We were up a little after 6, dressed, packed our bags, set them outside for pickup at 6:45, and headed off for breakfast. Outside the restaurant window where they put out fruit for the birds, we saw an agouti steal a banana and a papaya. An agouti is a large brown member of the rodent family. There was also a beautiful toucan out there. We went back to the room, brushed our teeth, got our carry ons, went to the lobby to check out. We had another stunning rainbow. Our vans left at 8:10 and arrived at Don Juan coffee plantation at 8:45. It was sunny and dry for a change. Don Juan is a much smaller coffee plantation than Doca which we had gone to on Wednesday in San Jose. We had the coffee talk and then split into 2 groups for a much smaller tour than Doca. We did walk through some woods where a couple of blue morpho butterflies flew by. The exciting thing was seeing a brown sloth way up in the trees. The tour covered most of what we had learned at Doca. In the small gift shop, I did buy a couple of small bottles of Salsa Lizano. the everything condiment of Costa Rica, and a small coffee candle.
At 10 we transferred to more rugged, beat up mini vans for the torturous drive to Lake Arenal. It was really pretty for a half hour, and then we hit clouds and rain. The road was barely 2 lanes, rocky, muddy with lots of pot holes. I was sitting in the back of the bus which made for a pretty rough trip. It was 11:45 before we stopped for a potty break at the edge of the lake.
By 12:15 we were on a ferry boat that was just big enough to carry all of us. The rain had mostly stopped, but it was still terribly cloudy so we could not see the Arenal volcano. We could see some birds along the shore: anhingas, great blue herons, black crowned nigh heron, great white egrets. It took us about an hour to cross the lake where our nice mini vans were waiting for us.
We went to an interesting restaurant in La Fortuna called La Choza de Laurel. This was a large open-air restaurant set up for tour buses. It was a long lunch with all 34 of us and a Japanese tour bus which arrived just a bit after us. I had a guanabanas (soursop) smoothie which wasn’t bad. I had a decent ceviche and some asparagus soup. Bill had arroz con pollo - a chicken/rice dish with French fries, and a salad. We ordered coffee since we had seen them serving it to the Japanese with the cloth filter /wooden frame coffee maker I had purchased. It was fun.
Some folks went right to the hotel after lunch while the rest of us wandered around town. Big Mistake. It started raining really hard about 20 minutes into our walk. The bus finally arrived at 4 and took the six soggy people to the hotel.
The hotel Arenal Kiroro is an awesome hotel from what we could see in the rain. We checked in and were taken to our huge room. The rain had let up a bit, but we still couldn’t see the volcano. Bill sent out some laundry (which came back in 2 hours), and I went to explore the grounds. Hopefully tomorrow will be nicer, and I can take photos. The walk to the main building is a 10 min walk through a huge garden, landscaped beautifully, along a winding walkway. This hotel has become one of my top 5 hotels in the world. The rooms are amazing, and the grounds are spectacular. The hot springs are not only beautiful but relaxing. And there are lots of birds and wildlife wandering the grounds. I could go back and spend a week there.
Dinner was at 7:30 in the hotel dining room. I had a guaro sour which was great. (guaro is the local liquor made from sugar cane and tastes a bit between vodka and tequila). We sat with Karen and Ross A. I had a palm heart garlic soup and garlic sea bass. Both were quite good. We were quite ready for bed tonight! And quite soggy, so we are hoping to dry out a bit tomorrow.
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