An Evening at a Natural Spa- Arenal Volcano

This weekend a few of my friends that I met in San Jose came up to Monteverde to visit for a day before we headed back down the mountain into La Fortuna home of Arenal Volcano.  Below is pictures and information about this wonderful weekend. 

 On Friday before they all went zip-lining we went and found a tree that you could climb inside because it was like a ladder.  I didn't climb all the way up since we didn't have time but all the locals say you can climb all the way up and can see out the top.  Below you can see a picture of all of us in there at the same time.

 This is a view from the platform where we watch people bungee jump.  There was a little tram that took them to the middle of the valley where they jumped off, I was scared just watching them do this, you couldn't have paid me enough to do that. 

This is a beautiful bird that I saw while I was waiting for them to get finished zip-lining.  I had already been zip-lining in Monteverde so while they were doing that I walked around and saw this beautiful bird.

 We decided to take a taxi-boat-taxi to get to La Fortuna because it only took 3 hours as opposed to 9 on the public bus due to lay overs.  This is a picture of me at the front of the boat with Arenal in the background which was really hard to see through the clouds.

 Once we arrived into La Fortuna we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do.  We really wanted to go and visit the hot springs so we were walking around town trying to figure out the best deal.  We ended up talking to a tour guide about it and we ended up with a cheaper package than just the hot springs that included a lot more.  The tour started at 2 pm with a drive up to the observatory (which is where this picture took place).  While at the observatory we were able to read about the history of the volcano as well as see pictures of it through time. 

 The next part of the tour was a trek through the rainforest where we went over a couple of hanging bridges and was able to experience the rain forest with plenty of rain.  The guide was telling us all about the plants and animals in the rainforest.

The next part (and one of my favorites) was hiking to this beautiful waterfall.  Here we were able to actually go swim in the water (which was a little cold).  I was able to swim up under the waterfall and sit on the other side.  The waterfall also felt very good on my back and shoulders although I couldn't stay under very long due to the amount of force and current coming from the waterfall.  Those more daring climbed up the side of the waterfall and jumped down in it but I wasn't quite that daring.

 Can you see me?

 Later in the day as we were hiking around the top of the volcano cleared up enough for me to be able to see the top. 

 One stop we made on the hike was under a pavilion to get an illustration (with sand) about the history of Arenal Volcano and how it has changed through time. 

 When we were done with the hike it was dark by then so we began our drive back down the hill.  We were out in the middle of nowhere and the guide acted like we were out of gas and jumped out of the bus and went into the forest.  About 2 minutes later he came out with a beautiful red eyed tree frog.  I had seen them before in the wild but was never able to actually hold them to get my pictures taken.  We were not able to use the flash because it damages their eyes so we had to use a flashlight to spotlight the frog.

Once our time with the frog was complete we then went into the natural hot springs which is when the natural spa began to unfold.  We went to a place where all of the locals go which is just off the side of a road into the river.  It was very eerie at first because there wasn't a lot of people there and it was pitch black but it turned out to be so much fun.  We walked up the river at first where the water was the hottest and then slowly made our way down.  The guide kept finding pumice stones so he kept massaging all the ladies feet.  We had a nice traditional Costa Rican drink at the top before we began working our way down the river.  At one point he told us to sit down in the current and close our eyes and before I realized what was happening we went over a small waterfall into a nice sized pool.  Here we were able to go stand under the falls which was a nice massage and he gave us facials with the volcano mud.  Once we had our facials he took us underneath the waterfall to the other side where it was a small room that was like a sauna.  We stayed at the Springs for about 2 hours which was plenty of time for me and by 9 when we left I was about ready to fall asleep.  He dropped us back off at our hostel and we had 30 minutes to change before he picked us back up and took us to dinner which was wonderful (you can see it below).

What I learned from this experience was that the "natural" tour was so much better than the touristy hot springs spa could ever have been and it was great to be able to spring in the hot springs in the middle of the rainforest (even though at first it was eerie).  I am now just sitting at the hostel waiting for the taxi to come pick me up to take me back across the lake and back into Monteverde.  It is hard to believe that I have been here 7 weeks already and I only have about 5.5 weeks left.