We woke to drizzly skies and a beautiful lush view outside of our window. The sun was up early, our room was bright by 6:45am.With yesterday’s arrival being after dark we hadn’t been able to get a sense of our surroundings until this morning.
Today is the only day this half of our trip for which we had made actual plans. I was excited to be putting on my hiking boots! We enjoyed our breakfast at the resort (best omelet ever) while the sun started to hide and gray skies slipped in. As we were leaving breakfast, Brandon unenthusiastically commented, “I think it’s going to rain.” I couldn’t help myself, “Well, honey, we are in the rainforest.”
Sure enough, the rain started to fall as we left for Mistico Park; a two-ish mile rainforest trek that includes a series of hanging bridges. As we pulled up to the park entrance we were asked, while still in our car, to put our masks on so the guard could take our temperatures. With healthy temps, we were cleared to continue into the park. The first creatures to, almost immediately, catch our eyes when we started the marked trail were lines of ginormous leaf-cutter ants. With their fiery red presence and the disproportionately large leaves some were carrying I bet they could really pack a punch.
Just a couple hundreds yards from the park entrance we encountered our first monkey of the trip! A howler monkey jumped around the trees above us. Just as we were exclaiming our excitement, said monkey unleashed a tank of urine down from the high trees; another 10’ over and we would have gotten drenched.
The trail was well maintained and the perfect easy morning hike. The hanging bridges offered spectacular views of the rainforest and Arenal Volcano, with it’s top half shrouded in clouds. Moss covered trees and canopies of lace leaves make the rainforest feel soft and cozy. It did not rain on us and the air was warm and humid. All the bridges were named after common native animals and when we approached the only tunnel I was NOT amused to see that it was called the “Jumping Pitviper Tunnel.” NO GRACIAS. I ran to get through that tunnel as quick as I could. We had briefly looked up all the poisonous/dangerous creatures in Costa Rica before we came and I already had the shivers thinking about them!
The hanging bridges sway just as one would expect and are narrow with a limited capacity allowance. On one bridge, a single hipster with a private guide (tour guides could easily be booked through the park) was taking his sweet time, stopping to take pictures as they crossed. Sounds innocuous except that it was more like obnoxious because he wasn’t just taking one or two pictures, or even five or ten. He’d take a bunch and then pull up the screen on his large camera and scroll though to review the pictures he took. We were getting antsy and impatience was coming quick as we waited for him. He saw us, he knew we were there waiting to cross, and yet he did not pick up his pace one bit. After he had been in the same spot for about five minutes and then PULLED OFF HIS PACK TO CHANGE THE CAMERA LENS we’d had enough. This guy would be there all day and other people were approaching behind us. He’d had enough time to take pictures, we decided to start walking on the bridge, and MAYBE purposefully walked on the edges instead of the center so the bridge swayed. Can’t change your lens or focus on a leaf any more now, can you selfish hipster? He gave us a look but took the hint and finally moved so we could get across.
As we neared the end of the trail, Brandon started to run his mouth that the one howler we saw was the “pet monkey” of the park since the only other wildlife we had seen on the rest of the trail was a fast and furious little squirrel. A retraction to his smartass comments was quickly necessary when the trees overhead started rustling and a whole family of spider monkeys amused us as they jumped from tree to tree passing through; flinging themselves as though they could fly and sliding down limbs like fire poles.
The end of trail had more spectacular views and a little restaurant, perfect for lunch. We enjoyed scrumptious burritos as we admired the view of Arenal and the occasional coati (or monkey cat as I call them) that would start poking around outside looking for restaurant scraps.
Mistico Park was across the dam we had crossed the night before and, sure enough, there were once again cars simply parked in one of the two narrow lanes with ticos enjoying picnics and hanging out. I worried about the light rain that was falling during our short drive back to the resort as next up on our agenda was a two-hour horseback ride around the base of Arenal Volcano. Our timing was impeccable.
A few rain drops fell as we returned to our hotel room to change into pants but as we approached the stables, just five minutes away, the skies were dry. At the little adventure center, we were first greeted by an adorable, yet scrappy looking, little dog with a bum rear leg and a chunk missing from her ear. The little mamacita came right to us for some pets and we felt terrible that she was unable to put any weight on a hind leg and looked like she’d had it rough.
