Wednesday, March 4, 2009

First Days in Costa Rica


We arrived in San Jose Costa Rica blurry-eyed and fuzzy headed after being up for 28 hours. It was sunny and about 88 degrees with a brisk wind blowing. We were met by our cheerful driver (Leo), and straight away headed out for our first destination, Arenal. Leo spoke very little English, so we forged bravely ahead with our badly rusted Spanish repertoire.
As we wound our way up through the mountains, what began as cloud forest mist progressed rapidly to steady rain and the temperature dropped from 88 degrees to about 68 degrees. Three hours later we reached our hotel, a quaint little place on the outskirts of Arenal Volcano called, Silencio Del Campo. The weather came as a bit of a surprise as we had packed for hot, humid, sunny conditions. So, we caught a cab to the nearby town of La Fortuna and went in search of a sweatshirt. Our search proved to be futile as most of the people didn’t even know what a sweatshirt was.
Lucky for us there are 2 hot springs located within walking distance of our hotel. Eco-termales, which has a smaller more intimate setting, is right next door. Baldi Hot Springs (the larger and louder party spa) is across the street and about 100 yards from our place. If the current weather trend continues we may spend all of our time hot spring hopping. We visited Baldi Hot Springs today. The steamy waters were just what we needed after all that travel time and freezing in our skimpy tropical attire.
Although the skies are currently grey, there are still colorful birds that frequent the grounds in front of our dining area. They, together with the lush tropical plants remind us of why we travel to this place that is so rich in biodiversity.

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