Our time in Arenal was planned to be focused around the outdoors. Torrential rain, however, did require us to modify our activities a little. For example, last night, we had hoped to do a night-time tour to see colourful frogs in the rainforest. But it rained so hard that we’d have been drenched, so that was set aside. We had also hoped to soak in the “free” hot springs late yesterday but that, too, was washed out. So, we decided to get up at 6:30AM this morning (it was a lovely morning) and go do a soak before heading off towards San Jose.
We arrived at Rio (“river”) Choyin, just west of Arenal, at 7AM. The infamous parking touts, who demand $10 USD to help you park along the highway (which is free), had not yet started their day, which was nice. (Oh, if you don’t pay them, they will get revenge by scratching your car, or so the on-line comments say.) Across the street is a posh spa, one of dozens in the area, that take the same water from the Rio Choyin, pump it into swimming pools and artificial waterfalls, and charge up to $100 USD per person to soak. We weren’t having any of that! Getting down to the river was a little tricky, but our reef-walkers were perfect, and soon we were experiencing the very warm waters of the Rio Choyin. No one else was there, we had the place to ourselves! After all the rain, and given the slippery rocks, one does have to be very careful. But we had no problems, and thoroughly enjoyed the soak in the crystal clear waters, which are heated by the geo-thermal activity of the Arenal Volcano that towers above the Rio Choyin.
By 8AM, we were back at our chalet, enjoyed another nice breakfast (although the volcano was totally socked in with cloud this morning), and hit the road at 10:30AM. Just by fluke, we discovered that a reservation is required for our next stop — Volcan (“volcano”) Poas, north of San Jose. Fortunately, we were able to get one of the last openings for the day, at 1:40PM. Google Maps showed a 2.5 hour journey but, as we have already learned in Costa Rica, you have to add more time to every Google Maps estimate here! Unfortunately, we got lost, had to backtrack, got behind several painfully slow trucks, and just pulled up at the Volcan Poas National Park Visitor Center ten minutes before our 1:40PM reservation slot.
There were about 50 people in our group. We all had to don hard hats and walk to the rim of the Volcan Poas caldera. Poas’ last eruption activity was in April 2024. As an active volcano, one never knows when it might blow again. Fortunately, it behaved for our visit. To have a clear view of Poas’ caldera is a fairly rare occurrence, as the volcano’s top tends to be shrouded in cloud. And most of the way from Arenal, the mountains were covered in cloud and rain showers were prevalent. So we assumed we would be out of luck. You can only imagine how excited we were to have the view you will see below!
After our volcano experience, we started our descent down, down, down towards San Jose, stopping for a late lunch enroute. On the way up, we had the most amazing views of the city, but for most of the descent, you wouldn’t have known there was a city even there!
San Jose, like most Pan-American and South American cities, is known for its brutal traffic scene. And, sure enough, we were caught up in that for a good while. Eventually, though, we made it to our modern and luxe Sheraton San Jose Hotel, in the west of the city, checking in at 5PM. We had a wonderful dinner of beef tips in the Club Lounge and, arriving back at the room at 7:30PM, I fell asleep, exhausted from the drive.
The Rio Choyin and Volcan Poas experiences made today a truly memorable one. Tomorrow, we tackle San Jose, which has a nasty reputation for preying on tourists like us.
One’s first exposure to Rio Choyin and its free hot springs is the underbelly of this graffiti-covered bridge on Route 4. We climbed down over a precarious bank in the rainforest and — viola! — had our first contact with the Rio Choyin’s volcano-warmed waters.
The recent heavy rains and slippery rocks meant we had to be super careful. Prior to the trip, we had read that reef-walkers are essential, and we were so pleased we brought ours!
A short clip of the Rio Choyin, as we prepared to do our soak.
Here were are! Soaking in the warm waters of the Rio Choyin at 7AM. We had the place to ourselves. What an amazing and authentic Costa Rican experience!
Those are Pam’s legs, not mine! :-)
Ever since arriving in Costa Rica, Pam’s mantra has been, “I have to see a sloth, I have to see a sloth!” Well, on the drive back to our chalet, we passed a small group of people on the side of the road staring up in a tree. We turned around, went back, and sure enough: someone had spotted one of the illusive animals, which tend to hang out high in tree tops. One person had a special telescope for viewing wildlife, so we got a close up view of the sloth. This one was hanging upside-down. Can you spot it? They are such wonderful animals! And this was an amazing encounter. Most people see their sloths in zoo-like, contrived environments. Which is fine, I guess, but seeing one in the wild like we did was simply amazing.
After our sloth viewing, we passed this kitschy display of sloths. Just to give you an idea of what they look like. By the way, they come in two varieties: one variety has two claws, while the other has three. The one we saw had three claws.
After leaving our chalet to start the drive to Volcan Paos, we stopped to get this pic of the Catholic Church in La Fortuna, the next town east of Arenal. On no-cloud days, the Arenal Volcano rises above the church, making an amazing scene.
We passed several papaya orchards.
A couple of hours of our drive was spent on the most torturous narrow road, constantly switching back and forth, as we ascended higher and higher into the mountains toward Paos. The views enroute were breath-taking (when not obscured by clouds, that is), and we passed this stunning waterfall on the way.
The neat thing about Costa Rica is that you never know — as with our sloth encounter — what you will see! We saw this group of coatis. They tend to stay together as a pack, and when they find a spot they are comfortable with, they tend to stick around.
Vendors were selling fresh fruit along the way, like this stand with bunches of bananas.
In the final stretch towards Volcan Poas National Park, we entered strawberry territory. The roadsides were filled with stalls selling them.
Another surprise as we neared Volcan Poas was the hedges of hydrangea along the roadside. Not since our trip to the Azores in August 2021 have we seen hydrangeas this prevalent.
We were amazed at the way people were having picnics right on the side of the road.
Our Lonely Planet guide had talked about “plant leaves the size of your car bonnet” at Poas. “Sure, sure,” we thought. But they were absolutely correct! Look at the size of these ferns!
Known as “poor man’s umbrella”, these reminded us of gigantic rhubarb plants! Notice the ambulance behind this bunch for size comparison.
We had to don hard hats for our visit to the Volcán Poas caldera rim, in case of an eruption.
Another size comparison of just how large these poor man’s umbrella plants really are.
And here is the view we came to see: Volcán Poás’ famed crater, which is 260m deep. The volcano is estimated to be 5000 years old. Since 1828, there have been 40 eruptions, the most recent being April 1, 2024!
A short clip, showing the caldera.
These lights at the monitoring station adjacent to the crater indicate the amount of dangerous gases being emitted. While we were there, the yellow light was constantly blinking, indicating ‘moderate’ levels of volcanos gases were being released.
Safety back at the Visitor Center, we felt relieved to have been spared an eruption! :-) These sloth stuffed toys give another idea of what sloths are like.
Jugas naturalas (“natural juices”) are everywhere in Costa Rica. Some are thicker than others, having the consistency of smoothies. And, given the plethora of fruit that Costa Rica produces, you can get these drinks in many flavours, such as our pineapple and strawberry versions at the cafe enroute down the mountain.
Normally, this view from our table at the cafe provides a million-dollar view of the valley containing San Jose. Although the view was clear as a bell on the way up the mountain, on our way down, the city had seemingly disappeared.
Further down the mountain, the cloud had cleared just enough to give a partial view of San Jose.
Another view of San Jose, from the 7th floor windows of the Sheraton’s Club Lounge.
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