Mistico Park / Hanging Bridges - Arenal, Costa Rica

 

Another highlight of our time near Arenal Volcano was our two-hour guided hike through the hanging bridges of Mistico Park.

The park has a two-mile paved trail that includes more than a dozen bridges at various heights through the rain forest. Some are ground level, some are mid-canopy and a few a above the canopy. Six of the bridges are suspension bridges.

The trail and bridges are well-maintained and very safe.

We saw a great deal of unique flora and fauna during this hike starting with the yellow-throated toucan and a coati before we even started our hike.

The picture to the left is of a group of white-faced monkeys playing on the final bridge. We waited and watched them for a good 10 minutes before we could cross.

Everyone's wildlife experience will differ, but some of the things we saw included a beautiful roufous motmot, the poisonous dart frog, two types of vipers (very small), howler monkeys and spider monkeys. It was a treat to watch the spider monkeys fly from tree to tree.

White Water Rafting near La Fortuna

White Water Rafting is the only thing we did in Costa Rica that I don't have pictures from. It's kind of hard to take your camera along on the rapids. The rafting company took 80-some pictures of us, but I had already purchased a photo package from the zip line company the previous day, so I opted out of the rafting pictures.

Rio Balsa is near the town of La Fortuna. Our trip coincided with the beginning of the rainy season in Costa Rica, so the river was at a good level. The river offers both a Class IV section as well as a Class II and III section. We opted for the latter for two reason - one, none of us had ever been white water rafting before, and two, there is a minimum age of 12 to do the Class IV tour. Our daughter was 10. (There is a min. age of 8 for the Class II/III tour).

We were picked up at our resort and taken into La Fortuna where the bus picked up a few additional people at the company's headquarters. From there we drove about 40 minutes to the put-in.

Each raft accommodates six people plus the guide, so we had a boat to ourselves which was very nice.

For this particular tour, there was no breaking in period for us first-time rafters. Immediately after putting in we were in the midst of the rapids. We had a great time navigating through the rapids while staying safe as well.

We stopped at a couple of locations to observe sloths and a poison dart frog. We also saw several types of herons.

We were on the river for approximately two hours. After rafting we were driven to a sugar cane farm where we enjoyed a native lunch of rice and chicken with beans and fruit juice. The lunch stop included a presentation about how they make sugar cane juice and sugar cane "moonshine" with samples of both.

The entire tour lasted approximately five hours and was one of many highlights of our trip.

La Fortuna, Costa Rica

We spent several hours in the small town of La Fortuna one evening. The town has numerous restaurants and souvenir stores. The central park is a popular area where we happened to see dozens of green parakeets at the top of the trees. Shop around for the best deal and don’t be afraid to negotiate the price. My son was able to save several dollars on his souvenirs by negotiating.

Zip Lining near Arenal Volcano

One reason many people travel to Costa Rica is for various forms of adventure, including zip lining.

There are numerous places to zip line near La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano. We selected a place that features 13 zip lines and a Tarzan swing. The lines are above and through the canopy of trees. We didn’t see much wildlife during our zip line adventure, but it is possible to see wildlife at the top of the canopy. The zip lines are fast and range in length from roughly a few hundred feet to more than 1,400 feet. This was a safe and fun adventure for all of us.

Arenal Springs Resort & Spa

Arenal Springs Resort & Spa is located five minutes outside of the town of La Fortuna. There are several room categories, but every unit faces Arenal Volcano. 

Breakfast is included with most reservation. Breakfast includes fresh fruits, pastries, made-to-order eggs, pancakes and other hot dishes. There are also two other restaurants, including a swim-up sushi bar. 

The resort has several hot springs fed naturally by Arenal Volcano. In fact, many of the resorts and hotels nearby feature hot springs.

There is also a pool that is open until 10 p.m. every night. 

We spent our first morning on the porch watching numerous tropical birds, including hummingbirds, tanagers and an oropendola.

 

Costa Rica: San Jose to Arenal

San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica and lies in a valley in the center of the country. It took us about an hour to go through immigration and meet our driver. He drove us up the mountain of the Poas Volcano. That area featured numerous coffee farms including a coffee farm owned by Starbucks. We also passed La Paz Waterfalls and Gardens, a popular tourist attraction. We drove back down the other side of the mountain into another valley. The drive to La Fortuna, the small town located near the Arenal Volcano took about four hours. 

Because Costa Rica is closer to the equator, its hours of daylight don’t fluctuate as much as most of the United States. For example during our trip in June sunrise was a little after 5 a.m., and the sun set by 6 p.m. There is a two-hour time difference from eastern daylight time, so when we arrived around 6 o’clock in Costa Rica it felt like 8 p.m. our time.