We were up relatively early this morning as the sun began to rise. If only it were this easy to wake up when my alarm goes off for an early morning report time to the airport. Alas, the volcano looked nice in the thin layer of mist. I did a time lapse of the clouds flowing over the top.
The rainforest was very active with noises, but we couldn’t see much. I saw a few birds here and there, but no sloths. After an hour or so, we had some visitors in the form of two health officials who had come to do a Covid PCR test on both of us. They gave it to us on the balcony, which made for good scenery if nothing else. It involved a throat and nose swab. Doing both is never fun, especially for Nicole, who insists that there is nothing worse in the world than a throat culture.
After a deep nasal cleaning, we went down for breakfast where I had rice and beans with tortillas and plantains. The weather in this area is unsurprisingly fickle, so we weighed which activities we would like to do in the sun versus the rain. The weather for today looked mostly stable, with only slight chances of rain coming later on, so we booked a zipline tour at 1pm.
In the meantime, we explored the areas around the hotel. There were some hiking trails that were much more involved than we expected. We thought it would just be a basic loop trail, but it ended up doing many elevation changes, lots of steps, a few bridges over a river, and some overgrown areas.
While we were on the lookout for wildlife, the most plentiful creature was the ant. We saw lots of them marching around carrying small leaves. We did our best to not interrupt their supply lines which were quite involved. At one point we encountered an ant hive so large, it was actually labeled on the path with a sign and explanation. They had somehow made the base of a large tree their home with numerous entrances where we could observe their activities.
While we had trained ourselves to look up into the trees, we still didn’t see any sloths. What’s their deal? Have they got someplace better to be? Don’t they know who we are? Don’t they want to steal a glimpse of Bricole (everyone’s favorite celebrity couple)? It just doesn’t add up.
Upon our return from the hike, we grabbed a quick lunch before getting in the car to drive off into Arenal National Park. This is where we got outfitted in our zipline gear and ultimately boarded an eight minute sky tram/gondola that took us above the canopy. As we ascended, the temperature dropped and we encountered a temporary downpour that didn’t affect us since the tram was covered. By the time we reached the top, the rain stopped.
Whereas Nicole is the resident expert at zip lining, I have only done it once before in Kauai. In comparison to this experience in Costa Rica, Kauai was basically void of rules. You could ride it any way you wanted, hands-on, hands-off, face forward, etc. Costa Rica was a bit more intense. And while the first practice cable didn’t really intimidate, the second one demonstrated just how bad things could go if the directions weren’t followed closely.
Basically one comes in quite hot to the landing zone. Hitting the stop causes a fairly violent tilting motion that causes one’s legs to pop up. This is why they asked us to spread our legs as we approach, to avoid kicking the cable.
It was quite a bit of fun, though scary at times particularly due to the speed we achieved on many of the cables. The sixth one took us nearly half a mile down into the rainforest itself with trees on both sides of us. Also fun fact: covid masks are quite helpful in preventing bugs from entering one’s mouth when traveling at speed and possibly screaming.
After zip lining, we made a quick stop for a picture of the volcano before returning to the Lost Iguana to relax and enjoy the WiFi before it inevitably gets shut off at 7pm. On our way back, we encountered several coati whose native habitat appears to be the middle of road.
They bring traffic to a stop. Unfortunately some people also got out of their cars to stand in the middle of the road. I think the coati are actually smarter than many of the humans. Nevertheless, we made it back safely to the Lost Iguana for a relaxing evening sans wifi.
passports & pepto bismol 