Guest post by Sarah Shonts, 2008, updated 2/10

Our family’s travels through Costa Rica continue…(check out the links to the other segments at the bottom)

Day 4: The Volcano!

The third stop in our Costa Rican adventure vacation (after Pura Vida and La Carolina) was at the base of Arenal Volcano, at a hotel called Los Lagos. It was completely different from La Carolina—much larger and more resort-ish. While I would certainly recommend it (the location was great, it was very clean and had many amenities) it was our least favorite of the trip. We learned we are more “off the beaten path” travelers.

We arrived in the afternoon and settled in our room, then headed for some fun in the pools and water slides. The swim up bar featured a delicious pina colada, served in a fresh pineapple. Yum. That evening we went to the restaurant at Los Lagos for dinner. It was fine, but we were so spoiled at Pura Vida and La Carolina that the food and atmosphere just didn’t quite measure up. We were all very tired, so we caught a shuttle back to our room and went to bed, looking forward to Easter morning.

Day 5: A Very Memorable Easter…

We woke up early, rolled out of bed and were on the hiking trail to the volcano observation area by 7:00am. The beginning of the trail had a very steep incline. The sign told us that the Arenal Volcano observation area was 2.2km ahead. We hiked and hiked for what seemed like farther than 2.2km. (This made a couple of the kids nervous as they were concerned we were trespassing; even if we were it was probably no big deal, as it seems rules in Costa Rica are more like guidelines to follow if you wish.) Anyway, we finally decided to head back down the hill and found the observation area. It turns out we saw it on the way up, but it wasn’t marked and we thought it was someone’s house. We were fortunate to see the whole volcano form, with smoke smoldering out of the top and down the sides. Many days it is covered by the clouds. We were told if we saw it at night, it would be glowing red.

We toyed with the idea of catching a taxi into town to attend an Easter service, but in the end decided to have our own. We brought out a backpack Bible and took turns reading the Easter Resurrection Story. While it wasn’t a typical Easter morning, I couldn’t help but look across the landscape thinking it probably looked a whole lot more like Jerusalem than Colorado does!

We hiked back to the hotel and enjoyed the lovely breakfast buffet included with our stay. When we were sufficiently stuffed we wandered through the crocodile farm and butterfly garden. We were slightly disappointed to find out the frog garden was not open because they are in the process of moving it, but the rest of it surpassed our expectations.

We went swimming and water sliding. It was by far the fastest water slide we had ever been on! We stopped at the swim up bar for some fruity drinks, but they were horrible, so we left and got dressed and headed to the restaurant for some chicken nachos and ice-cold bottled water. Ahhh!

Zip-lining!

Next was the biggest “rush” of our entire vacation. A Sky Tram transport van picked us up at 2:10pm to take us to our afternoon adventure—zip-lining over the canopy of the jungle. We were quickly situated with gear and led to a sky tram which took us to our first platform, which boasted a lovely view of Lake Arenal. They tightened our straps and hooked us up for two practice runs—very small zip lines. My heart was beating a bit faster than normal… and then they showed us the next one. It was like going from a bunny hill to a double black diamond ski hill. Yikes! All of us decided we would do it again (some more willingly than others) if the opportunity presented itself, and it was special to experience such a challenging feat together as a family.

Care to read more? See our first report, Northern Highlands, and our final report: Osa Peninsula and the Tree House in the Jungle of Costa Rica…

Been to Costa Rica in this area? Share your favorite stops/experiences below in our comments!