Hanging Bridges and Hot Springs

We are staying at the Hotel Monte Real in La Fortuna. It is a very simple place but good sized rooms and spotlessly clean. It has a lovely little swimming pool set in its tiny, but immaculately kept, gardens. The hotel has no restaurant or bar so breakfast was taken in the little restaurant next door and was good. Several choices – fruit, eggs, sausage and toast! The first toast I have seen here and very good it was too accompanied by a fresh pineapple conserve.

At 08.00 we boarded the bus for a visit to the hanging bridges at Arenal for a walk through the rain forest. There are 16 bridges in total and 5 or 6 of them are hanging, set high in the forest canopy.

We had no afternoon activities so could take our time on the walk through the forest. Most of the trip concentrated on the flora as the forest birds were hard to spot. We did however see some really tiny bats 1-2” long roosting under a tree root and also some long-nosed bats. We were shown a palm tree which can actually move itself up to 20cm to gain more light. It puts out roots on the side it wants to travel towards and kills off the roots on the opposite side. It is nick-named the penis palm as the new roots do look somewhat like penises. There was inevitably some joking and smutty comments !!

Fortunately today the rain had stopped and the temperature was very comfortable. The views from the bridges were fantastic but the bridges are surprisingly mobile and move a lot. If you suffer from vertigo this would not be for you! It also made taking photos tricky as the bridge really bounces around and you need to hold on.

As we were nearing the end of our walk wildlife sprang out from everywhere. We saw 2 crested owls and a scarlet rumped tanager (stunningly beautiful jet black and vivid scarlet) both too difficult to photo. Then a crested guan landed in the tree above us.

No more than a few feet away we noticed 4 coati high in a tree. These are racoon like creatures and really cute.

However, I was most excited by spotting a column of leaf cutter ants. I had really hoped to see them. They have such an amazing community structure. The leaves are cut into manageable pieces and carried back to the nest where they are composted. The ants grow a specific type of fungus on the decaying leaves which the ants feed to the larvae.

We crossed the last bridge and were treated to a partial view of Arenal Volcano which had been totally shrouded in cloud earlier.

Our driver had bought fruit for us to eat and had cut it up beautifully.

As we were driving back we encountered a whole family of coati by the roadside. I could have watched them for hours.

Then back to the hotel for lunch in town before setting off at 16.30 to bathe in the hot springs. Apparently the river water became hot after the last eruption of the Arenal Volcano in 2010 so must now be flowing over hot lava somewhere. This turned out to be the most brilliant and fun excursion.

We all bought our preferred drinks (no glass bottles allowed) and filled a cold box to take with us. We left the bus with towels and torches and made the short walk to the river which we had to cross. The crossing point was flat but the water flowed very strongly and crossing without falling focussed the mind. Then our guide took a belongings and we climbed down into the water which was just a perfect temperature.

Bliss. Nature’s jacuzzi. The water flow was really strong and you really needed to wedge yourself into a rock to avoid getting your beer wet! Our guide, Deinor, had brought volcanic clay and treated us all too a facial.

There was a waterfall flowing into the pool and it was possible to claw your way through the strong current to sit behind it. This was a fantastic experience. You were out of the current and could see the whole way along the wall of water cascading into the pool.

We stayed in the pool for two hours and as it grew dark our guide lit candles around the edges and we continued drinking and chatting. Fireflies started to twinkle in the trees. Magical.

After two hours or so we reluctantly clambered out of the pool and headed back for showers and a meal at a local micro brewery called La Fortuna. The entertainment was a man singing karaoke and playing bongos or drum in the instrumental sections. We think he did actually work at the restaurant but didn’t know the words to the songs. All in all another really excellent day and very different experiences.