Hot Water

Today we had to say goodbye to Costa de Oro and begin our adventure. At 5:15 AM Alvaro came and picked up Kayla and took her to Hotel Laguna Mar. I was still trying to put the last things in order when Alvaro returned to get me.  When we arrived to the hotel,  Drew was waiting for us with some much needed coffee.

Bill and Audrey, pulled up to the hotel fifteen past six and we loaded the car up. We went for a quick drive to Liberia, with just one stop at the Do-It Center. After Bill and Audrey got all sorts of things for the house, we were dropped off at the car rental place. We thanked Bill and Audrey  for the ride and went to get our car.

As in everything in Costa Rica, the car rental took a little longer than expected and we even had to switch car companies because the first tried to rent us a Sedan by saying "there are no bad roads in Costa Rica." We finally ended up in a mini SUV which we know will better fit our needs.

One of our beautiful views along the drive.

Our first glimpse at the Blue River.

Thanks to Drew, we had our first hotel planned in Blue River, which was a place I had never seen. So after only one wrong turn and an hour and a half later of beautiful driving we crossed the Blue River. Of course, we stopped at it to take some photos. While taking the pictures, I stepped back into river and was surprised to find it was hot! We admired the beauty of the river and its unique color then once again, we climbed into the car. 

Only 100 meters past the river, we found the turn in for the resort. When we got there they gave us a map of the place which included a butterfly farm, hummingbird garden, sauna, hot springs, and a mud bath. Kayla and I decided there was no time to waste because we had so much to do, but first we needed to unpack the car.

Our room's private porch.

Huge bathroom!

And our really comfy beds...

When we arrived in the room, we couldn't believe how big it was. There was a great hammock on the front porch and two queen beds. When we turned the corner for the bathroom, the shower was almost the same size of my room I had been living in in Costa de Oro. Once we had thoroughly investigated our room, we quickly changed into our suits in search of the mud bath.

Our search begin at the spa, where we saw the special $1/ minute for massage. With this we were torn… Massage or mud bath first. We went with the mud bath since it was so warm outside, we felt the mud would feel best. The way one takes a mud bath is to first soak in the sauna for 20 minutes and then lather up in mud. Once the mud is dry then rinse in cold water. Only Kayla and I learned we are far too impatient for the full treatment and after only 5 minutes we were over the sauna and moved on to putting mud on. The mud was cool, but we quickly covered ourselves with the volcanic mud. We rinsed just as quickly, finding the water not to be cold, but the same temperature that we had grown accustomed to in Costa de Oro.

We made a run for the hot tub only to find we took a wrong turn in the garden and ended up in the butterfly enclosure. As we entered the tent we were memorized by the number of blue morpho butterflies. Forgetting how cold, we wandered the gardens watching the butterflies. After we couldn't stand the cold any longer, we made our way to the hotsprings. While sitting there, Kayla and I decided we needed at least a ten minute massage since our life on the beach for the last 5 months was so stressful.

Hotel Restaurant.

After a nice massage, hot shower and quick nap, we made our way to restaurant for a quick dinner before calling it an early night. Tomorrow we have an early day a head of us because we are going on a tour of Blue River, Blue River Estates and the waterfall.