Costa Rica Family Trip: Part 2
Check
out Part One of our trip here...
Day 4: The third stop in our Costa Rican adventure vacation (after
Pura Vida and La Carolina) was at the base of Arenal Volcano, at a hotel called
Los Lagos. It was
completely different from La Carolina – much larger and more resort-ish. While
I would certainly recommend it (the location was great, it was very clean
and had many amenities) it was our least favorite of the trip. We learned
we are more “off the beaten path” travelers.
We
arrived in the afternoon and settled in our room, then headed for some fun
in the pools and waterslides. The swim up bar featured a delicious pina colada,
served in a fresh pineapple. Yum. That evening we went to the restaurant at
Los Lagos for dinner. It was fine, but we were so spoiled at Pura Vida and
La Carolina that the food and atmosphere just didn’t quite measure up. We
were all very tired, so we caught a shuttle back to our room and went to bed,
looking forward to Easter morning.
A Very Memorable Easter…
Day 5: We woke up early, rolled out of bed and were on the
hiking trail to the volcano observation area by 7:00am. The beginning of the
trail was a very steep incline. The sign said the Arenal Volcano observation
area was 2.2km ahead. We hiked and hiked for what seemed like further than
2.2km. (This made a couple of the kids nervous as they were concerned we were
trespassing. We’re not sure if we were or not, but even if we were it was
probably no big deal, as it seems rules in Costa Rica are more like guidelines
to follow if you wish.) Anyway, we finally decided to head back down the hill
and found the observation area – which we saw on the way up but it wasn’t
marked and we thought it was someone’s house. We were fortunate to see the
whole volcano form, with smoke smoldering out of the top and down the sides.
Many days it is covered by the clouds. We were told if we saw it at night,
it would be glowing red.
We toyed with the idea of catching a taxi into town to attend an Easter service,
but in the end decided to have our own. We brought our Backpack Bible and
took turns reading the Easter Resurrection Story. While it wasn’t a typical
Easter morning, I couldn’t help but look across the landscape thinking it
probably looked a whole lot more like Jerusalem than Colorado does!
We hiked back to the hotel and enjoyed the lovely breakfast buffet included
with our stay. When we were sufficiently stuffed we wandered through the crocodile
farm and butterfly garden. We were slightly disappointed to find out the frog
garden was not open because they are in the process of moving it, but the
rest of it surpassed our expectations.
We went swimming and water sliding. It was by far the fastest water slide
we had ever been on! We stopped at the swim up bar for some fruity drinks,
but they were horrible, so we left and got dressed and headed to the restaurant
for some chicken nachos and ice-cold bottled water. Ahhh!
Next
was the biggest “rush” of our entire vacation. A
Sky Tram transport van picked us up at 2:10pm to take us to our afternoon
adventure – zip lining over the canopy of the jungle. We were quickly situated
with gear and led to a sky tram which took us to our first platform, which
boasted a lovely view of Lake Arenal. They tightened our straps and hooked
us up for two practice runs – very small zip lines. My heart was beating a
bit faster than normal… and then they showed us the next one. It was like
going from a bunny hill to a double black diamond ski hill. Yikes! All of
us decided we would do it again (some more willingly than others) if the opportunity
presented itself, and it was special to experience such a challenging feat
together as a family.
Stay tuned for our final report: Osa Peninsula and the Tree House
in the Jungle…