Costa Rica, Day 4

Day 4: We skipped the normal morning breakfast at the hotel this morning, opting to once again head out to the good-smelling place near the Burger King. I ended up having a traditional breakfast anyway, with rice and beans and the like. But it also came with *fried cheese*. That’s some good stuff, let me tell you. Jess had the American style breakfast, which she liked as well. After that, we went, on our own, to Arenal National Park to do the Hanging Bridges tour.

The Hanging Bridges are pretty neat. The whole tour is part of a nature walk through the rainforest preserve, and the whole place is undeveloped and, other than the trail, completely untouched by human hands. Quite a spectacle. There weren’t any mammals there, but there were plenty of insects, amphibians, and birds around to make up for it. Plus, trecking through the underside of the rainforest gives you the opportunity to look at an entirely different ecosystem up close. Very impressive. There are some really strange critters around there.

We saw a couple of butterflies with shiny blue wings. They are one of the more common butterflies, and definitely some of the prettiest. Another Costa Rica icon. We also saw Army Ants on the march. Now that is an impressive sight. Just this trail of massive, red ants all migrating from old site to new, all moving in the same direction. Scattered throughout were the soldier ants, much larger with angrier-looking pincers. They travel for miles and devour anything that gets in their way other than, evidently, potato chips. We stared at them for a good long time. Lots of cicadas, too, though we never saw any. Their cries were deafeningly loud, though.

The bridges were neat, too, because most of the trail has been cut into the side of some steep hills, and occasionally they built a bridge across these hills that would take you out over the valley. You spend so much time on these trails down low among everything, and then all of a sudden these bridges take you out and over the canopy, and you really get a sense of how big, diverse, and amazing the whole ecosystem is. The hanging bridges were another of my favorites.

After that hike, we drove back to Church’s Chicken, another American import, and had some lunch there. Then we got ourselves geared up and went off to Tabacon hot springs, one of the most impressive resort complexes I’ve ever seen.

As the name implies, the main attraction is the volcano-heated water, but instead of a pool or two, the place is built as a huge, sprawling complex of trails and pools with this bone-soothingly hot water flowing through the entire place. We had nearly as much fun exploring the area as we did lounging and soaking. We found a couple of spots we really liked, where the water was warm but not so hot it forced us out. We lounged and soaked and floated in the water and had a really great time. They also had a couple of pools and a bar that you could order drinks at while still lounging in the pool. We got pina coladas, of course. The highlight had to be the waterfall. Big, luxurious, and HOT. It gave you a nice back massage when you sit under it.

We had bought a package that allowed us to stay in all afternoon and then have dinner, so we soaked for hours. We probably should have dried off earlier, but it was very, very relaxing. Dinner was nice, too. An Indian-style buffet. We started with desserts. Yum.

This movie *may* contain humor.



-N