On our third day we got up early to prepare for an all-day tour. Tim arranged it before we got to Costa Rica, through Mainor of Tours Your Way. On this day we were to travel to the Arenal Lake and volcano area, stopping at several Costa Rica locations on the way. We got out to the front gates of the Riu at 8am to be picked up by our guide Elvis and driver Carlos.
From the start, it seemed like it would be a good day, as Elvis was very friendly and was quick to start talking about plans for the day and to tell us about Costa Rica. Our driver Carlos was quite adept at passing slow cars and driving as efficiently as possible.
The first stop was the Llanos de Cortes waterfall, which had a super-bumpy dirt access road. We weren’t surprised when Elvis said that only 4-wheel drive vehicles can access it in the rainy season.
There was a short hike downhill to access the falls. Here and constantly during the day, Elvis was always intent on looking for birds, monkeys and other animals in the surrounding foliage. Here, he pointed out several ‘Jesus Christ’ lizards, known for running across the surface of the water, but they only ran across rocks for us.
The waterfalls were very pretty. According to Elvis, this is a popular area to come have picnics and go swimming.
Here is a video of the waterfall:
Next, we drove towards the Lake Arenal area. If you click that link, you will see the route we took to drive all the way around the lake, which took over an hour. When we first approached the lake, we stopped at a ridge line which normally has an excellent panoramic view of the lake, when the sky is clear.
(Tim needs to do a better job stitching that panorama together). Several locals were selling various souvenirs, but we weren’t in the shopping mood. We continued on to the lunch spot, Lajas by the lake, which is used to handling tourists. Shortly after we arrived, a bus-load of tourists from our hotel also pulled up. We were quite happy with our arrangement (2 guides for 2 travelers) as compared to them. 🙂 The lunch was very good!
Our black van is in the foreground of the picture, while the Swiss Travel tour bus that picked up people from the Riu is in the background. We didn’t see them again the rest of the day. When we pulled up to the Lajas, a worker there pointed out a basilisk sunning itself on a branch across the street.
After lunch, Carlos and Elvis spotted toucans at the tops of trees across the street, which we were able to see before the large tour group came over curious what we were looking at.
From there, we drove to the Eco Centro Danaus nature center, which was a jungle a long time ago before being torn down for farmland…and then recently allowed to return to jungle. Lost or injured animals from the area are brought here to recover while allowing locals and tourists to learn about the local ecodiversity.
There was a ton of photo opportunities, as Elvis led us on an interesting walk through the park pointing out the wide variety of flora and fauna. There were many pretty plant varieties…
And even some plants that were quite familiar (or at least the fruits)….
And there was also a wide variety of animals, like this orphan porcupine that was sleeping near the start of the walk.
There was a lagoon near which we saw some large birds and a female basilisk.
An enclosed butterfly area housed many vivid blue morpho butterflies.
Just outside the enclosure, Elvis started looking for something in a nearby plant, which Tim found under a giant leaf – a sleeping tree frog.
There was another enclosed area, housing a lot of little, colorful poisonous frogs. They were quite cute.
At the end of the walk, a sleeping sloth, high in the trees was noticed.
After a stop at the bathroom and the purchase of a bookmark for Tim, we were on the road again. While the day had unfortunately featured on and off light rainfalls, we hadn’t gotten wet yet. Also unfortunate was that the cloud cover meant that we were only able to see the very bottom of the volcano. Although Carlos told us it has been dormant for several months, it is still supposed to be quite a site on clear days. However, we did get to enjoy a benefit of the volcano: hot springs. We stopped at the Los Lagos resort & spa and gave up a few dollars to rent a towel before changing into swim trunks. Elvis showed us several nice, private pools and then left us to enjoy the water warmed by the volcano. After a little while it started drizzling, which made for an interesting experience: cool water falling from above while relaxing in warm water. We enjoyed it!
This hummingbird really liked the flowers that were around us.
Before leaving, Tim had to try the water slide, which also used hot water. It was so fun, he went down twice!
Normally the tour stops for shopping in a nearby town, but we weren’t up for it. So, Carlos drove us beyond the planned dinner stop and we ate at a neighborhood place in Liberia. It was also a very good and filling meal, as we enjoyed the ambiance of Costa Rica.
After not much longer, we were finally home after 7pm. It was quite the full day! We had a lot of fun on the trip, enjoying seeing and experiencing the countryside and talking with Elvis. Our only complaint, which we knew going in, was that it was a lot of time driving. Thankfully, most of the roads were paved and Elvis was a very willing conversationalist.
That night we slept well, with plans to relax the following day.