...After Eco Centro Danaus, we drove on toward the Arenal Volcano, which is AMAZING.
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| Before going to our hotel, we stopped to get some good views of the volcano and see some of the damage from the recent earthquake (there's a big trench to the right of the road that formed in the earthquake). |
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| Our hotel was SO CLOSE to the volcano. This is the view from the front door of our house - the restaurant, lobby, and pools are in front, even closer to the volcano. |
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| We spent one day out on the volcano with a volcanologist from the University of Costa Rica. He's practically famous in the town near the volcano, and he was able to share a lot of information with us about the volcano's history. |
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| We also got to take a walk through the forest below the volcano to see some great wildlife, including toucans!! There were at least a dozen flying around us, but getting a picture was tough. |
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| THEN... we saw the biggest tree I have ever seen in my life. I had no idea trees could ever be this big. |
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| A lot of trees in Costa Rica form buttresses near the ground for added stability - some trees can even decide on an individual basis whether or not they need to form buttresses or not, depending on the soil, wind, etc. |
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| I wasn't even able to see where the tree ended! |
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| Arenal Volcano |
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| Our private houses at the Arenal Springs Resort and Spa - absolutely gorgeous (www.arenal.net/hotel/arenal-springs-resort.htm) |
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| The hotel even had hammocks! |
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| And several different natural hot springs, complete with a wet bar and a sushi bar - we hardly deserved any of this, but our famous volcanologist was able to get us a great deal on the hotel and food. |
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| One of the beautiful hot springs |
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| We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall for a quick swim before the drive back to our houses in San Jose - to get to the pool at the bottom, we had to walk straight down a set of stairs for about 20 minutes... |
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| But it was well worth it for a swim in the cold water! |
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