Our first order of business on Monday was to drive to Arenal - a volcano about 120 km northwest of San Jose.
To get there, we first took the Panamerican Highway to San Ramon...
Our first order of business on Monday was to drive to Arenal -
a volcano about 120 km northwest of San Jose.
To get there, we first took the Panamerican Highway to San Ramon...
...and there switched to a local road 702 that wound through low lying hills.
Soon we entered the rainforest zone, where the road resembled a snake crawling
through exuberant vegetation.
We stopped only rarely, usually when we saw a restaurant or an adventure center, ...
... so we reached the Arenal area by 2pm with plenty of time to check out the rainforest.
As a venue for our exploration we chose the Arenal hanging bridges
- two miles off the main road at the end of this well paved driveway.
We paid our fee at the park center...
...and eagerly entered a 2.5 miles long loop with 10 or so hanging bridges
(the longest spanning about 100 meters).
From the bridges you could admire the lush vegetation...
...with all its tropical quirks.
Some of the bridges were hung quite high...
(which tells you that the trail had some pretty steep gradients on it)
...but once you managed to climb onto them...
...they offered a unique perspective on the surrounding jungle.
Apart from the bridges, the trail led through the dense rainforest and was paved with
uncomfortable concrete bricks
- a subtle hint that you should watch your step at all times.
On the surface, the jungle was just a huge mass of breathing tropical vegetation
(ribboned with an obligatory waterfall)...
...but if you paid attention, you could spot animal life at
all levels of this green maze.
At the bottom floor, you would have well camouflaged snakes.
The mid level belonged mostly to birds
(can you spot this one perching on the tree branch?).
And if you trained your sights high in the tree tops, you could observe
occasional group of monkeys passing across the canopy.
Another big attraction of the forest are colonies of leaf cutter ants who cut leaves
high in the trees and them carry them down and away...
...alongside routes that look like miniature green highways
(except that they are filled with moving leaf chunks instead of cars).
The last stretch of the loop issued into a miniature tropical garden
adjacent to the parking lot.
After the hike, we decided to spend the rest of the day at one of areas many hot springs.
On the way there we noticed this improvised souvenir shop...
...and we also stopped near our hotel to snap another photo of the Arenal volcano.
They say that only few tourists
actually get to see its top because it is almost permanently in clouds.
We weren't one of them.
Around 5pm we arrived at our final destination for the day - Baldi Hot Springs.
This is a complex of hot water pools (85-100F) built on Arenal's northern slopes.
The top pools are about 200 meters above the hotel...
..and from there the waters slowly cascade down through carefully maintained greenery...
...until they end up in the restaurant area at the bottom.
The whole complex is criss crossed with lush green thoroughfares...
...but if you take one less traveled...
...you can find an isolated pool and start soaking away.
Long into the night if need be.
