Tree Top Flyer

Once again Kayla and I were on shuttle by 8AM and we made it back to Arenal by noon. However, while on our journey we made friends with a great couple from Ohio and we showed them around La Fortuna. After we were kindly treated to lunch, we brought them up to Tabacon Resort and we headed down to find a more reasonable priced location to see the hot springs.

Kayla and I checked out 3 different resorts before deciding to return once again to Tabacon and see what kind of price we could get. We ended up securing a room for another fabulous price and headed out to Ecoglide to do some ziplining. I had a blast seeing the volcano, while flying through the canopy and it was a blast talking with the same group of guides that had taken my family out just 2 months earlier.

Kayla enjoying the zipline

Me, getting ready to jump/ fall on the Tarzan swing.

Once we had finished our treetop flying, we headed to a great steak place and grabbed some food to go and headed back to our luxury hotel. We ate our meal ever so romantically since we were wearing the" His and Hers "matching bathrobes and slippers provided by the hotel. Then finally we made it to the hot springs.

We enjoyed the hot water from many different pools and only called it quits when our feet became too prune-y to walk. We returned to the hotel to get some beauty sleep before our long day of waterfall hiking, hot spring enjoying before  driving back to San Jose.

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.

Where Are You Going to Go When the Volcano Blows?

Katrina and my dad woke up early today for a little surf session. While they were  out in the water, Kym and I got to sleep a little longer before heading down to the buffet. Once again we had a great breakfast and when we were finished we went back to the room to get packed up. We made it on the rode by 9 and after a beautiful drive we arrived in La Fortuna around noon.

Variegated Squirrel who
joined us for breakfast

Magpie Jay

We decided to stay in the Tabacon Hot Spring Resort which is where we had stayed 15 years prior. It is one of the most famous hotels in Costa Rica because  of the beautiful natural hot springs  and the gorgeous view of Arenal. We set our stuff down in the hotel room and then hoped in the car in search of a zipline. We were very lucky to come across a company called Ecoglide and even luckier that we could start our adventure in only 20 minutes. Ecoglide has 15 different platforms with the longest line being over 1 km as well as the Tarzan swing.

I think pictures are worth 1000 words, so here is our ziplining adventures laid out in photos…

Me getting geared up

Katrina and dad waiting their turn.

Group shot all geared up

Kym smiling for the camera and showing no fear.
You would never know she is at least 100ft above the group.

My dad showing his more serious side.

Yup, everyone waits on this little platform. Its a little scary

Just the girls

Made it to the platform safely

Katrina getting ready to take the plunge on the Tarzan Swing

After an amazing time  ziplining with fabulous views of the volcano, we went in search of a waterfall. We were able to find one that passed under the road. So we parked the car and climbed under the bridge to take some photos. Once we had taken a ton of pictures, we were reminded we hadn't eaten in a while.

We drove just 10 minutes up the road to a highly recommended steakhouse where we once again were met with a great view of the volcano. We all ordered different cuts of steak and nobody was disappointed with the food, it was delicious!

If 

 

When we got back to the hotel, we quickly changed and got ready to hit the hot springs. The cool thing about Tabacon is it is so large you can wander into a private pool or waterfall. We spent the next 2 hours checking out different pools before finding the private hotel- guest only part which is all about tranquility and happened to be empty. We ordered a drink and then headed back to the main pool to play on the waterslide. The day had really taken its toll on us because we were all ready to call it a night by 8:30.

We got back to the room and set our alarms because Kym and Katrina had to head back to the states the next day and my dad and I had to get to Panama.


We headed back to the hot springs before they opened for a quick photo shot. Since the pictures we had taken the night before didn't really capture the beauty.