My silly alarm did not turn on at 5:20 am! And
then I realized I set it for Thursday instead of Wed!! So I am silly! But my
body clock was set for the alarm, so I got up at 5:18 am. Got ready and went
for breakfast by 7 am.
Breakfast was a good spread of rice and beans
(Costa Rican traditional), scrambled eggs, toast and fruits. There was some
other meat stuff and cheese that I did not understand. Fruits were amazingly
sweet! Papaya, pineapple and watermelon. Really good!
Our Red Lava tour company came promptly at 7:40
am. It was a full bus. We reached the volcano park and signed it. It was a full
day tour, it included: the nature area, the La Fortuna falls hike, lunch,
native Indian visit, hike on the volcano, hot springs (with drink and face
mask). We had to be packed for the whole day! Our guides were Eric and Andreas,
both brothers. Andreas was the older one and one group stayed with him, us and
a Chinese family from Canada. They were a family of four – parents are geology
professors at University of Saskatchewan. Really good company.
We walked in a little garden, saw beautiful
flowers, reminded me of Hawaii, ginger and heliconia? Really pretty colors
and blooms.
We went into the frog and butterfly area (covered).
There was not too much to see there. A couple different kinds of tiny frogs and
just 2-3 kinds of butterflies. I think I see more here in Florida on a good
day. The frogs were interesting, very small and colorful. I wish they had more
there. Our guide explained a bit about the banana being a flower and another
one that blooms new every day. Cool!
We took a tractor ride up to the Fortuna Falls
hiking point. One has to hike down, no other route. It was a beautiful falls from far. I could
see the zip lining going on there. The hike
down was not bad, maybe about 500 steps. There was one suspended bridge on the
way. It was a pretty hike. It is just something else to look at the falls
so up close, they are over 800 m high and falling with full force. So much
water.
The river was flowing out from there and there
were a number of people swimming in the water. I did not want to – none of us
did. Viki kind of waded in. The water was a bit cold. After resting a bit and enjoying
the falls, I was thinking about my walk up as I knew it would take me a while
to get up there. I started my trek about 30 mins before everyone else did. It was
nice to walk by myself – the whole path and bridge and steps to myself. And most of all I did not have to worry about
panting loudly or walking at my own pace. I was up in about 30 mins. Sarvesh came next and we got some mango juice ($2/glass). Everyone else was up in about 30 mins. We then
took the tractor to see the Malleku Indian tribe area.
After a short walk through beautiful hibiscus
garden we got into a big hall. We were all seated and treated to a sample of
apple cider drink. It was sweet and sour. The guides translated the Indian
dialect to tell us about the masks and the cloth that the indigenous Indians
made. Very primitive. It is very sad for
me to see when indigenous people are treated like in a museum. They are the
true owners of the land.
I did not buy anything although the masks and
everything was really pretty and nicely decorated. I just don’t need anything
right now.
We came back down, on the tractor, for lunch, near
the park entrance. They served us juice
first. It seemed artificial. Our guide informed us that there was a toucan on a
tree close by. It as a yellow bird with a big black beak. It was beautiful.
Lunch was rice and black beans with steamed vegetables,
and some salad. Oh, and not to forget fried plantain. I did not really care for the
cheese.
Then we were off for the volcano hike. The drive
was about 25 mins. We stopped in the middle for a photo op. We then got to the entrance
of the park. All the parks have nice clean restrooms. The second hike was not
so long, but there were some stairs. My legs were aching a bit. The views
were really good of the volcano when we got up to the high point.
 |
| Arenal Volcano |
All through the hike there were beautiful flowers
and trees, ferns. The Arenal volcano had been active 50 years ago, and it
was interesting to see that in 50 years life came back again all around. We were
on the top for about 20 mins or so to take pics and admire the view. We walked
down a different route which had really bad steps (naturally made), but really
uneven. My thighs had started to hurt by now. I had not counted on going
through so many steps in one day.
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| Arenal Flowers |
Once in the van again, we stopped near the entrance
to change into our swim suits as were going to the hot pool now. We also had a
nice coffee and cookie break. About 25 mins later, and seeing a bunch of sloths on the way, we were near the river. There were many other tourist buses there. After
a bit of a walk, we came to the “pool” which turned out to be a hot river! It was
flowing quite fast and had rocky bottom just like a natural river. The only
problem was that it was getting dark and I did not think about bringing my
water shoes as I thought it would be a “pool”. Oh well, we all found our happy
spot and sat for a while. Can’t move too much as the water is flowing too fast.
The guides then gave us drinks, sprite + vodka, my
favorite! And of course just Sprite for non alcohol drinkers. They also gave us lava ash masks for our face.
So fun! I had never done lava ash mask before. I left it on for about 20 mins
and then washed off. The water was quite a consistent temperature. Finally left
after about 30 mins of sitting in the hot river.
Reached our hotel around 6pm. Really nice and long
tour and tiring! It was definitely worth every penny of the $85. Took a shower
and went to find something to eat. Ended up eating pizza. Wonderful taste! It was
9 pm by the time we reached home and got into bed. What a lovely day.
We had also booked a zip lining tour with a company
for tomorrow, so Randall, our contact guy, came to get money for it. We paid cash
for a better deal. And it was a good deal! But it turns out he booked us for
7:30 am instead of the 9:30 tour. Oh well!! Another early rising tomorrow.
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