Today began our great adventure in Rincon de la Vieja National Park. We rented a car and drove about 2 hours to the park. The park is home to two volcanoes, the Rincon de la Vieja and the Santa Maria, as well as waterfalls, hot springs, boiling mud pots, and a fresh water volcanic lagoon. The park is also the habitat of an array of wildlife, including spider monkeys, toucans and rare birds, jaguars, cougars and tapirs. Apparently Guaria Morada orchids, the purple, national flowers of Costa Rica, are also in abundance in the park. Of course, we saw none of these fascinating animals and flowers.
We hiked a 6k trail on the Rincon de la Vieja, which is an active volcano that is over a million years old. We did see a lot of cool tress, including Guanacaste trees (the region of Costa Rica in which Tamarindo is located is named Guanacaste after these trees)
 Guanacaste tree |
 Matapalo Ficus |
The best parts of the hike were the hot springs and boiling mud pots. They are barricaded because the temperatures are high enough to boil a human! We ended the hike with a dip in the very cold fresh water lagoon. See the next entry for more pictures.After the hike and swim we made a brief visit to a hot spring in which we could actually swim without fearing death by boiling. The springs were mediocre, as there was quite a bit of algae in the water. Nonetheless, it was a welcome end to a long day. We stayed at a farm/lodge called Guachipelin. The place has beautiful grounds but only decent rooms. Aside from a few hotels and spas in the area, Rincon de la Viejo is in the middle of nowhere.
