Vacation! Part 2

We spent all day Tuesday at Arenal, passing the morning by exploring La Fortuna. I was pretty disappointed to be missing President Obama's inauguration, which was that day. But we were pleasantly surprised to find a couple of open-air restaurants in La Fortuna that had their TVs tuned to CNN International. So we picked one for lunch and got to see at least a few minutes of it. Here we are eating lunch and watching the inauguration (I had ceviche, Elsa had pasta, and Bob had chicken soup).

We missed the speech entirely, but since the broadcast was in Spanish, we probably wouldn't have gotten a lot out of it anyway. We did, however, get to see Bush taking off in the helicopter, which was just as satisfying (probably more so, given the language barrier).

After a quick nap back at the hotel, we went to Sky Adventures, which was only about 10 minutes from our hotel. They have a "Sky Tram," which is basically a ski-lift ride halfway up the side of the volcano, and the "Sky Trek," which is a series of zip lines that takes you back down. Obviously, Elsa and I couldn't do the zipping, but we talked Bob into doing it without us. Here he is in his zip-line gear before we went up.
We all headed up in the tram (here's Elsa on the ride up). We had our first monkey sighting along the way—just a glimpse of some spider monkeys playing in the treetops below us.

The tram stops at a viewing platform overlooking Lake Arenal. Lake Arenal is actually a man-made lake, courtesy of a large dam, which lies just below the volcano.

This zipline made the one Bob and I did in Hawaii look wimpy by comparison! The Hawaiian zipline was a fraction of the length of this one, and nowhere near as high. I could hardly believe it when we saw it—and this is just the first section! There were six sections total (not including two practice lines), ranging in length from around 1,500 feet to 2,500 feet. It was also a fraction of the cost, at just $66 per person (it cost me $60 just to go up and down on the tram).

Bob and I agreed that, in spite of the additional length and height, this zipline actually seemed less scary, simply because there were handles to hold onto. The Hawaiian zipline didn't have that, so your arms were just kind of flailing around. It took Bob a full 20 minutes or so to do all six sections and get back to the starting point. He loved it and said it was a blast. I was pretty jealous—I promised Elsa and Baby #2 that someday, when they're old enough, we'll all go back and do it together (the minimum age is 8 years old). Here's video of Bob doing the first section:

Elsa and I watched Bob do the first section and then went back down on the tram to meet him at the bottom. Elsa was particularly interested in the zipline because I reminded her beforehand that Diego often rides on a zipline on "Go, Diego, Go." And even since returning home, many of Elsa's animals and dolls have had the pleasure of ziplining as well! The reins on the bouncing horsey that Elsa got for Christmas from Grandma B. and Grandpa P. have served as a realistic zipline in these scenarios.

After the ziplining, we headed back to La Fortuna and ate dinner at a pizza place. The pizza was surprisingly good—made in a real woodburning oven, so it reminded us of the pizza in Europe. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and once again hung out on the balcony of our room while we waited for Elsa to fall asleep ... and waited, and waited. Sleeping in the hotel room was definitely Elsa's biggest challenge throughout the trip—I think she was always just too excited about everything that had happened during the day to settle down and fall asleep.

But we had a nice balcony to sit on while we waited, and it actually cleared enough (briefly) that we got to see some lava flowing that night. I suddenly looked up and said to Bob, "Hey—I think we can actually see the peak of the volcano right now." Obviously it was dark, so it was hard to make it out, but I could definitely see the silhouette of the mountain. And then, probably about 10 minutes later, I saw a little blip of orange at the top. And then more orange, and more, and more. It was amazing how fast it seemed to roll down the side of the mountain.

We tried to wake up Elsa to see the lava (it was now about 11 p.m. and she had only gone to sleep about a half an hour before), but she was too groggy to take notice of it, and the show ended too soon. But we're glad we got a glimpse of it before we left, since I'm sure many people go to Arenal and never see the lava at all.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed for The Hanging Bridges Wildlife Preserve. This is a loop of relatively easy trails through the rain forest, totaling about 3 km of walking. You cross six hanging bridges that are suspended in the tree canopy during the walk. We figured 3 km was doable walk for Elsa (and a doable waddle for me), and she seemed to like the idea of the bridges. I thought it sounded like something out of an episode of Dora ("Where are we going? To the Hanging Bridges! Where are we going? To the Hanging Bridges!")

The walk was beautiful and the bridges were fun. They really are completely suspended—no supports coming from below. They also bounce and swing a little as you cross, but not excessively. And as you can see from the pictures, the sides are well caged-in. We also took a detour down to a waterfall, which Elsa enjoyed.

We had our second monkey sighting while at Hanging Bridges: This time, howler monkeys. We heard them before we saw them—they sound more like dogs barking than anything else. We got a decent view of them through the trees, and they were so small I didn't think those could be the same monkeys that were making such a racket a minute earlier (they were).

We took off from Hanging Bridges for the afternoon drive to Liberia, then on to Playa Panama and the resort where we would spend the rest of the trip. To get from La Fortuna to Liberia, you have to drive the long way around Lake Arenal, because there are no paved roads in the other direction. However, the drive is beautiful and this is clearly where some of Costa Rica's high-end real estate is located.

We kept seeing signs as we drove for a German Bakery in Neuvo Arenal, so we decided to stop there for lunch. They had some decent pretzels, plus very good sausage plates (I had bratwurst and Bob had weisswurst, which is difficult to get outside of Germany), plus we had apple strudel with ice cream for dessert.
While at the German Bakery, we ran into a group of Canadian tourists that had done the ziplines with Bob, as well as a couple from Ohio who was on our flight from Atlanta to San Jose. Guess Costa Rica isn't such a big country after all!

Just after leaving the German Bakery, we had the third of our four monkey sightings: Monkeys playing in the trees over a creek, just off the road we were driving on. We probably never would have noticed them if it weren't for the Canadian tourists, who had left the Bakery just before us and were now stopped by the side of the road looking at the monkeys. So, third monkey sighting, and third sighting of the same Canadians. We were on a roll.

We made it to the resort by about 4 or 5 p.m. and got settled in. Next: Lots of playing in the swimming pool, and the wedding!