Through the night, Mindy and I heard some giant creature crawling along the roof of our cottage at Hotel Altura. Or, maybe it was a rat. (Yes, sadly they have those in Costa Rica, too.) Whatever it was, when I opened the door come morning the only thing waiting to greet me was a cat, some cows, and a donkey that brayed for attention (food) at breakfast. (Smart animal, it was rewarded with uneaten fruit by the staff who cleaned up our plates.)
Beautiful clear views in the morning from high up at Hotel Altura. I believe that's San Jose in the distance.
It's a bit of a trek from the parking lot to the view of the crater, and for some reason I thought it important to bring four separate water bottles in my now-very-heavy backpack. (Because clearly one family can't share water bottles...) Lauren wanted her jacket on because it was cold. Then off because she was warm. Then she wanted a snack. Then Everest wanted the selfie stick. Then he wanted his jacket off. Then Lauren wanted to be carried. Let me say, the walk felt a LOT shorter on the way back down afterward; nevertheless, worth every minor discomfort!
In the centre of the crater, about 700m from where we stood and mostly obscured by steam and smoke, is a poisonous, brewing, bubbling, unnaturally greenish blue lake. One of the most inhospitable settings on the planet! High school chemistry didn't teach me that pH can go below zero, but apparently the acidity of the lake gets as low as -1. Temperatures get close to boiling. I'm happy enough that we couldn't go closer. (There are other hiking trails that we didn't take - too much to tackle with the kids - but they still don't really get closer to the main crater. Instead they lead to a stunning secondary inactive crater which has become a not-roiling-and-deadly-poisonous lake. Maybe next time!)
There's an alert system for when sulphur content gets too high, and concrete bunkers in case of unexpected eruptions. Even some notable damage from previous eruptions. Should we have brought our children here???
Maybe the risk isn't so high. After all, the volcano won't be here soon.
And that's it! Gone! In the space of about 10 minutes, it went from clear to invisible. Still plenty of people hiking up to the viewing platform, but nothing left to see. Reportedly it will stay that way until evening/overnight, and perform the same magic again tomorrow.
Back in the car and a quick stop at Hotel Altura to collect our belongings before heading out to La Paz Waterfall. So long as one is comfortable with a drive down what feels to be an obscure secondary route, La Paz is very much worth the stop for a free view!
Throw in some mangoes from a little market set up to capitalize on people stopping at the waterfall - and a little frog noise-maker souvenir that Everest wanted (and hasn't stopped playing with since) - and it was a great side-trip on the way to our next volcano of the day, Mount Arenal. (Wait...there was a full-on Hollywood-style eruption of Mount Arenal only 20 years ago...?)
Cruising along one of Costa Rica's secondary highways, a truck in front of us all of a sudden went from 60 kph to a full on stop. What? A HUGE iguana scrambled across the road and we saw it dart into the bushes at the side of the highway. It must have been four feet long including its tail! Wow! (Side note: Mindy, who was driving, subsequently saw a large iguana that hadn't darted away from an oncoming car. As in, it had tried but wasn't fast enough.) :(
Mount Arenal volcano dominated our view for much of the drive after La Paz. (Clouds generally obscure the top of the near perfect conical shape.)
In the last leg of our journey to Volcano Lodge, I saw a sloth! Well, kind of. We saw people staring up at a tree and I looked up and saw some shaggy grey fur hanging waaaay up there. It was not a great place to stop the car, and the view wasn't great....if that's our best view of a sloth on this trip, then maybe we should have stopped, but we didn't. Not conducive for a photo through the car window while driving, either... Trust me, though, I checked the box on quintessential Costa Rican wildlife!
I was distracted enough by the sloth that I kind of lost track of where we were going. Not optimal for the purported navigator in the car, but...as Mindy did 99% of the planning for this trip, I barely know what exciting adventure is next, anyway! "Oh, we're staying near this resort up ahead? Great! Google Maps says to go down this road. Oh, wait, that was the wrong road. Find a place to turn around on this narrow and twisty gravel path, and we'll go down the other way. Oh, you mean that one is wrong, too? Oh, "that resort" near to where we are staying is Volcano Lodge? We're not staying near there but at there? Good news. We're here!" (Third time lucky.)
So here we are, at a natural hot springs resort in the shadow of a (now I know) active volcano. Beautiful! Before hitting the pools, delicious mango from that roadside stand.
That expansive parkland is the "back yard" from our hotel room. Woot!
On the walk to the main pools...are these turkeys? (Great Currasow, we later learned.) Pheasant-like wild birds that wandered all over the Volcano Lodge property.
Playground first....pools second.
Then into the thermal baths and jetted tubs and various forms of heat.
Indulging oneself with food and drink while hanging out in a bathing suit encourages the occasional smart self-care decision, and if nothing else we want to model healthy behaviours for our children!
Outdoor battle ropes, rowing machine, elliptical, pull-up bars, yoga gazebo, and even free weights. An impressive outdoor gym! Justification for another typical Costa Rican dinner. (By the time we had finished the kids' unfinished meals and our own variety of dishes, the portions were very indulgent.)
Pleasantly full and tired. Time for bed!
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