Day 40 - San Antonio de Belen

Day 40 (Feb. 19, 2010, a free day)

We are in the Belen Trailer Park near San Jose, Costa Rica. Many Caravaners enjoyed their time at the local market next door to the RV park. There was a large variety of fruits, vegetables, homemade cheese and a few meat stands. The vendors were very eager to give us samples and encouraged us to buy. We,of course, did buy and thoroughly enjoyed both the food and the market.

Later in the afternoon, LuAnn showed us how she braids and fringes her shirts. She is so talented and so are many of our artsy caravaners, who caught on real quick. It was a nice learning experience. Thanks LuAnn for sharing your ideas. The rest of the day is as follows, that some others did.


I woke up around 5:30AM and went on the internet to see what the weather report was for La Fortuna, Arenal Volcano area. Today it is supposed to be cloudy with sunny periods and clearing later, and clear tommorrow. It looks good! Ron, Pam and I are going in my truck and Lindsey, Rita and Fran are going in Rita`s van. We started off at 9:00 AM from the Belen Trailer Park. We drove Highway C1 to San Ramon, north through Angeles, La Tiagra, San Isdro, San Francisco finally arriving at La Fortuna. Our drive was through dense fog for about a half hour; a very windy road and very scenic country side when we could see it. We encountered lots of traffic on the road but this actually made driving in the fog much easier because you could follow their tailights. We drove west to the little town of El Castillo, suppossedly the best viewing area for the Arenal Volcano. We all decided on staying at the Observatory Lodge. We drove 9 kilometers over the worst pothole road that I have driven on for some time. We finally arrived at the gate and the guard told us that they were fully booked. We were extremely disapointed but turned around and drove back about 3 kilometers and up another road to Linda Vista del Norte Hotel. It was perched on a hill overlooking beautiful Lake Arenal and the active side of the volcano. There was a huge observatory type dining room overlooking the lake and volcano and a spectacular infinity swimming pool and hot tub. The rooms were average and that was fine. The amenities were first class. They had just two junior suites left so we decided to book them. We were not about to bounce over the road to look for something else. This was great! We all had lunch together by the window with a full view of the volcano, waiting, waiting, waiting for the fog to clear. It did not so we all decided to go into the swimming pool and the hot tub. It was great fun. After swimming and hot tubbing Ron, Rita, Lindsey and I walked up a mountain trail for about an hour. It was getting dark so we returned to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner. We went for dinner and again had a very nice table by the windows. Some of us had steaks and Rita and I had the Pork Spareribs. Enough said about that! We sat and talked for quite awhile constantly looking out the windows, hoping the fog would clear and we would see the glowing lava from the volcano. We did not! We all decided to go swimming and hot tubbing again. After hot tubbing we decided to turn in at 11:15 PM. It was a great day, just 26 kilometers west of La Fortuna overlooking the lake and volcano.


We drove back the next morning stopping at the hotsprings and the Burger King, of course. We never did see the top of the volcano. Perhaps someday we will have the opportunity to try again.

Rig 6

John and Kathy