El Arenal

We had opened the doors at night again and I got woken up by some light rain on my face at 6 am. It was a nice, refreshing breeze and perfect temperature. Soon afterwards the screams of the howler monkeys and several bird species joined in on the orchestra. Even though it might sounds loud and annoying, it was a beautiful way to wake up! Julia encountered a bat in the bathroom while I had a visit from three large birds. We made some coffee and around 07:30 the people from the tour started coming in. Each one greeted us with a handshake and the general feeling was rather like friends than work colleagues. Our guide, Fernando, then took us on the trail into the rainforest... Just after 5 minutes he showed us a sloth 🦥😍 in quite the distance sleeping comfortably in its tree. He was very knowledgeable and told us a lot about the flora, fauna and even a bit of history. He showed us all the sloths in the area, three different species of frogs (one being extremely poisonous), a bat, a basilisk and many plant species. Overall we spent two hours on the perfectly maintained trail watching the wildlife 😍 An amazing experience so close by nature. We've had a coffee at the camp and said goodbye to the people who we had grown fond of since yesterday evening.

Our next stop was the Mistic Arenal Hanging Bridges, a popular canopy walk. It's a very easy walk offering great views over the treetops. We've even been lucky enough to spot a black snake 🐍 and a pair of Tapir 😍 They've become really rare and shy with people so we hadn't thought we'd see them. Also because they're active at night or in the early morning, there's apparently one visiting every morning around 5:30. So we had probably missed him but we were fortunate to see them both and even took pictures 😊 When we left the bridges there was a bit of a traffic jam after 15 minutes... As we came closer we saw people on the streets looking up and taking pictures. Just as we passed we saw the sloth hanging on the outer branches, looking a little lost. It was very active, scratching and stretching 🥰

For a very late lunch and early dinner we had looked up a restaurant with typical Costa Rican food. It was generally a little more touristy than we are used to but delicious. We even ordered a coffee and dessert (Flan de la casa), but the way coffee is prepared (chorreada) here is too watery for my taste. It was a really great restaurant! Then we went to find a spot for the night, unfortunately a camping spot we wanted to stay at was already closed. So we drove back to La Fortuna and stealth camped right at the church in the city center which was a little loud in the beginning but we were tired enough to fall asleep soon 😊Read more