Day 7 - Monkeys and Hot Water

Today's agenda takes us to the Arenal Hanging Bridges and the Eco Termales hot springs so after a nice huge breakfast including what Dave is calling lasagna eggs, some weird spaghetti sauce fried egg mixture that actually tasted pretty good, we head out for the bridge hike. On the ride over we debate about getting a guide. It's not that I don't want to pay for one and I know that they can often show you things you might not see yourself and tell you some interesting facts but we decide that we are patient enough to look for many things and not just walk by everything and of all the interesting things most guides have told us in the past, I hardly remember any of it. So, without a guide we slowly head into the park which consists of a fairly easy trail with about 10 or so different bridges, some of them hanging as the name indicates. Immediately we are crossing our first bridge and on a nearby tree we see a bright yellow snake which Dave thinks is a viper, that is all bundled up on a limb. It's hard to tell how long he really is but he is thin and his tail wraps around underneath the branch. I'm always fascinated and scared to see snakes but he is quite a distance away that I don't have to worry. Through our walk we also see many interesting plants and trees but not so many flowers so every time I saw a flower it seemed to stand out so much. But back to our animal discoveries, we saw many butterflies including the amazingly beautiful Blue Morpho but they are too fast for me to take a picture so I just enjoy them flying around us. A couple of bird species that we see are the blue-crowned Motmot which has very pretty tail feathers and a Rufous-tailed Jacamar with a beak like a hummingbird. Oh yeah, we also see a couple of centipedes mating?? So, after nearly an hour and a half of walking around and seeing some things we still have not seen any monkeys which is really why we came. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I see some movement. I tell Dave and we look up to see a mommy and baby howler monkey. The baby is sooooo cute and just playing around mama, jumping on her and seeming to have so much fun. Down and to the left we see what must be daddy as he is larger and watching us through the trees. There seem to be a few above us too and then it begins, the barking type noise they make that shakes the jungle with the sounds. It was a good find and without much time to spare as 10 minutes later we were out of the park.
Next we are on to Eco Termales hot springs. This is a small family run place that has about 4 tiered hot spring pools with each one hotter the closer you get to the top waterfall where the water is feeding in. Standing under the main waterfall and getting a water massage is so relaxing and after this and a cold cerveza it seemed time for a nap. Because it is low season and it was in the afternoon (most places are busier at night), we had the place to ourselves for at least an hour, then a crew showed up to do a photo shoot with a bunch of girls in what looked like wedding attire. I wonder how many pictures Dave and I are in...heheee!
Not much more to say here except that after just about four hours we force ourselves to leave.
A quick bite on the way back at Toad Hall (touristy, but decent food) and then we are back in time for some cervezas and a world series win!!!!