We flew to the San Jose International Airport.
Cal was attending a business meeting and Virginia Ann decided to join him for a brief vacation
before the business part of the trip. We arrived very late at night so it was up early and a
long drive to the Arenal Volcano.
As we left the San Jose valley the coffee plantations on the hill provided a great foreground
for a picture looking into the San Jose valley.
We were headed to the Arenal Volcano through the Costa Rican back roads.
Our first stop was in the town of Zarcero which has a unique garden in front of the local
Church.
The garden in front of the town church has a double set of hedge tunnels leading up to the
church.
Evangelisto Blanco, a local landscape artist, modeled cypress topiaries in fanciful
animal shapes. There are even faces carved into the hedges.
Virginia Ann poses in the garden leading to the church.
A view from the front of the church looking out on the park and the town beyond.
Inside the church the interior is covered with elaborate pastel stencils and detailed
religious paintings by the late Misael Solis, a well known local artist.
Once in La Fortuna we went to our hotel the
Volcano Hotel
. The advantage of
this hotel is the great view of the Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately this is the view of the
volcano from our room's patio. Beautiful but no volcano.
This is the best picture of the volcano we could get. The hotel staff said that they had
not seen the volcano in two months due to the cloud cover. A reason to return to Costa
Rica.
We went to the Tabacon Hot Springs for lunch and a swim. At the base of the volcano the
steaming waters of the Rio Tabacon flow from the lava fields and cascade into a series of
pools.
The springs are surrounded by flowers and plants that are very beautiful. This is an
example of the exotic gardens.
The main stream is hot - 80 to 120 degrees and is sometimes mixed with another smaller stream
which is cooler water. This allows the creation of pools of various temperatures. You can
simply float downstream from pool to pool. Very relaxing.
Virginia Ann enjoying the Tabacon hot springs - water heated by lava soothes her muscles.
