SAT 11-17 LA FORTUNA
Click to stop music
Lomas del Volcan was a great place with breakfast included. Back in San Jose, Luis had given us a couple options for lodging. We chose primarily by which sounded most unique. We picked WELL!! It is located under the shadow of The Arenal Volcano shown here on the right.
Although it is about 1/2 mile up a dirt road through a cattle ranch, it's made up of VERY NICE bungalows spread over beautifully landscaped grounds.
Each had a Refrigerator on the back deck. They told us it came equipped with a lock to keep the "monkeys and raccoons" out.
There was a nice pool and covered hot tub, but we never made it.
They ALSO had a bar, but we used it mainly for the Ice as Joey began making Gatorade Frost & Coconut rum to help keep us hydrated.
Later that night we went up to
Tabacon Spa
There is a river flowing directly down from Arenal's caldera through the Spas of Tabacon and Baldi. Tabacon is built along the semi-natural riverbed. Several pools and waterfalls culminate in this large fall near the bar. As you go upstream from pool to pool toward the volcanic source, the water gets hotter. Although the sign says 41.5C, I doubt it was truly 106F. Going there at night was the way to do it! Between the dark and the rising clouds of steam, it was incredible.
An excellent buffet dinner was included and Luis naturally made the most of it. About this point in the trip we began to wonder why we were paying the Tico to have so much fun with us.
SUN. 11-18 ARENAL
Joe, Gina and Penny went horseback riding, Gina got a bad horse that ran away with her. They changed it out to one that just bit all the other horses as well as one of the other riders. Penny’s horse kicked it to make it stop. The locals were not duely impressed.
We stopped for lunch and OH MY GOD! There was a hole in the rain clouds and BLUE SKY! We almost saw the volcano too.
With the exception of Luis, We all did the
Skytrek tour
. It began with the Sky Tram up to the top platform. Joe spotted a howler monkey in the treetops and they not only stopped the tram but backed it up for a better view.
Soon it will be US screaming like this guy
We had spectacular views of lake Arenal on the way up.
This is one of the highest and longest zipline tours in Costa Rica. One of the unique things was that you would take off at about 100' off the ground and then shoot over a 500' cliff at 50 miles per hour!. The views from the top platform are breathtaking! It really gives you some perspective on how large Lake Arenal is.
And how close we are to the ACTIVE VOLCANO! I got this photo the following week when the clouds cleared briefly.
Finally it's OUR time to go for it!
THE FLYING WALENDA'S GOT NUTTIN' ON US!
On my final long zip, there was a vulture gliding around the valley. As I shot down the line he swooped within a few feet of me. DAMN! I WISH I WOULD HAVE HAD A VIDEO! Thank God I was already wearing brown pants!.......
We went to Baldi hot springs that night, as we had EARNED the soothing hot waters for all the exercise we had done. Baldi is different than Tabacon in that they constantly pump water out of the bottom pool to keep it all flowing. It had many more warm pools, hidden grottos and swim up bars though, and much fancier. I preferred the more natural setting of Tabacon to the waterpark atmosphere. HOWEVER, Gina got them to open the water slide. It was over 3 stories high, and the twenty-somethings in the water were trying to get someone to go up there. One of their group remarked “You can do it! Hell look at that old guy going down backwards!” We won’t say whom they were talking about.
We spent the majority of our time at this swim up bar.
Naturally being Americans, it was only to watch
though.
There are at least 20 other pools of varying size, shape and privacy.
The inclusive restaurant was only fair in comparison to Tabacon's buffett. Worse though was when they tried to rip Lynda off on the drink bill. Luis intervened and got the $300 bill reduced to $26. His fee suddenly became a BARGAIN!
