So our planning day was spent doing laundry, and making our online reservation at the Arenal Observatory Hotel. That morning, we had found a great little cafe to have breakfast, which was so good we returned there for dinner that night, and even breakfast the morning of our Arenal trip. Its a little slice of OC, in the middle of Playa del Coco. We felt right at home...

But that's not what this trip is about. Its about getting into the void, and experiencing new places, and new adventures. We set out the next morning for what should have been a three to four hour drive out to Arenal Volcano. I had downloaded maps to help guide us, using my iPhone's GPS.

That plan failed miserably. Since the iPhone uses assisted GPS, and we had no cell service or wifi connection, the GPS never gave us any useful information. We made every wrong turn possible, and turned the drive into a six hour tour of stress. At one point we had to buy a handmade map from a local tico, who obviously had seen many lost Americans down his road before.

Further down the road we were stopped by a dog that insisted we not pass up his town. Each time we tried to drive around him, he quickly ran up the street and in front of our car again. Even further down the road we were nearly ran over by a semi-truck that was moving a little too quickly for these small, hilly roads. We called uncle, and stopped for lunch. It was a bit odd to find a German bakery considering where we were, but this place had a great marketing department.

When we finally arrive at our destination, the guard at the Arenal Observatory Hotel wouldn't let us onto the property. Our reservation had been made online, yet they had no record of it. The guard was a bit rude at first, but ended up calling around to a few nearby hotels to help find us accommodations.

We ended up at the Cabinitas el Castillo Dorado, a quaint little set of bungalows overlooking the Arenal Volcano. To give you an idea of just how quaint this place was, our room had zero power outlets. There was no way of charging our laptops, phones, etc. etc... It was very small and rugged, but pleasant. When we sat down for dinner around 6pm, the Volcano made it's presents felt with a very loud rumbling noise; much like a mixture of thunder and a jet engine. We thought we started to see lava pouring down the volcano, but it was just the "magic moment" during a sunset, when the low hanging clouds turn red due to the sun's last rays.

Also during dinner, we were surprised by fireflies in the bushes next to our table. I can't remember the last time I saw fireflies, and Scott said they are usually only found in the mid-west US. After we ate, we walked down the road to a nearby store (we had forgotten shampoo), and found even more fireflies in the trees & bushes along the way. Little tiny bugs who's butts blink with green light... what an amazing world we live in!

When we returned to the room, we discovered that the ceiling fan only worked when the light was turned on. Unacceptable, so Scott left on a mission to find our waiter/receptionist/cook. He found our matradee who was a one-stop shop, and said "no problem, 10 minutes." This same guy offered to go buy us our shampoo, when we decided to walk instead.

So, sure enough, after about 10 minutes, he showed up with a ladder and a small switch on a long cord. He fiddled with the light socket for a few minutes, and what do ya know? We could now turn the light off and leave the ceiling fan running... Now that's service!

In the morning, the clouds had overtaken Arenal again, and it was almost too foggy to see the volcano. We left our cabinita early so we could drive around to the other side of the volcano, just to see if it was any different. We had heard a few days before from my neighbor Clara that EcoGlide was a really fun zip-line at the base of the volcano, so we stopped into a small tourist info place to check out the deals.

Since the volcano was too foggy, and we wouldn't get a good look from the zip-line, we decided to visit some hot-springs instead, and then return home. We choose a hotel called The Springs, which was reported to have many different pools filled with spring-water, all at different temperatures.

Our plans changed once again the moment we set foot into the The Springs hotel. Scott & I took one look at each other, and decided right then & there to stay another night. Thankfully the desk clerk let us credit the tickets we had bought from the tourist booth towards a room... but not just any room. A two story suite, whose back wall facing the volcano was complete glass, floor to ceiling.

Scott took the downstairs king bed, and I managed to make due with the upstairs king bed, both of which had their own full bath draped with marble. Life is pretty tough sometimes :-) The suite also came with a balcony which had two hammocks on either end. If this wasn't the perfect place to lounge and watch the volcano, I don't know what is.

The pools were exactly as advertised, with varying levels of spring water mixed with normal water to regulate the temperature. They ranged from 103 degrees to 85 degrees, and because I'm such a wimp when it comes to hot water, I had to struggle with my own private pool at about 99 degrees. Scott jumped right into the 103 degrees pool, and made some new friends along the way, as he always does.

The Springs hotel also has their own zoo, or animal sanctuary, if you want to call it that. We caught a bus down to the lower end of the property, where we found 18 different jungle cats. Of the 18 cats, there were 8 different species. Some were obviously happier than others, and some were down right wrathful. We also saw a few caged monkeys. I got a great shot of a child hand feeding "local" monkeys, and she was silly happy after that experience.

That evening we had the opportunity to play some billiards. I semi-introduced Scott to 9 ball, simply because someone had lost the 8 ball. Afterwords, Scott introduced me to a cool version of darts. The best moment though was waking up to a window full of volcano, let alone a 20+ foot wall of volcano. My view was slightly obstructed by the slant ceiling, but I had a 30' tv to watch, so again, I made due :-)

Our last morning at Arenal, I had arranged for a late checkout, something Scott had never heard about before. Basically, if you ask ahead of time, most hotels will offer a few extra hours with the room. Instead of an 11am checkout time, we were able to stay until around 2pm.

We used this extra time to find the water slide we had heard about the day before. Sure enough, if you walk down a few flights to the lower pools, there is a fun little slide filled with spring water. We met a very nice family down there who were also from the states, and the lot of us had plenty to talk about.

Eventually the time had come to return to Coco, and sure enough we got lost on our way back. There is a town on the west side of Laguna de Arenal that works much like a Las Vegas casino, i.e.: many ways in, but no obvious way out. We must have passed the same landmarks half a dozen times, before we finally stopped and asked for directions. Maybe we should have asked someone else...

Let me explain. We stopped at the same gas station where we stopped on our way out to Arenal, of course only after we finally found this particular gas station. I had not tipped the attendant there, and I wasn't sure how resentful he might have been. He simply said go here, turn left, turn left again, continue.

We made it about an hour down the road before we really started to question his directions. We were looking for a town called Canas, but didn't think we had driven this far inland on our way to Arenal. We took the time to stop and try for a GPS signal, which obviously failed, so we had few other options than to continue on our course.

As it just so happens, Canas was only about 5 minutes further down the road, as it always seems to be. We experienced the exact same thing heading out to Arenal, stopped about 5 minutes before we hit Canas thinking we were lost. If you ever come to Costa Rica, buy a real GPS unit. Please. It will save you a lot of trouble.

At some point we finally made it back into Coco, but only after a flat tire and after dark. The pot holes here are unlike anything in the states. Since it rains so much in Costa Rica, the roads deteriorate very quickly. Some holes are so big that they would no doubt brake your axle, along with your tire, rim, bumper, and probably radiator, if you're not careful.

We found a local tico to repair the rim that was bent, and fill the tire back up with air. We gave him a few bucks for the trouble, which he didn't seem to require but much appreciated. The next morning, the tire was unfortunately flat again. We returned to our new tico friend, who laughed, fixed it, and wouldn't accept any more money. He just simply whistled and made hand gestures, since English was obviously not his second language.

Quite the adventure! I highly recommend Arenal Volcano to any visitor of Costa Rica... Just buy a GPS, for your own sake...