Arenal National Park – our last 2 days in Costa Rica

We left Reserva Conchal on Friday at noon and headed northwest – 4 1/2 hours later we arrived at our hotel, Amor Arenal, in the Arenal National Park. The last hour of the drive was scenic but also a winding road – good thing we are not prone to car sickness. We kept seeing a lake so I asked if it was the same lake – our driver said it was Lake Arenal which sits at the base of the Arenal Volcano. I looked up its size – Lake Arenal is Costa Rica’s largest landlocked body of water with a surface that covers nearly 85 square km – no wonder it took so long to make our way around it. Our transfer drivers both going to and coming from Arenal were excellent and we had lots of space in the van which was nice.

We were really happy that we were staying in Arenal National Park for a few days rather than doing just a day trip – too long a drive for a day trip.

Arenal Volcano National Park is a protected area and is known for its hot springs, in addition to the Volcano. We spent Saturday afternoon at Tabacon Thermal Resort.  Tabacon is the only hot springs hotel in La Fortuna that makes use of the volcanic water – the thermal pools are built along the stream of the river and are surrounded by lush vegetation. Although we really enjoyed our time at Tabacon, we were happy to come back to our small hotel, Armor Arenal.

Now for the pictures from our last two days in Costa Rica.

Pictures from our afternoon at Tabacon

The end of our time in Costa Rica and it seems appropriate to end with an expression we heard often “Pura Vida”.