Hello lovely people no. 40 (no.2 in Costa Rica)

Well its called rain forest for a reason

But before regaling you with tales of extreme wet – and with huge sadness as I type that I cannot send rain to Australia to assist in quelling the raging bush fires devastating the country, its people, flora and fauna – I will share the sunny views from the two lookouts at our Monteverde airbnb

Our next stop is Arenal, in the hamlet of El Castillo, perched on a hill overlooking the lake and with a magnificent view of the Arenal volcano, active last as recently as 2010

The drive, skirting the north side of the lake, is mostly in sunshine. We stop for views of the lake and volcano, coffee, a picnic lunch by the damn and – on the run in to the damn – were very excited by our first good Coati sighting. It’s a regular tourist route and it seems as if he is coming to the car to beg (we resist!)

As we approach the hotel the clouds thicken and the top of the volcano is obscured. The hotel is a little more tired, and the infinity pool smaller, than they appear on-line but the location cannot be faulted and we all take in sunset from the pool, admiring the views, soaring hawks and vultures, hummingbirds in the hedge

We have two full days to explore the area and are trying to plan according to a weather forecast but give up on that, it is far too variable and basically we count on rain! We start with a trip to a butterfly conservancy. Not sure what to expect, worried it will be too cheesy, we are all captivated. From the jewel chrysalis cases to the magnificent Morpho, the national butterfly, everything is exquisitely curated and visible. We are all also very taken by the frogs – benign and venomous. And the diverse, local, flora on display. For anyone interested, the video clips posted with this blog are of the three butterflies shown below

A rainforest walk within the conservancy sees splendid vegetation and trees and a family of howler monkeys in the canopy. No sighting of the volcano, shrouded in cloud all morning

A walk to a waterfall during the afternoon. We take swimming stuff as there is a pool at the bottom of the fall good for swimming. In fact we decide not to swim: it has a hazardous looking, rock-strewn base, the fall is abundant and its beginning to rain. And it continues to rain – fairly consistently and on occasion extremely heavily for the next couple of hours. We are quite literally soaked to the skin

We debate at some length whether to take the next day a much vaunted raft trip on the river, Penas Blancas. Not white water rafting but a float to see wildlife: sloths and birds. The reason for our reluctance: the prospect of sitting in a raft for two hours in torrential rain and seeing nothing. We meet for an early breakfast and drive to La Fortuna. The weather looks reasonably settled and we book – and because it is last minute the tour company operating the raft very sweetly undertake some quick logistics to on-board their van with a second raft and extra life jackets and our paddler/guide, Jonathan. He is a local from Tortuguero, on the Caribbean side, but he uses his anglicised name. The rain pours on the 20 minute van ride to the river, but then stops. We board and start floating, the river is brown but it is not caiman season (!) – the raft sits quite low in the water. Jonathan paddles, strenuously at times, and spots iguana, birds, monkeys and – hooray – a sloth! Jonathan jumps in the river to pull us back under the sloth. We watch for a good while and see him indulge in a good scratch

The morning concludes with juice, coffee and a snack of fried plantain, bread made from cassava and cheese – all grown/ made on the farm we are at. They also have a well visited bird table which gives us a chance to see close up some of the gorgeous birds previously seen only at a distance high in the canopy. It also rains torrentially so we feel blessed our rafting trip was dry, we have barely dried out from yesterday!

Our afternoon activities see us split: Colin, Annabelle and Andy head for the volcano and a guided canopy walk which involves seven hanging bridges. My vertigo precludes that and I chose an afternoon of indolence at a complex of eight inter-connecting thermal pools, keen to try them before leaving this volcanic region. Simon and Caroline join me and we have the place entirely to ourselves, the occasional heavy rain downpour cools us off comfortably, as does the cold spring waterfall. And the barman delivering a mojito improves the experience of course

Arenal disappointingly remains shrouded in cloud all but we know it is is there, watching over us

Until next time, hasta luego 

ALISON

This shows are approximate journey since landing at Liberia: