Picture: The view of distant Arenal Lake from the parking lot at Essence Plantation, Arenal
After a long drive that was perhaps only 70 km as the bird flies, we arrived at our home for the next 4 days: Essence Plantation, near Arenal. The drive from Monte Verde was exciting because half of it was on unpaved roads that were in places passable with 4-wheel drive only. The rich red earth was very muddy due to the rains and the route we were to take involved crossing a river crossing without a bridge. This was not a safe option due to the high water. So we spoke to Anthony at the front desk of our B&B before leaving and thrashed out an alternate route that had much less unpaved roads, and turned out to be absolutely beautiful.
The north side of Arenal Lake has to be one of the prettiest drives you could ever make. It seemed to me to be a cross between the best parts of Hawaii, the U.S., and jolly old England. I love smaller two lane roads as they do not dominate the land they pass through. And in Costa Rica this means that dogs standing in the middle of the road (as they did from one end of the country to the other every day we drove) have time enough to casually saunter to the roadside. A few colorful houses nestled in the palms overlooking the lake and the surrounding hillsides, and the occasional dock reached out into the inviting water. Everyone relaxed after the slippery mud sliding drive down from the mountains of Monte Verde. Even Robyn managed to unlatch her fingers from the dashboard where she’d hanging on for dear life. There was one part near the end of this drive where we crossed over the lake on a long causeway with the classic cone-shaped form of Arenal Volcano in the background that took our breath away as it was simply almost too beautiful. A few miles farther on and we reached our destination and were greeted by Banano, the colorful mackaw parrot so named as he liked to scrounge chunks of bananas from the enamored guests at mealtimes.
The plantation is basically a working farm with good amenities for visitors to enjoy while they explored and learned about the area. Unfortunately, the room we had booked was a very small, dark little cell with nowhere to hang or store our luggage. In fact, there were no windows, chairs, or any improvements at all; just bunk beds. There was a shower and restroom across the way, though. Robyn and I could not see how to make it work, especially as we had to try to make our own food as the restaurant was simply too expensive for us to eat at. Robyn went to the front desk to check to see if there was another option. A short while she came back with the location for a safari-style tent on 15 foot stilts overlooking the jungle for us to look at. It was great, and we moved in lickety-split. So much better; airy, table and chairs, and an outside deck with a covered roof for us to dry laundry. Best of all, it was very spacious and we could hear all the crazy jungle sounds while we relaxed. Leaf cutter ants paraded busily along the worn dirt pathways and following one such colony led us to the shower building. The shower was also piping hot as it was heated by the nearby volcano.
We walked up to the small outside pool on the neighboring ridge and cooled off surrounded by coffee bushes and piña plants (so that’s what they look like before they get to the store!) The daily storm clouds began to gather giving us a few minutes to collect our belongings and walk back to the tent. The downpour that followed had us all grinning at each other nervously as sheets of water thrashed the roof of the tent while the wind tried to pry the canvas from the wooden floor and stilts. Flashes of light and crashing thunder made us feel all the more cozy when it became apparent that the tent would survive another day. Later that evening as the storm grumbled away to the distance, the jungle gradually came alive with whirring, croaking, buzzing, chirruping night sounds that were much louder than we were expecting. Interestingly, they make great background noise to fall asleep to and we all slept soundly until the dawn chorus greeted us with a brand new day.
