Roam: Termales del Bosque, Toad Hall and frogs

The past few days have been good ones. It is always nice to transition from a week of school and domesticity to a weekend with exploration and adventure. A break from cooking and washing dishes is welcome too. Friday, all three kids were in school in the morning, so my mom and I took advantage of the opportunity and went for a yoga class at Villa Decary, a lovely B&B near Nuevo Arenal. The yoga class takes place on a wide porch high up on a hill looking out on many trees and a distant view of the lake. Although there were some pesky mosquitos, the sounds of birds and insects during the class added a lot. Before class we spotted a blue jeans dart frog on a driveway. So cute in his tiny jeans!

Blue Jeans Dart Frog

Yesterday we set out early for Termales del Bosque. This is the hot springs where we stayed for two nights in February when we had first arrived in Costa Rica and where we celebrated Nik’s birthday. We talked then about how we’d have to come back to bring special visitors. Well, we wasted no time in taking my mom there. It was just as wonderful as our first visit, although we missed Nik and felt slightly guilty being so relaxed while he was still working away in Portland. We did toast him with our pina coladas Saturday evening. We have now been to a few different hot springs places, and this is our favorite. The setting of the hot pools in the woods along a stream is perfect; it feels very natural and secluded. My mom and I indulged in massages in the semi-outdoor spa cabinas in the woods by the hot pools, and we had dinner at the snack bar/ rancho including ceviche, arroz con pollo and pizza.

Gram with her crew enjoying the hot spring's therapeutic properties.

Termales view

The drive to and back from the Termales, which is near Ciudad Quesada, took about 2 hours each way and was relaxed and pretty scenic. Few bigs trucks and not much traffic. Only once did I earn the stink eye (and flash of headlights and honk) from a Tico driver for not yielding at one of the many one-lane bridges. Usually one direction is signed “ceda el paso,” and I did not cede when I was supposed to. Doh! I am learning.

On the drive from La Fortuna to Nuevo Arenal, there are an incredible number of yellow signs advertising Toad Hall, a restaurant and hotel. Since we first saw these, we have found them annoying, especially Nik, who vowed to never go to Toad Hall because of their obnoxious advertising. Still, we were curious. Since Nik returns tomorrow (yay!!), we decided this was our chance to check out Toad Hall without torturing Nik. We found it touristy of course, and a bit overpriced, but we enjoyed our stop there. Madeleine and Henry found a geocache, we ate fish tacos ("voted best in the world" claim several signs), hiked down their jungle trail to a stream, admired their birds (including parrots, whistling ducks who hang out in the swimming pool, guinea fowl, parakeets) and Sullivan posed for Gram in front of the trademark toad out front.