Day 5 - A Clear Day for Walking and Springs

Sure enough the sun did it's trick and by 8 AM the volcano was mainly free and clear of most clouds.  Our guide would later tell us this was the first time that had happened in 3 weeks.

It was clear enough that a zoom closeup disclosed volcanic gases seeping he summit.

The start of our guided walk took us through the landscaped gardens of the properties.  It ends up this area was completely destroyed by the major eruption that occurred in 1968.  Scientists believe that this eruption cycle has mainly played itself out and the next cycle isn't due for another 300 years.  Lucky Costa Rica!

 

The walk then led us into the rain forests also on the property.   This area wasn't destroyed by the volcano but was in fact used to raise cattle up until 45 years ago.  Since then it's been allowed to regrow into the dense forest it is today.  Pretty amazing growth for a relatively short 45 years.

 

The other HUGE activity for this area is bird watching.  Tourists with high powered camera's are all throughout the property and surrounding areas.  Makes one feel rather inept when you walk in with a little point and shoot, even if it does have a 30x zoom.

In the afternoon we followed another suggestion (thanks again Todd) and went to Baldi's Hot Springs.  There's 25 pools naturally heated from the volcano.

Each pool is at slightly different temperatures ranging from luke warm to a pretty darn warm 119 degrees F.  There was even a nice closed in steam room area which did wonders on opening up Tina's lungs even more.

 

They also had 3 water slides at the top.  The killer one, which of course was the first one I tried, got up to 30 mph.

 

While I trying to kill myself on the slides, Tina was busy partaking in her favorite activity.

Overall another great day in Costa.  So until the next time ...