Our visit to Costa Rica has come to an end. We left the Caribbean coast a week ago and headed inland to Lake Arenal, famous for its namesake volcano, adventure tours and hot springs. We unpacked our bags in an out-of-the-way lodge perched on a hillside overlooking the lake’s northern shore, in the town of Nuevo Arenal (the original Arenal now sits at the bottom of the lake, created by the building of the dam in 1972). We had hoped to also unpack our paddle boards and launch them onto the lake for a couple days of paddling, but the incessant wind dashed those plans. We consoled ourselves by visiting one of the areas many hot springs on our first day. It seems most folks visit the well-known hot spring resorts and we wanted to avoid the crowds at those. Fortunately, Cindy, the owner of our lodge, suggested one that would offer a more intimate and quiet experience. Her recommendation was spot on. When we visited Paradise Hot Springs we shared the seven pools (the water heated by the thermal activity of the Arenal Volcano – which could be seen from the pools) with only three other visitors. The resort (there are rooms available here) offered a luxurious experience – in-pool loungers, lush foliage (think beautiful moss and vine-covered palms sprouting orchids in a rainbow of colors), flowering bougainvilleas, soft music from hidden speakers, a swim-up bar and those awesome views of the volcano. It certainly was paradise.

Our second day we opted to drive an hour north to Tenorio Volcano National Park. The highlight of the park (the volcanic peak remained shrouded in clouds throughout our visit) was a hike along the Rio Celeste (Heavenly River). The name comes from the unusual color of the water. The turquoise hue is formed when suspended minerals (aluminum and silicon) of one river mix with the highly acidic water of another and refract sunlight into the blue color. The trail passes a spectacular waterfall, a small lagoon, a section that features a bubbling sulphur spring and ends where the two smaller rivers converge and the coloration begins. The roundtrip hike took about two and a half hours and we returned to Lake Arenal by an alternative route that took us through hilly pastureland, past long rows of wind turbines and beneath the shadow of yet another volcanic peak.

Our final day at the lake we returned to Paradise Hot Springs for another ‘soak session’. As with the previous two days, we capped off the day by dining at the superb restaurant attached to our lodge. The open-air restaurant had a perfect view of the setting sun, offered a selection of tasty Costa Rican craft beers, delicious ceviche, fresh fish and a damn fine Black Angus burger. The staff was wonderful, the food was incredible (we never did save room for their chocolate cake over three nights) and the walk home (about ten steps) was manageable.

Our final stop would be the mountain town of Santa Elena – base for exploring the nature reserve of Curi Cancha and the cloudforest reserves of Monteverde and Santa Elena. We had visited all three parks last year and were eager to revisit Curi Cancha, where we had been able to view the Resplendent Quetzal, one of the world’s most beautifully colored birds. As in Lake Arenal, the wind would alter our plans – wind-driven rain would force us to pass on a visit to the cloudforest reserves (both at higher altitudes than the nature reserve). We visited Curi Cancha and once again were lucky enough to see a pair of quetzals, some white-faced capuchin monkeys, a large blue morpho butterfly and enjoy the entire park (all 200+ acres) while seeing only five other visitors.

On our last night in Costa Rica we sat on a bench outside of our cabin. We watched the sunset paint the sky in varying pastel shades. We reflected on our visit – in four months we had traveled over 2,700 miles in our rental car, stayed in sixteen different guesthouses and visited thirty-nine different beaches on two coasts. And broken one bone. Not often can you travel abroad, break your foot, have surgery, spend six weeks recovering and rate the trip a huge success! As we leave we won’t say ‘adios’ (goodbye), but rather ‘hasta luego’ (see you later), to Costa Rica and it’s ‘pura vida’ lifestyle . . . and tomorrow say ‘hola’ to Mexico!