tomandbuntytrails

After three days in the stunning Monteverde area, we moved on to explore the Arenal Lake and Volcano. After walking for far longer than we planned to in Monteverde, we ended up arriving really late at our airbnb next to Arenal Lake. The drive over was quite hair raising at times! We had hired a little Toyota car, and some of the roads really needed a 4X4! I persuaded Bunty to take the “main roads” around the lake rather than the farm tracks, which Google was trying to send us on!

We decided to stay in El Castillo bit longer as we both feel so at home here, do we ever have to leave? It’s a really unspoilt area, a world away from the resorts and tourist restaurants just a few miles away in La Fortuna. After three nights in our airbnb we moved to a B&B further up in the hills  nearby. We were lucky enough to be given the largest “villa” on site, with spectacular views of the lake, volcano and surrounding jungle. The place has totally captivated us! We have a family of howler monkeys living in the trees below, and we sit here watching flock of toucans fly to and fro, orange-chin parakeets, red lord amazon parrots, wild turkeys as well as more turkey and black vultures just chilling and drying out there wings on the trees nearby. It is almost devoid of human-made noise, just birdsong and monkeys howling. We are learning more and more about the native species surrounding us, one of my new favourites is a bird called an Montezuma oropendola, whose call sounds like someone crumpling up some very dry newspaper, and when he calls he pirouettes round on the branch towards the ground! At night the level and variety of sounds and calls increases. Outside our villa huge cane toads come out at night to hunt and to mate! They have really loud calls and are super cute! We have spotted 4 different species of toucan now!  

We have already made some friends including the local baker, Lou who makes incredible baguettes, cinnamon rolls, and sweet breads filled with guava and cream cheese and a chap called Neeraj who has given up the corporate life in Atlanta and has bought a plot nearby. He has inspired us so much! We are both feeling so excited about our future plans to live amongst nature and have a totally simple life. The more we meet people who have similar ideas and passions somehow makes the life we dream about become more tangible and achievable.