We woke up and met at the school at 7:30 AM on Saturday. This was a bit rough as we'd had a great end-of-the-week Argentinian barbecue the night before that ran really late, but somehow we managed. Our guide Hector picked us up in a very nice / comfortable van, and we napped away as he drove off into the mountains. At one point we were high up enough that we drove into the clouds which was pretty cool. I was napping in the back when I suddenly awoke as we screeched to a halt, because a cow was just chilling in the middle of the road. And at another point half of the road had disappeared into a sinkhole. Good times.
At lunch we saw two monkeys chilling in a tree. Sadly enough, these were the only monkeys we saw all trip. Similarly, when we got to Arenal, the volcano's cone was shrouded in clouds, and stayed that way the entire time. When it is visible you can see lava eruptions etc - pretty sweet - but as it was we just had to use our imaginations.
In Arenal, after lunch we spent several hours in the Baldi hot springs. Basically, they piped in some water from an underground thermal spring. According to the sign I read the water had all sorts of minerals etc and they had the scientific papers to prove it at the front desk. I decided I'd just take their word on it.
The springs were pretty cool. Basically it was a series of pools with different temperatures ranging from "warm pool" to "will cook you in 20 min." It was here that I made a fun discovery - hot water on a sunburn hurts like you would not believe! They also had a swim-up bar which was really cool, and even a waterslide. The english translation of the sign warned us to maintain proper "Lunch Position" which ended up becoming a catch-phrase for our trip ("remember to maintain the Lunch Position!").
After the springs we drove to an especially good place to view the volcano, although in our case it was an especially good place to NOT view it. Damn clouds! After that we grabbed dinner, returned for another hour of relaxing in the hot springs, hit up a local discotheque, then went to bed.
The next morning we woke up at 6:30, although we actually woke up at 5:30 thanks to a phone which thought it was on Daylight Savings Time. We had a half-asleep argument about whose watch/phone was right, finally settling it by finding the time on the tv. Luckily, we discovered we'd get another hour of sleep, which was good since we hadn't gotten to bed until 2, so that hour was much-needed
Then we headed to Monte Verde, and discovered another exciting thing about travelling in Costa Rica - not all the roads are actually paved. After several hours of dodging / bouncing over potholes, we finally arrived at the zipline place.
True to its name, the rainforest was rather rainy, but we didn't let that deter us. After we grabbed our gear and signed a contract basically saying it wasn't the zipline company's fault if we plunged to our doom (I pondered for a few minutes whether my insurance would actually cover this, or if they'd deem it an exreme sport, but then went for it), we headed off into the rainforest. Basically there were a series of wires over the forest, and they'd strap you into a pulley on the wire, and you'd take off over the forest to the next platform. It was a heck of an adrenaline rush, and the views were great when you weren't getting whipped in the face by the rain. One of the final stations was a Tarzan swing, where you basically jumped off a platform into space until the swing caught you and swung you up 20-25 feet. After arranging myself so that I was sure that no parts of my anatomy would get trapped and painfully crunched by the harness once it caught me (basically protecting a package that was very important to me, if you get my drift), I was ready to take the plunge. One hell of an adrenaline rush, as you free-fall for about 10 feet before it catches you.
After the zipline we did a quick bridge-walk through the rainforest, including a stop in the Hummingbird garden where I got some pretty amazing pics. Finally we packed back into the van, soaked and exhausted, but very happy, for the long trek home. Once we got back to the paved roads or guide Hector demonstrated his desire to be an Indy Circuit driver - apparently in Costa Rica, double-yellow lines are merely suggestions. However, we finally made it back to School of the World in one piece, and chilled with the other students while getting psyched for the next week of sun and surf. Below are some pics. Enjoy!
All of us at the Baldi hot springs
Group photo with our zipline guides
Group photo (minus Matt, who's taking the photo) on a bridge over the Monte verde rainforest
hummingbirds caught in action at the hummingbird garden
cool art shot - some neat berries in the rain
rainbow over Monte Verde
Totally went to that same Selvatura ziplining place with the Tarzan swing (though I was too chicken to do the swing. The zip line was enough of a rush for me!). Sorry you didn't see the volcano with all its lava. Maybe another time yet. It is totally mesmerizing and awesome. We went to Baldi too and my favorite moment was when there was this giant lightning/electrical storm brewing in the distance and NO ONE got out of the pools. Yeah, in the U.S. that's called LIABILITY. ha ha.
ReplyDeleteAhh man, this is making me miss Costa Rica. I went there in Nov 2007 and we did a lot of the same stuff... Baldi hot springs, zip lining, etc. We almost died while trying to drive around C.R., those roads are no joke. Are you going to make it to the Caribbean side at all? If so, Puerto Viejo was a really cute town.
ReplyDeleteHah, that's crazy about the elecrical storm. It was raining while we were there (very cool to have the contrast of hot pool water and cold rain), but no lightning. And Alena, I'll probably make it down to the caribbean side - I'll have to check Puerto Viejo out. Thanks for the recommendation!
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