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 ...

Day 4 - Our Inland Travel

The day was mainly a travel day from Tamarindo to our inland destination.  Thanks to getting our rental car with a GPS map and a superb recommendation we finally ended up at Arenal Observatory Lodge.  Both the GPS and the lodge were recommendations from my bus dev guy (thanks Todd).

Along the way, you come across a picturesque vista which offers the first glance of Arenal Lake.  It is indeed breathtaking. 

When we first read the instructions on how to get to the lodge it simply stated "drive around Arenal Lake".  Little did I know that it would be an hour and a half venture.  At the same place I took the above pic a mother at a road side stand was selling various works of wood. Her son wasn't bashful at all about letting me snap a picture of him.

After lunch we finally arrived at our destination and checked into our room.  The lodge was built in 1987 by the Smithsonian as an observatory of the volcano which first became active again back in 1968.  It is only 1.7 miles from the volcano and, in theory, is protected from the volcano by a deep river gorge.  Were hoping that theory isn't tested while we're here.

The view out of our back patio was simply incredible in-spite of the fact that the top of the volcano was covered in clouds.  The grounds of the observatory include 7 miles of trails through some of the most luscious and beautiful tropical landscaping either one of us has ever seen.

Also out the back patio Tina got a picture of this creature, an Agouti.   They are quite friendly and totally unafraid of humans.

Finally, this morning I took this picture of the volcano.  Hopefully the sun will burn off the remaining clouds and we'll have good views for our morning tour we're doing with a guide from the lodge.

So, until the next post ...

Day 3 - The Saga of the Comeback Kid

Thankfully, the medicine seemed to really kick in and start to work for Tina.  Although she still has some congestion, it's at least broken up some and she's able to breath again.  She was feeling well enough that after breakfast we took an easy stroll down the beach.  Behind our hotel we met this friendly group of critters.

Excuse Me ... Can I Have Some Privacy Here?

About 18 Inches Long

Such a Nice Resting Spot

We had a trip on a catamaran planned for the afternoon and Tina figured she could do as well at taking it easy on that as she could staying at the hotel.   The trip took us past the point on the far end of the bay where our hotel is and around to a secluded beach area on the far side.

The Point at the North End of the Bay

The Far Side of the Point

Once there they had kayaking and snorkeling available.  Being a good patient, Tina stayed on board and took pictures.  The snorkeling was rather pointless since the water was too murky to see anything beyond about a foot.  I suspect even on the best of days it wouldn't come close to some of the swims we did in Hawaii.  Regardless, the water temperature was fantastic and relaxing.  

Afterwards they served a late lunch during which I snapped a picture of Tina.  As you can tell, she LOVES having her picture taken while eating.

Tina - Really? Me - Yep!

The Happy Vacationers

Waves Crashing on the Point

The trip back to the hotel provided good sailing winds for us and a number of other boats in the area.

The voyage is timed to arrive back shortly after sunset, affording ample opportunities to get some nice pictures on the way.  It's sooooo nice to have digital technology that allows for a gazillion pics being reduced down to just a few for the blog.

The Prettiest Girl on the Boat

A Beautiful Sunset Sail

With Tina doing so much better we went back to our original plan and will leave for the Aerenal Volcano today (Sunday).  That gives her another full day of rest before any more possible activities.  So until the next post, hasta luego.

Day 2 - A Minor (Hopefully) Set Back

For the last 2 weeks before we left Florida Tina and I were both suffering through pretty bad colds (as it seems was half of Melbourne.  Tina got hers about 3 days after mine (you're welcome honey) and since mine was about cleared up by the time we drove to Miami, we expected Tina's would be shortly after arriving in Costa.  When we got here there was a pretty big fire near the Liberia airport which we found out was the burning off of sugar fields getting them ready for harvest.  Reference here if you're interested in why they do this:

https://sites.google.com/site/sugarcanepm/pre-harvest-burning

The smoke from that fire really irritated Tina's lingering cough and chest cold.  Furthermore, the road in front of the hotel here (and most of the roads around for that matter) aren't well maintained and as such dust gets thrown into the air any time a vehicle passes by.  We did walks on that road twice on Thursday to and from Tamarindo.  Unfortunately the dust just aggravated her condition even more.

By Friday morning her entire chest was tight and she couldn't get a full breath.  We ended up finding a doctor in town and he did a thorough exam.  His prognosis was either bronchitis or pneumonia.   If it's the first, she needs 3 or 4 days of complete rest while on antibiotics and other medications.  He indicated for pneumonia it might require 3 weeks of bed rest.  That's not totally consistent with what I've read online, but it's also not something we feel like challenging if she doesn't start seeing some significant improvement.  The only way to tell for sure if it's pneumonia is with a chest x-ray but that would require driving all the way back to Liberia.  Since we don't have our rental car yet, we're going to fore-go that until we see the doctor again on Monday.  That will leave us here in Tamarindo for an extra day and take a day away from our next stop at Aerenal Volcano, but that's a small price to pay if this clears it up.  On the bright side, if the medications don't clear her up, we're pretty confident that volcanic gases will do the trick.  :)

So besides being up for 30 minutes at breakfast, an hour for the doctor visit, and 30 minutes for lunch, Tina slept the entire day away until about 4 PM.  I managed a few long beach hikes while she was sleeping. 

On the way back from one of the hikes I took that aforementioned dusty road.  Huge mistake.  The temperatures not bad here during the day if you have a nice ocean breeze blowing on you.  The minute you're 100 feet away from the beach it is oppressively hot.

By late afternoon Tina was starting to feel a bit better so we hung out pool side for a while and then enjoyed a BBQ on the beach that evening put on by the hotel. 

Even when she's sick, she's still a great looking wife.  So until next time, so long from myself and my wounded wing-woman!