Before I begin, wisdom from Lauren’s dad:
- Grab some extra ziploc bags for Lauren, I bet she didn’t grab enough waterproof gear
- You can get sunburned through clouds~
Unexpectedly, these words were ominous for us.
Before leaving, we remembered to pack extra waterproof gear for the boat and rain. We couldn’t find the sunscreen, so we gave it up as a lost cause. How much sun could we possibly get on the lake? Time for breakfast!
Yesterday’s bees told today’s bees we were easy marks at breakfast time, so we got to eat with at least twenty bees today! Yes!
After bee breakfast, we headed up to lake Arenal for canoeing for a few hours, hoping to spot some wildlife.
Because it’s the shoulder season (referred to as more rainy season by today’s guide), we were fortunate enough to be in smaller tour groups. There were only two others (an elderly German couple who were canoe experts) on the canoe tour besides us.
In our van, we wound slowly up the mountain path to lake Arenal. The guide had us sign some papers saying we acknowledge that the lake crocodiles might eat us. Pura vida, amirite?
After a quick paddling lesson, we were off to a great start. We immediately paddled in the wrong direction and it took us a painstakingly long time to turn around the right way.
We zigged and zagged in our canoe to catch up. We decided we were the drunk boat, going straight was way more difficult than it looked!
Five minutes into our drunken zig zag, I heard a plunk from the front of the boat. I saw what appeared to be Lauren’s cell phone sinking slowly in the water.
Faster than I have ever seen another human being move, even on a zip line, she rescued it from the water. If it hadn’t been for the plastic bag, the phone would have been a goner.
We recovered our wits and paddled on.
After about an hour, we had mastered the art of going kinda straight and turning sometimes
We did see a lot of egrets, ibises, and a big kingfisher. No monkeys came out, but the rain held off long enough to get some nice pics of the volcano.
Lake Arenal is a man mad lake, a reservoir for the dam which generates nearly 50% of Costa Rica’s power. After the volcano erupted in 1968, the people living in the town under the water abandoned it. I would too, if a volcano erupted near me!
After we reached the volcano view, the weather got windy and serious rain looked like it was about to settle in, all we paddled and paddled and paddled back to our meeting point.
Against the wind was rough going. Would they send a rescue boat for us? We could only hope.
Fortunately we survived. The rain started pouring hard just as we rounded the bend to our meeting point.
They fed us the worlds tastiest mango and simple sandwiches and we headed back to our hotel for a brief siesta.
We were greeted by a kitty on our doormat! We named her Catalina and she was pretty friendly.
Our sunburn set in after the nap. Deep, evil sunburn on the top of my legs was the worst. Lauren ended up with a very attractive sunglasses tan line. Together, we were one literally hot mess.
This wouldn’t be a vacation without a trip to the pharmacy in another language. With the help of Google translate, we got some nasal decongestant and a $12 bottle of aloe Vera. Sweet, sweet relief was so close…unlike our hotel.
The town was full of people, more full than the little restaurants and shops near our hotel. Everything was located around the park and church square.
We cabbed it back and had the wonderful hotel owner help Lauren with the nasal decongestant instructions. The secret was to tip your head back. She made fun of us 😉
I used the pool to relieve my sunburn of the legs. It’s cool water was perfect…I was chased out by serious rain movin in and ruining my reading.
Tomorrow we say farewell to the lovely roca negra inn and head to tortuguero and the beach!
