My 20 year old granddaughter, Riley, visited me in Costa Rica from July 24 to August 1. We had a great visit cram-packed with activities every day. Even though we are in the middle of the rainy season, our plans were not really affected by any heavy rain.
She arrived late in the evening on July 24th. On the morning of July 25th, we headed to La Paz Waterfall Gardens about an hour from where I live in el Cajón arriba de Grecia. Okay, well we headed out after I could shake Riley out of bed.
Here are a few photos/videos from La Paz. The place is located just to the east of the Póas Volcano. No rain on this visit.
The waterfalls at La Paz are powerful and impressive. Although there are some ups and downs, especially after the last waterfall, it is worth the effort - in Spanish, "vale la pena".
After La Paz, we drove about ten minutes north to Soda Cinchona for breakfast. This is a great place for a typical Costa Rica breakfast (see early post about the place). It was completely destroyed and rebuild after the Cinchona earthquake several years ago. There are some hummingbird feeders, fruit feeders and, of course, another waterfall.
After breakfast, we drove a couple of hours to Los Lagos Resort near La Fortuna at the foot of the Arenal Volcano. I took my grandson, Zane, here a couple of years ago and I highly recommend it. There are multiple pools from very hot to very cold as well as a swim up bar in one of the warmer pools. All of the rooms and cabins have views of the volcano.
On my first visit to Costa Rica in 2001, the volcano was very active, regularly spewing ash, smoke and rocks along with some lava. I cannot imagine being this close to it when it is that active.
On our second full day, Riley and I visited Sky Adventures Arenal Park for the zipline. This is my second time on the zipline there. I have done a couple of other ziplines and seen several. I cannot imagine any that could be more exciting than this one. The lines are high, long and fast. They feel very safe, but especially on the first long one, you have to remember to breath and keep your eyes open! They provide incredible views of the volcano and Lake Arenal. Unfortunately, I panicked and left my phone in the locker. All we have are a few so-so photos from the park photographer which are posted below. Super fun experience!
After recovering from the zipline excursion, the next day Riley and I visited the Arenal 1968 Lava Trails. The private park aptly references the year 1968 since that is the year that the volcano again became violently alive with explosions and lava flows that wiped out some small pueblos and killed (or carbonized) dozens of people. The volcano remained regularly active until about 2010. Since then, puffs of smoke come from the volcano's cones and it still remains one of the major tourist attractions in Costa Rica.
I was fortunate enough to visit in 2001 when you could see and hear ash and rocks, often as large as houses, blowing out of the top of the volcano. At night you could also see the orange flow of the lava down the side of the volcano. The rocks that blew out of the volcano were so large that you could hear them bouncing down the mountain from several miles away.
Arenal 1968 provides trails that crisscross through some of the old lava flow and is peppered with rocks that blew out of the volcano. While it is also possible to visit Arenal National Park, the trails in 1968 are great and also offer views of the volcano and Lake Arenal. You can also enjoy Arenal 1968 without a guide.
Riley and I opted for the longest loop which should have taken only a couple of hours but in reality and with several stops, it took us more than three hours. One tip - take a photo of the map at the headquarters before running off down the first trail.
One of the highlights for Riley and me was the troop of about 15 howler monkeys, including babies, that moved through the trees above and in front of us at the far western end of the loop trail. As we were just under the troop, one of the howler males gave the characteristic "howl" from just overhead. Although the howlers are not aggressive, the howl did cause us to pick up our pace a bit. This is the only part of the entire trip where we had a little rain.
Photos and videos from Arenal 1968 are below.
The howler monkeys
Riley on the Arenal 1968 trails. In the next to last pic, you can get a sense of the size of the rocks that came down the volcano and the last pic shows how far these boulders traveled before they came to rest.
A video of some of the "smaller" boulders in the lava field.
On our way out of the Arenal area, we stopped at Místico Arenal Hanging Bridges. In my opinion, while the zipline at Arenal Sky Adventures is much more exciting, the hanging bridges here at Místico are better. For an inexpensive entrance fee, you can take the "self-guided" tour so you can move at your own pace. You really do not need a guide for this as the trail is in excellent shape and well-marked.
Photos and videos below from the hanging bridges.
Part 2covers the trip to the northern Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
Beautiful girl! What fun you are having. Man—wish I’d had a grandparent who was able to introduce me to the beauty of CR back in the day. You are all fortunate!!