After going on the trail to the village, Goy had already got the car to the trail exit. We hopped in and went to another parking spot. Here we were to go on the Ang Ka trail to see the forest inside the top of a volcanic crater. We also got to see the highest point in Thailand which was within this park. There was a memorial for the king who used to hunt wild elephants in this park near this spot.
The whole ecosystem with walking birds, a spongy moss that releases water in a controlled way to form streams at the top, moss covered trees, a beautiful walkway with clear explanations.. loved it.
There is a Ho Chih Minh rain forest trail in Washington State in Olympic national park. This must be close to the original.. similar trees but different ecosystem because of the ground moss..
Here are the pictures..
A video highlights reel..
There were a. couple of vista points from which you could see the mountain ranges and clouds. We were ready to go to the next spot within the park. We also told Joy and Goy that we had lunch thanks to lefover breakfast and the to go we packed from Raj Dharbar the night before. We ate in the van while they also had their packed lunch. Then we drove slowly through the vista point areas while I clicked photos from the open window. It was chilly and we did not want to make the cold worse.
We were on to our next and last stop within the park..
On Day 3, we started from the Arenal Paraiso resort to the Arenal Volcano National park. We were part of a 15 people group, 8 in our group, a family of three from Los Gatos and a family of four from New Jersey.. the entire group was Desi!
We had a great tour guide from Desafio who gave us the first sloth sighting.. It was right there and we didn't see it at first. It doesn't move much, which is the specialty! This was shot with the 70-200mm with a 2x extender using San's head as the tripod.
Later we learned that there was a sloth sleeping on the heater in Arenal Paraiso resort in one of the rooms and had not moved for two days!
We were completely soaked as we walked on the hanging bridges. Some of these are suspension bridges which makes taking photos and videos challenging. I almost lost the phone at one point! The views are spectacular..
San spotted an ant eater walking past which was amazing. We also saw a lot of sleeping butterflies, tarantulas, spiders inside their holes and other insect species as well as some really pretty birds that I cannot name.
One thing Costa Rica is famous for is the hummingbird species. I saw a lot of different ones with purple and green hues that we don't normally see in the west coast, but could not capture them in the rain.
The highlight of this walk was the Arenal falls within the park.
Then we went on a short drive to the 1968 volcano tour. We get to climb a vista point which commemorates the destruction from 1968 eruption all the way to 2010 when they lost two villages and 80 people. There is no activity other than hot springs now, but the desolation is there as well as the new plants that have already grown in 9 years! Life finds a way!
After this we were treated to a really nice Lunch in Fortuna town at Desafio's local kitchen. It was spacious, well done and the banana chips were out of the world. I ate probably 1/2 kg of chips in one hour there and took some to go in my hand and the guide annouced that the next stop was the La Fortuna falls, where we could go down and take a dip in the falls if it was allowed.
I was kind of pissed that with a full stomach, it is hard to take a dip in cold water.. but did it anyways.
The area directly below the falls was off limits as the current was too strong, but they let us in the area 100 feet from the base. It was chilly, but once I got in, had no mind to come out of the water. It was refreshing. The only thing that would have made this better was if we did the falls first and ate afterwards. A good hot cocoa (they have really good hot cocoa in Costa Rica) after that dip would have been great!
We were then off to the resort. It was going to be our last chance to sit in the hot springs again and so we did. Then a dinner where we watched the guy pour fire on to a volcano cake! It was interesting.. it was lights out fast as we had a very busy day 4 planned.
A short video of day 3..
A tip to people who go to the hot springs.. go to the one at the very top. It is the hottest. The water just keeps flowing from pool to pool and the lower the pool, colder it gets.
Would definitely recommend the Arenal Paraiso as a place to stay in Arenal. It is farthest from the town, but you don't even have to leave the premises. The hot spring is right there, the food is great. San and Padma picked a winner with this one! I jokingly called it "namma malai adivaaraththu chinna kudisai" (our small hut in the base of the mountain)..
