The first day after our arrival at Nuevo Arenal we drove to Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges, about a 45 minute drive from our B & B along the shores of Lake Arenal.
Located in the Arenal Volcano foothills, the park dates back to the early 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century over a period of 12 years the hanging bridges and trails were developed through the tropical rainforest in front of the majestic Arenal volcano.
The hanging bridges and hiking are located in 250 hectares of forest reserve and encompasses the interaction of highland flora with lowland rainforest. The hiking was easy and there were 16 suspension bridges of varying length and height where you could view the flora (there wasn’t much fauna) from high in the tree tops.
There are many hot springs in the relative area and as far as we could tell, all have been developed into attractions at the many resorts that exist in the area and all charge different prices for the opportunity to sit in up to 40 degree Celsius water for a few minutes, jump in a cooling pond, repeat the heat and then feel drained for the rest of the day.
Some have more beautiful settings than others with Tabacon boasting springs and pools that wind like a river through a luscious garden in the heart of the jungle. For a cool $89 USD including lunch you can go and cook yourself for a few minutes and wonder how all of your money just evaporated.
The next day we decided to splurge $17 USD each and drove to Los Lagos Resort, about one hour away from our B & B.
It was a very nice resort and the entrance fee included lockers and showers and full use of all the facilities.
We got changed and headed up to the highest pools (we were told they were the hottest at 37 deg. C) and proceeded to boil ourselves for a very short time. Who knew that our body temperature was so hot?
While we were cooling down we had the great surprise of seeing a three toed sloth close by in the trees. We spent $200 USD for a guide to see this in Manuel Antonio NP and didn’t even get close to seeing a sloth as close as this one was!
We hung around a nice natural cool water pool for awhile and then drove to a nearby soda and had a $10 USD lunch.
The moral of the story is you don’t have to pay big bucks to scorch the skin off of your body and feel like a lobster for most of the remaining day.