Day 10 – 5 April 2011

Uh-oh. Alexis crying at 1:00 again. I let her go for a minute but then got up. Just as I turn the light on, she sits up again and looks at me. That's when I thought I shouldn't have even turned the light on. Luckily, me laying her back down and covering her with the blanket helped her right back to sleep and that was the end of that. So then the power goes out at 2:30 and we have no fan and no air conditioning for two hours. It was over 78 degrees in our room, but I seemed to be the only one bothered by this. Finally it kicked back on, but I was able to fall back asleep before that. The next time anyone woke up is when the alarm went off at 6:45. We had breakfast getting delivered to the room at 7:00 and we were departing for our daily activities at 8:30. That was pretty much eleven hours of sleep for everyone and it was a much better start to the day. Breakfast was good and consisted of waffles, assorted breads, fruit, yogurt, assorted cheeses, juice, coffee, tea, and probably something else I'm missing. It was perfect for the two of us to split and Alexis ate a few bites as well.

We got our taxi at 8:30 to go to the Arenal Volcano National Park. This basically had trails that led up slightly onto the base of the volcano and a great close-up view of the volcano. And of course it's foggy, misty, and cloudy as we're heading to the park. We weren't really sure what we were doing when we got there, but there were a few common trails that everyone went on so we started there. The first one went up to the old lava flow of 1992 when there was a big eruption. That was 1.5 km and was still raining slightly by the time we got to the lava. Alexis had fallen asleep halfway on this trail and didn't even bother to wake up as we were hiking up and down the steep rocks or hardened lava. There were signs everywhere that said this was an area of high volcanic activity and to enter at your own risk. Would you believe that the volcano starts erupting right there?! Well, you shouldn't. There hasn't been any activity for months, so no worries there.

The second trail led around an intriguing type of tree called the Ceibo. We're not really sure what this means because we didn't hire a guide to stop and tell us about all kinds of stuff, but we for sure saw the tree. It looks like its roots are above-ground and aren't just tubular, but they look like giant walls. As we wrapped up this trail, we encountered wild turkeys and were able to get pretty close to them. They don't look exactly like the turkeys we're used to, but they did sound like turkeys. This trail and the retrace of the lava trail was another 2 km. By this time it was getting hotter as the sun was coming out and we could actually start to see the outline of the volcano across the sky.

With an hour to go before our taxi driver was going to come back and pick us up, we traversed the shorter trail which led up to a lookout point to get a good view of the volcano. As we were walking up it got bigger and bigger and was becoming clearer in the fog and the clouds. By the time we got there, it was a decent view, but quickly got covered again. A few short minutes later it got clearer again and 75% of the volcano was visible. From the entire time we were in and around Arenal, we never got to see the top of the volcano. I took quite a few pictures of the volcano while we could see as much as we could. Our driver was a few minutes late, but having him come back and pick us up worked out really well.

We went back to the room for a bit and regrouped before heading into the nearby town of La Fortuna for some shopping and eating lunch. Putting Alexis in the stroller and walking a few blocks to a well recommended Mexican restaurant named Las Brasitas, she fell asleep again. That actually worked out perfectly for us because she slept for our entire lunch while we sat outside and it was very peaceful and nice for us to relax, talk to each other, and eat. We walked around town and shopped a bit, got a little wet, and then called for a taxi to come back and get us.

It was starting to get dark and we needed to keep Alexis awake longer so we went to the hot springs again. We took the camera with us this time because we wanted to make sure we got some before we left. The sun was setting so it was pretty dark around the resort. They had some dim lighting across the bridges to help people see a little bit but the water was definitely dark. Lesson Learned: Pictures in the dark with steam rising and fogging up the lens is NOT a good combination. So, we put it away and just got in some more. Again, we only stayed a short time and Alexis was tired.

We were back at the room and getting her ready for bed while I went down and ordered us each a sandwich. Nicole picked a sandwich that's no longer on the menu (only the out-of-date one in our room), so I gave her the list which included one that wasn't on the menu we had. After ordering and watching him make four drinks from the order before mine, and then having to come back over to me and re-ask what I wanted, I waited around for about forty minutes to get our sandwiches. Then I get back to the room and Alexis is already asleep, which didn't surprise me, and I realize he didn't give us any silverware for the cole slaw (which was more like potato salad, but really good). So, I walked back down to get the silverware and he looked at me like "Who is this guy and why is he asking me for silverware", but then I think he figured it out. Finally back up to the room and we sit down to eat. I tell Nicole that I hope he got everything right because I wasn't too sure about this. She opened her box and…no cole slaw – one thing after another. So, we shared my cole slaw. Soon after finishing dinner and looking into what to do in San Jose (our next stop), we also went to bed.