Time to move on from Alajuela to La Fortuna by the Arenal volcano. The bus journey takes about three and a half hours and we will travel along the Pan-American highway for the first half hour before we turn north onto smaller roads. The Pan-American highway stretches from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and which we have done some of before on Ruta 40 in Argentina. At around 30,000 miles it is the world's longest "motorable road". However I digress, what we are heading for is a small relatively isolated farm home stay. It is proud of its eco credentials and home grown vegetarian cuisine. We have booked in for three nights. The name of the place is Essence Arenal. Arenal is the name of the volcano which erupted in 1968. It turned out to be the golden goose for the then tiny village of La Fortuna by kick starting the tourist industry that booms today.
When we got off at the La Fortuna bus station we discovered it's another 35kms to El Castillo de La Fortuna where we are actually staying. The agent at the bus station tells us that a taxi will cost $35 and besides there is nothing to do there. He then offers us a business card, Cabinas Jerry, "only $15 a night each with wifi and private facilities". I phoned Essence Arenal and found out that a shuttle was available in half an hour at $8 a head. We take it.
On the way to the hotel our driver stops to enable us to photograph these animals. They are white nosed coatis.
Essence Arenal is quite an isolated property uphill in Castillo Del la Fortuna, but apart from on foot, we didn't leave the property during our stay of three nights.
Helen outside our "room with a view". That's the hot tub roof reflected in our window and the next picture shows the view from our front door.
Well, as you can see this has to be one of the best hot tub views ever. Lake Arenal and rainforest behind us and the hedge with the purple flowers has hummingbirds hovering to take the nectar.
Further to the right stands the 2,000 metre high volcano. Wow!
Life is very colourful when a Red Macaw is a visitor to your bird table.
Allowing you to take photos like this.
Just down the road from where we are staying is a wildlife conservation area. Native species are bred and supported so we had the opportunity to photograph them.
Blue Morpho supposedly the commonest butterfly in Costa Rica but we hardly saw any. You can see the contrast between the upper and lower wing surfaces. Incidentally the pink you can see is a feeding bowl and they are eating bananas and pineapples.
Glasswing butterfly, well named as most of their wings are transparent.
Sara longwing the species come with the same patterning but the colours vary.
When we got off at the La Fortuna bus station we discovered it's another 35kms to El Castillo de La Fortuna where we are actually staying. The agent at the bus station tells us that a taxi will cost $35 and besides there is nothing to do there. He then offers us a business card, Cabinas Jerry, "only $15 a night each with wifi and private facilities". I phoned Essence Arenal and found out that a shuttle was available in half an hour at $8 a head. We take it.
On the way to the hotel our driver stops to enable us to photograph these animals. They are white nosed coatis.
Essence Arenal is quite an isolated property uphill in Castillo Del la Fortuna, but apart from on foot, we didn't leave the property during our stay of three nights.
Helen outside our "room with a view". That's the hot tub roof reflected in our window and the next picture shows the view from our front door.
Well, as you can see this has to be one of the best hot tub views ever. Lake Arenal and rainforest behind us and the hedge with the purple flowers has hummingbirds hovering to take the nectar.
Further to the right stands the 2,000 metre high volcano. Wow!
Life is very colourful when a Red Macaw is a visitor to your bird table.
Allowing you to take photos like this.
Just down the road from where we are staying is a wildlife conservation area. Native species are bred and supported so we had the opportunity to photograph them.
Blue Morpho supposedly the commonest butterfly in Costa Rica but we hardly saw any. You can see the contrast between the upper and lower wing surfaces. Incidentally the pink you can see is a feeding bowl and they are eating bananas and pineapples.
Glasswing butterfly, well named as most of their wings are transparent.
Sara longwing the species come with the same patterning but the colours vary.
Orange banded Heliconian
Enough butterflies, how about some frogs? This one is the Red-eyed tree frog. It is an icon for Costa Rica.
The Agile frog, these chaps are quite tiny.
Strawberry poison dart frog. The poison from these creatures was used by indigenous people to kill other animals with their blow pipes, as the name suggests. One of these contains enough poison to kill a man.
The green and black poison dart frog.
So that's the frog show over but don't forget about Mr Toad.
This stay has a really relaxing and calming feel to it. Other guests come and go. The hot tub is a great place for meeting and chatting. We met with a charming pair of girls, Jessica and Alesha who were originally from New England but now from South Carolina and had a very enlightening dinner conversation with them. Most of the other guests that we chatted to were from the US or Canada.
Essence Arenal has several strings to its bow. There are some great trails through the rainforest which they are helping to restore.
You can see by the thick moss on the tree trunks how humid the environment is.
A massage and yoga area with organised sessions, a spring-fed outdoor swimming pool, and a working organic coffee farm.
Many other activities can be organised off-site such as horse riding, canoeing and natural hot springs. We also had a little cookery course.
Another view of the kitchen and restaurant area.
There was a Scarlet Macaw that was a regular visitor to the feeding table just outside the kitchen. Credit to Jessica for the picture.
A really great place to stay but I cannot finish this blog without once again paying homage to the feature that dominates the whole place, the mighty Arenal.
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