Day 2 - La Fortuna, Arenal Volcano, and Hot Springs

Click on READ MORE to see the full post and photos… Today was another wonderful day. After a buffet breakfast we hopped on our bus for a 3 hour trip north and east to the Caribbean side of the central mountain range. As we reached the highest pass we stopped at a gift shop, stretched our legs, and took in the views (I was so caught up in the beauty of the moment that I forgot to take a photo). From there we descended and headed to our first destination, La Fortuna. As we approached town, the famous Arenal Volcano appeared from the clouds. We arrived and spent an hour exploring the center and enjoying the park. After a feast and a half, we checked into our hotel and headed to “hot springs” up on the volcano. The hot springs turned out to be more than hot springs, there were 28 pools of all different temperatures. The top pools had water slides. Needless to say, the kids were trilled! They spent over 2 hours enjoying. There was even a natural “sauna” where our 4 Chamber Choir members entered and sang for everyone in the steamy heat. After that, we went to an organic farm and had a dinner of 10 different dishes, all from produce and meat raised on the farm. Nothing tasted like anything we were used to, other than the rice and beans. The meal was quite the adventure in and of itself! We headed home for some free time. The kids watched videos of themselves coming down the slides (these will come in another post tomorrow). They socialized and/or rested. Finally, one of the more special moments of the day was enjoying the Arenal Volcano at night, the moon was bright, is was surreal. Tomorrow we are off early to head up close to the Nicaraguan boarder. We are going to spend several hours on a boat searching rivers for rare wildlife. You can click on the first photo below and then scroll through the rest for larger versions…