I asked our ride leader if mamacita could come with us on our ride and was sure he was joking when he said, “Yeah, of course.” But as he led us to the stable he whistled for her and she came running, impressively on her three good legs, right after us. The horses in the stable looked equally as pathetic as our first impression of mamacita and I felt like shit. In reviews, I had read that the horses there seemed happy and well taken care of but these were anything but. They were scrawny, the hair was worn away on their backs and faces, and more than one had an obvious bum leg. There was another couple on our ride and I cringed when the guide brought over a bum-legged horse for the other man to mount. I did not feel right riding one of these horses, my head racing with thoughts of how to easily back out of this and come up with an excuse to not go. I didn’t care that we’d already paid. Ethically, this didn’t feel right and it really made me question the ethics of equine tourism. I didn’t have time to digest these thoughts and before I knew it, Brandon was up on a horse and another was in front of me waiting for me to mount. Hesitantly, I got into the saddle on sweet Jessy and told him that I would be his friend and he deserved better.
The guide led us across the street and we started up a steep gravel road until we came to a barbed gate through which we would now ride on the lush, but muddy, mountainside. Jessy stumbled two or three times as we navigated the deep mud. And sure enough, little mamacita was still running alongside us on her three good legs! Turns out her real name is Pita and she was hit by a car in front of the adventure center about four years ago. The staff took her in and she’s lived there ever since. She runs alongside on every ride and takes herself up the mountain on days when they have no rides booked! At one point, she took off running down a steep hill, and a little monkey cat shot across; she was having a grand ol’ time chasing the local wildlife!
Arenal came a little closer, though not very close, and even though her top was still hidden by clouds she was a beauty. The scars from her 2010 eruption were visible, as was some low growth that was starting to return. I was excited to get closer. Only, we didn’t. We passed by a lime green warm algae lake far below us but before we could get any closer to that mighty mountain we were approaching another gate to lead us back to a road. I thought surely we were heading up the next trail when the guide declared it photo time (we couldn’t have done this on the more picturesque hillside?) and then led us away, down the road. Pita was no longer beside us and when I worriedly told the guide she was missing he simply informed me that she sometimes stays to play and would find her way back when she was ready. This was hard for me to swallow. Harder than how misadvertised this ride had been. We made it back to the stable about 70 minutes after we had left, so much for well treated/healthy horses or a two-hour ride around the volcano. For the sake of the horses I was glad it wasn’t any longer.
Back at the resort we were able to get a reservation to use the gym and get in workouts. I would have expected more from a 5 star resort; the gym was small, not all the machinery was in good working order, and the only mat was past it’s prime. But it worked for a cardio/ab circuit for me and some strength training for Brandon.
A quick one minute shuttle ran between the hot springs and the resort. We had been planning to make it to the hot springs before dark but it was dusky by the time we actually got there. This time of year the days are short and that 5pm sunset really cuts into being able to maximize time. We wound our way through the meandering paths up to Shangri La – the garden/springs area exclusive to adult resort guests. It was dark but we enjoyed yummy cocktails while we soaked in the exclusive and empty springs. Once the sun goes down, the springs are scarcely occupied; mostly by couples in the shadows. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out why.
At the opposite side of the springs is a pool bar that would be our next stop. We hadn’t gone into the pool yet and oh man were we missing out. The water was a PERFECT warm temperature; maybe 90°F? Our cocktails were just ok but the warm water made up for it.
After drying off and putting on real clothes in the locker room at the springs, we had dinner at Ave, the thermal springs restaurant. While the food was very good, it lacked ambience. The resort calls it the more casual restaurant, and that it was, but it also felt very generic and the menu prices seemed to be just as expensive as the nicer restaurant we’d eaten in the night before. My sea bass which chimichurri was delicious though.
I hate a rainfall shower head and that is the only shower head back in our room. In fact, the shower situation in the room is less than stellar. While it’s a beautiful, clean, large shower; there is only a very high rain forest shower head and warm water at best. Credit due that the warm water is thermal water piped directly in from the volcanic mountain but it’s definitely not hot. Needing to wash my hair, I had no shame bringing my shampoo and conditioner down to the springs with us and using the locker room showers to do my full shower after dinner. The shower head was better and the water was warmer; score! Having a bathrobe to adorn for the trip back up to the resort was the icing on the cake.
Tomorrow’s plans are pretty loose. We have a 7am gym reservation and then plan to go down to the hot springs before breakfast to get some pictures during the resort guest exclusive morning hours. Who knows how the rest of the day will turn out!
Taking On the World 
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