Fortuna, Costa RicaFeb 22, 2019
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Arenal Volcano
Full moon setting beside Arenal Volcano
View from Magic Mountain Hotel at Fortuna
We are behind due to poor Wi-Fi and little time to do our blog.
Our Caravan Tour to Costa Rica.
Day 4 Rio Frio Cruise, Baldi Hot springs
Day 5 Hanging Bridges
Day 6 Guanacaste Beach Resort
Day 4: We headed north to the Cold River (Rio Frio) and the Cano Negro Wildlife Refuge passing by fields of sugar cane, mango orchards, teak groves, and pineapple and orange plantations. We cruised along the riverbanks of the Rio Frio loaded with a jungle of various trees and ligneous plants. Being the dry season birds, and animals migrate to the river. We were able to see black turtles, whistling ducks, roseate spoonbills, cormorants, anhingas, blue herons, white face monkeys, water-walking lizards, and many more that we have forgotten their names. The Rio Frio head waters start high in the mountains of central Costa Rica and flow north into Lake Cociboloa in Nicaragua. We floated down river to the Nicaraguan border trying to observe all this wildlife. After lunch at a small bar in la Chiles, we bused back to our hotel at the foot of Arenal Volcano.
We then headed to Baldi Hot Springs. The hot springs is a vast network of hot pools starting high up on a hill at an artificial “hot” waterfall with pools of various shapes and sizes. As the hot water flows down the hill, through the pools the water cools so at the bottom it is pleasantly warm at the last large pool where you can soak and have a drink of your choice. We did not spend much time relaxing as we had to spend our time seeing how the place was put together.]
Day 5: We headed west toward the Pacific to the Hanging Bridge trail through the jungle. The path has been cut through jungle with hanging bridges across 6 deep valleys. On the 2 mile hike we did not see much wildlife, but we did see a lot of huge green leaves and vines clinging to trees reaching for the sun. We did see one snake. It was so small that most of us could not see it on the tree bark, coiled the size of a small fingernail. All in all it was a nice hike. After stopping for lunch we drove about 3 hours around Lake Arenal on over to the coast and ended the day at an upscale resort right on the ocean.
Day 6: We spent the day on our own at the JW Marriott Guanacaste Beach Resort. We spent most of our time lounging at the hotels very large infinity pool that looked out over the Pacific where you could sunbath or relax under an umbrella. The food was there was outstanding, the ambiance was above average, and “if” we had the resources we would have liked to have spent our whole time there. It was nice to have a day to rejuvenate for the rest of the trip.
