Donald J Ladolcetta (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} beefchunks) wrote,@ 2006-07-05 14:32:00 |
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Costa Rica - Chapter 2 - The lodging
Costa Rica Lodging:
We stayed in Costa Rica in the mountains. We stayed 6 nights in La Fortuna and 3 nights in Poasito.
La Fortuna is a town that is 5 kilometers from an active volcano named Arenal (4 hours north of San Jose) and Poasito is a small town that is very close to a semi active volcano named Poas (1 hour north of San Jose)
In La Fortuna we stayed at a resort called Arenal Paraiso. It’s a beautiful place that allows each guest to have his own cabin with porch that faces directly to the volcano so every day you can sit on your porch and watch red lava (at night) and belching rocks (during the day) spit out of the volcano mouth as you listen to the volcano make constant rumbling noises that is reminiscent of thunder. We observed the volcano doing these things every day and the best show is at night. We did have some view obstruction cause the low lying clouds blocked our view due to the constant rain but there was no question – we saw the volcano in action.
The resort had 16 hot water pools fed by the brown mineral waters of the volcano. The pool at the top of the hill had scalding hot volcano water and this overflowed into a pool just below it thus causing the water to be a little cooler than the pool above and another pool was just below it receiving runoff from the second pool and thus this water was cooler yet and this continued on and on down the hill until the last pool was just lukewarm. The main unheated pool stood next to a pool with sunken bar (which was also volcano heated) and you could sit in a stool in the hot water as you sipped down a cold beer from the bar which was also in the pool with you. Very relaxing.
The resort had a special place for massages and mud baths mud facials and the like and Patty took advantage of this feature.
Every day after coming back from our adventures, the hotel maids would take white bath towels and fold them in such a way as to look like animals and we had different towel animals lying in our bed every day, from elephants, turtles, snakes to all kinds of unnamed species. They had TV but most of it was in Spanish so we spent a lot of time at night playing cards and doing quality family time.
Breakfast was included in the hotel and each morning we hiked downhill (returning uphill was exercise) to the breakfast buffet and ate quite well.
The second hotel called the Poas Volcano lodge was a bed and breakfast that was originally a dairy farm farmer’s residence. The house was huge and we took the master bedroom, complete with our own fireplace and stock of firewood.
The farm was still operating and we ate food from the farm like fruits, vegetables, and fresh milk straight from the farm’s cows. The kitchen made its own granola, jam, bread, and fresh squeezed juice. The food was excellent and I ate things I had never seen before. Every meal was family style and you sat at a table with other lodge guests and quickly became friends with these travelers from all over the world.
The lodge had a giant living room with fireplace, game tables and plenty of games, which was good because again there was no TV. The lodge also had a pool table, ping pong, and trampoline. I felt like a rich guy with all these servants and butlers running around taking care of us. Very nice. Outside the lodge were several nature trails for bird watching.
The hotels were in a word –Terrific.
Costa Rica Lodging:
We stayed in Costa Rica in the mountains. We stayed 6 nights in La Fortuna and 3 nights in Poasito.
La Fortuna is a town that is 5 kilometers from an active volcano named Arenal (4 hours north of San Jose) and Poasito is a small town that is very close to a semi active volcano named Poas (1 hour north of San Jose)
In La Fortuna we stayed at a resort called Arenal Paraiso. It’s a beautiful place that allows each guest to have his own cabin with porch that faces directly to the volcano so every day you can sit on your porch and watch red lava (at night) and belching rocks (during the day) spit out of the volcano mouth as you listen to the volcano make constant rumbling noises that is reminiscent of thunder. We observed the volcano doing these things every day and the best show is at night. We did have some view obstruction cause the low lying clouds blocked our view due to the constant rain but there was no question – we saw the volcano in action.
The resort had 16 hot water pools fed by the brown mineral waters of the volcano. The pool at the top of the hill had scalding hot volcano water and this overflowed into a pool just below it thus causing the water to be a little cooler than the pool above and another pool was just below it receiving runoff from the second pool and thus this water was cooler yet and this continued on and on down the hill until the last pool was just lukewarm. The main unheated pool stood next to a pool with sunken bar (which was also volcano heated) and you could sit in a stool in the hot water as you sipped down a cold beer from the bar which was also in the pool with you. Very relaxing.
The resort had a special place for massages and mud baths mud facials and the like and Patty took advantage of this feature.
Every day after coming back from our adventures, the hotel maids would take white bath towels and fold them in such a way as to look like animals and we had different towel animals lying in our bed every day, from elephants, turtles, snakes to all kinds of unnamed species. They had TV but most of it was in Spanish so we spent a lot of time at night playing cards and doing quality family time.
Breakfast was included in the hotel and each morning we hiked downhill (returning uphill was exercise) to the breakfast buffet and ate quite well.
The second hotel called the Poas Volcano lodge was a bed and breakfast that was originally a dairy farm farmer’s residence. The house was huge and we took the master bedroom, complete with our own fireplace and stock of firewood.
The farm was still operating and we ate food from the farm like fruits, vegetables, and fresh milk straight from the farm’s cows. The kitchen made its own granola, jam, bread, and fresh squeezed juice. The food was excellent and I ate things I had never seen before. Every meal was family style and you sat at a table with other lodge guests and quickly became friends with these travelers from all over the world.
The lodge had a giant living room with fireplace, game tables and plenty of games, which was good because again there was no TV. The lodge also had a pool table, ping pong, and trampoline. I felt like a rich guy with all these servants and butlers running around taking care of us. Very nice. Outside the lodge were several nature trails for bird watching.
The hotels were in a word –Terrific.
