Valley and Volcano

On Saturday morning we left Torteguero National Park on the Caribbean coast and headed inland. We visited Costa Rica’s largest organic pineapple plantation where we had a very entertaining lesson on how to choose a flavorful pineapple. (Green top, yellow bottom, cylindrical shape, big ‘eyes’) The best part was sampling this sweet fruit.

The area we were travelling through, the San Carlos Valley, has fertile soil and produces many crops besides pineapples: sugar cane, mangoes, papayas, rice, melons just to name a few. We passed through a fig tree tunnel that reminded us of the tree tunnel near our timeshare on Kauai. (Note the unpaved road; we travelled many miles on hard-packed gravel roads.)

We arrived at our hotel in Fortuna in time for happy hour. In the background is the still-active Arenal Volcano, its peak unfortunately obscured by clouds the whole time we were there.

Each of our rooms had a great little patio facing the volcano . . .

. . . and a bathroom that was so impressive, I had to take a photo! I mean, a garden inside the bathroom. How cool is that?

The next morning, we took a boat ride through a wildlife refuge that borders Nicaragua. Along the way, we passed by one of the most fascinating sights of our trip: an ‘iguana tree’! Sandy captured this great photo through the bus window.

We spent the afternoon at a resort comprised of 25 free-form swimming pools of various sizes, shapes, and temperatures, heated by volcanic hot springs as well as 3 water slides that were really fun.

Before leaving this lush area the next day, we took a 2-mile hike at Hanging Bridges.

We crossed 15 bridges (6 of them suspension bridges) within the lush rainforest canopy. We spotted several spider monkeys and a few macaws.

On our way to the Pacific coast we crossed back over the Continental Divide where Jesus told us that the annual rainfall averages 8 feet, as opposed to the Caribbean side which gets 18 feet! No wonder everything is so lush!