On Feb 27th we picked up our rental car and drove 3 hours north of San Jose to the mountains where we have been staying near a rain forest in a delightful, off the beaten track, quiet and peaceful hot springs "resort" consisting of our casita and one other .... total occupancy of tourists, four on 35 acres! Generally this location is used by the locals at the weekends for picnic gatherings and dipping in the various pools, we were told 200 plus came last Sunday(family day) Having enjoyed having the place to ourselves all week we are planning on a day trip out this Sunday! The air is clear with cool refreshing breezes that carries a delicious citrus scent, which wafts from time to time, from a cirtus factory several miles away(almost like marmalade in the making.. it's just lovely). This is THE place to calm one's soul. We are spending hours lounging in the warm spring pools day and night (though I prefer the day time) swinging on the porch watching the sun rise/set, while being entertained by the varying sounds of the rain forrest (which can almost be deafening at times).
We are starting to distinguish which bird/monkey/frog is serenading us since we took a couple guided tours.....one at the nearby Hanging Bridges in Arenal. Oh my ..... what a truly wonderful experience this was. Our 3 hour guided walk (once again just the two of us, high season is Dec) was truly awesome, we crisscrossed the jungle by a series of suspension bridges (17 total and varying in length 16-330 feet) at various levels above and through the colorful rain forest....ground level to canopy. We had good views of the Arenal Volcano, from the rainforest, and waterfalls within. We were amazed at the industrious Leaf Cutter Ants (see photo of how nothing is left of a huge palm leaf). We observed a ' palm eyelash pitviper' (one of the many poisionous snakes) quietly digesting his lizard meal, trantulas hiding in their holes, Spider and Howler monkeys swinging high in the canopy. Saw and smelt the Peccary (wild boar) trust me, they truly do stink. Our guide had with her a very powerful spotting scope and we were able to see up close, and capture a couple of photos, of a Rufous tailed Hummingbird, a coloful Motmot. Surprisingly the national bird is not the elusive, brilliantly colored Toucan, but rather the clay colour robin, reason being, this cleaver bird can imitate 22 other birds and preditors. The Toucan, we finally figured out, is seen very briefly in the early am and at dusk. I was rewarded for my patience today after waiting an hour and a half, to capture my first and only decent photo of this elusive bird... it was worth it.
Our week here has slipped by quickly and have no plans as to where we will be spending the next 4 days, but that's all part of the adventure. We will meet Donovan and Katie at the San Jose airport on Fri evening, then the following day take off on a 10 hour drive south for our week in our thatch roof only, open air jungle house... we may encounter our first mosquitoes!
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