Hello All: Our trip to Costa Rica has started out pretty well. We are spending the first part of our trip near the Arenal Volcano. The volcano is right out our window so it’s a lovely view. We are in the center of Costa Rica and it took about three hours to get here from the airport. I was wiped out by yesterday evening.
Our hotel is lovely! The vegetation here is thick and the hotel keeps the grounds really nicely covered in plants. There are lots of birds. Since we are so near the volcano, there are geothermal hot springs everywhere. Down the road a little ways is a hot springs river. Our hotel has multiple hot and cold pools and I got a room with my own private hot spring pool, which is awesome.
This morning, we took a taxi to La Fortuna, which is the closest town. There are lots of tourist shops. We found a chocolate shop and got some really good brownies for after supper. After we finished wandering around town, we took a taxi to a sloth watching area. It’s run by a family that used to raise cattle. They turned their property into a nature area that attracts sloths. It’s a beautiful property with a little creek running through it. We saw an otter fishing from one of the observation points. The owners of the property have put an enormous amount of money into building trails, restrooms, suspension bridges and hiring staff to spot sloths and maintain everything. We saw three sloths and one of them was really low in a tree so we could see her without a scope. It’s not very hot here but it’s ultra humid and the canopy holds in humidity. We were soaked by the time the trip was over but it was a lovely walk and the sloths were super neat.
After sloth watching, we came back to swim for a while. Tomorrow, we are going rafting and I set up a spelunking trip for Thursday. Both should be fun. Here are a few more pictures below.
Traveling with Emily! 