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| Costa Rica Honeymoon, Fall 2000: Arenal, Day 12
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Friday, November 3, 2000: Spa Time!
We decided to sink completely into decadence with an extended visit to the Iskandria spa, which is a big part of the Tabacon Resort. But first, no day is complete without an enormous, tasty breakfast. Our hotel had a tantalizing breakfast buffet, and we chowed down on custom-built omelets, fresh rolls, fruit, eggs, cereal, yogurt, granola, fresh juices, and great coffee...mmmm...
Ah, bliss. The women who worked on me were competent, professional, and extremely friendly...a far cry from our oh-so-efficient maulings that passed for massage at Xandari. We were so pampered. It was completely sybaritic.
My favorite sight: a roadside shop with the sign "Neptune's House of Hammocks." I guess that's the Costa Rican equivalent of "Crazy Eddie's Mattress Discounters."
Today is our last full day in Arenal, but we're both OK with that. Other than the resort and the volcano, there doesn't seem to be terribly much to do/see here...and neither of us is so enamored of hot springs and fruity tropical drinks (yes, there was a big heated pool with a swim-up bar) that we could happily spend days on end here. We arranged for a 3 a.m. volcano wakeup call...if the weather clears, the front desk will call you so you can see the lava flow...but we're not too hopeful. The rain has continued on and off all day, and the overcast is low and heavy. We watched "The Legend of Billie Jean" via satellite back in the room (the tentacles of culture reach oh-so-far), and called it an early night. |
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Today was...spa day! Hooray!
Afterward, we rolled our portly bodies over to the resort, which is just down the road. On the way, we spotted howler monkeys swinging through the trees -- that's definitely not something you see every day in California! We found the spa and checked in, whereupon we were given plush white robes and glasses of water garnished with floating lemon slices. I signed up for the Aphrodite treatment, a three-hour spa-fest that included a facial, a manicure, a pedicure, a massage, and reflexology...all for $110 (about the cost for a massage at a high-end spa stateside). David decided to do the "men's facial" and a massage.
Afterward, we wandered around the resort some more and took tons of photographs. The plant life is incredibly lush there...I can't imagine how many gardeners it must take to keep the place up. At every turn there were explosions of color, several variations of one type of plant, and lovely paths winding through the foliage. In the background, the volcano Arenal peered up over the treetops, wreathed in mist and clouds.
Afteward, relaxed and mellow, we decided to do some exploring. We drove into the nearby town of La Fortuna, which on the map looks like a teeming metropolis but is about the size of Tamarindo (give or take). We picked up a couple of schoolboys who were hitchhiking and gave them a ride, practicing our fledling Spanish with them to the chorus of their giggles. Afterward, we spent a little time at a local souvenir shop that sold colorful pottery, and I practiced converting colones into dollars (it's hard! There are 312 colones to a dollar! You try doing the math in your head!) while buying cute things.
We ate at a little soda on the fringes of town, where for about $5 each we had enormous meals of tasty chicken, rice, beans, tortillas, salsa, and so forth. We were so proud to be going native...until we realized that at the table next to us were four Americans that we'd previously run into at the Tabacon Resort. So much for heading off the beaten path.