

The Husband rappelling

I'm going straight through a waterfall here

The Husband at dinner

The Springs lodge

Hot springs in the forest

Getting ready to zipline. I spent so much time this trip wearing those ugly and nasty helmets for all our excursions.

View from one of the zipline platforms

More views

View of Lake Arenal from the zipline

We saw a whole bunch of cotamundis on the way back from the ziplines

The cheesy display our maid left us. The elephants were cute though.

View of the pool at night

My artistic flower picture

One of the many rabbits that wander around our hotel grounds

Costa Rica - Pacuare Lodge

Our trip began at the ridiculous time of 4:00 am when we caught a taxi to O'Hare. Ouch. Everything went smoothly and we checked into our hotel. Some readers of this blog know that The Husband travels a ton. As such, he has built up a ton of points at IC Brand hotels which are Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, and Crowne Plaza. So we chose a free night at the Holiday Inn in San Jose before embarking on our whitewater rafting trip the next morning.

I would avoid San Jose if possible. There are many charming towns (at least from what I read in the guidebooks) in the Central Valley. San Jose is not charming. The Holiday Inn is a retired person in a tour group's haven. Skip if you're paying. If you do stay downtown opt for Grano de Oro which looks great. We were exhausted so we grabbed dinner at a small soda within walking distance. A soda is a small casual restaurant. Turned out the nachos and fried bananas we shared were excellent!

Our first full day started with a pick-up at 6:15 am. Ouch again. We drove an hour and 20 minutes outside of San Jose where we enjoyed a traditional Costa Rican breakfast of rice, beans, fruit, cheese, tortillas, and eggs. Then we had another hour and 20 minute drive to the river put-in for our whitewater rafting adventure. During this time our guide talking about the horrors of whitewater rafting (falling out of the boat) and even worse, the horrors of our accomodations in the jungle (scorpions in our rooms along with other assorted wildlife). Needless to say, the scorpions were terrifying. According to our guide that was the only wildlife we could kill. All others were to be left alone.

We arrived at the river put-in to rain. Awesome. It was just cold enough to be freezing when we got in the river. We hiked down a hill so steep the van couldn't transport our bags. They had to be transported via 4x4 vehicle. Finally the start of our rafting trip. The trip was set up really well. About an hour rafting on the first day over grade 1 and 2 rapids which was a very nice start for beginners like me. Day 2 would be grades 1-4 rapids for 3 or 4 hours on the river. The Husband and I got extremely lucky and were put at the front of the raft. Meaning we got extremely soaked. The rafting was awesome though.

The Pacuare Lodge though was AMAZING. You are able to access the lodge by land but that involves taking a basket over a cable across the river and a horseback ride. So everyone rafts in. From the cooks to the guests. They raft in all supplies including food and linens. The only electricity is some produced by the lodge itself for the kitchen to use for cooking. The main lodge was open air. The bottom part included the kitchen, eating area, and a wine cellar (yes a wine cellar in the middle of the jungle). The upstairs part included a bar and some couches for reading. The entire thing is lit by candlelight at night. Everyone has an individual bungalow set off from all the others. It had a room with a bed and a couch, then stairs down to a bathroom that had stone floors and a large shower area. Unfortunately showers were heated by the sun which we didn't have any that day. So that was a really quick one. Because it was pouring we decided to relax in our rooms instead of going on the waterfall hike like we had originally planned. Originally I had been looking forward to a massage by one of the local Indian women that the lodge hired but she had apparently quit. So we spent the afternoon relaxing and reading in our bungalow.

The best part was the gourmet meals. Lunch was a buffet on the first day. There was flatbreads, fruit, and couscous. Dinner was the main masterpiece. Appetizer choice was between goat-cheese and honey stuffed phyllo dough or carrot soup. Dinner was tilapia in a passionfruit sauce or beef tenderloin in a porcini mushroom sauce. And dessert was creme brulee or pineapple with ice cream. Seriously a 5 star meal. In the middle of the jungle. Breakfast the next morning was delicious as well with rice and beans, eggs, cheese, and fruits.

The next day started our rafting at 10 am. This day we would hit some big rapids. It started out raining again. It had poured all night and then when we woke up at 7:30 am it was finally sunny. However it started pouring right as we were getting our rafting gear on. Luckily it cleared up soon and as a result we have a lovely sunburn complete with life jacket tan. Really there are no words to describe the river. Absolutely gorgeous and surrounded on both sides by trees growing hundreds of feet tall. We also got a glimpse of native Indian life alongside the banks of the river as we rafted down. We bought the CD at the end of the trip of us rafting. We had an expertly prepared lunch when we stopped at a beach on the way down. Pasta salad, tuna fish salad, pitas, chicken, and fresh fruit. They did a great job creating our lunch and presenting it on an upturned raft.

I would highly recommend this trip. The river was gorgeous. There was nonstop action with the rapids. Hardly any flatwater so it was exciting the entire time. It was easy enough that a first time rafter like me could do it but some more experienced rafters also enjoyed it as well. http://www.junglelodgecostarica.com

We were deposited back at our beloved Holiday Inn in San Jose after a 2 hour drive back from the river take-out. We were so exhausted we went back to the same soda for dinner since it was so close and we knew it was good. Then we were in bed by 8:30 pm. I'm starting to feel elderly this trip with going to bed so early.

Church on the way to the river that the Virgin Mary has supposedly appeared in

Inside of the church

Getting ready to start Day 1 of the rafting trip

Our jungle bungalow

Hallway leading down to the bathroom area in our bungalow

Bathroom area

The bar in the main lodge

View of the river from the lodge

How I spent my afternoon. I'm all bundled up since it was pouring rain and I was freezing.

Upstairs of the main lodge

The wine cellar

The upstairs of the main lodge lit up by candlelight at night

My appetizer for dinner. Phyllo dough with goat cheese and nuts inside on a bed of lettuce. We forgot to take pictures of the other food.

Dessert

It was finally sunny the next day. This is the area around the bungalows.

The main lodge

Dining room on the first floor of the lodge

How we didn't capsize I don't know.

Beautiful waterfall along the river

That's me on the front left and The Husband on the front right

The main lodge from the river

Another waterfall

The gorge we got out of the raft and swam through

The amazing lunch prepared on the beach for us in the middle of the rafting trip

Riding the rapids

Getting some air

I'm making strange faces in every single one of these rafting pictures. Apparently I was terrified.