This trip took us down South to Nayara Springs in Costa Rica. Nayara Springs is an adults only resort located near the Arenal Volcano. Our first flight took off on time which made me feel much better about the trip considering our trip last month to Belize was less than perfect. We connected through Miami, ultimately ending up in San Jose, Costa Rica. An added bonus is American Airlines brought back the ability to choose meals prior to your flight. We had pre-selected all of our meals. First up was a fruit plate, followed by a Turkey sandwich on the second flight.
Upon arrival, we headed through immigration which took about 20 minutes. As we always do, we picked the slowest possible line and the whole process should have only taken about 5-7 minutes.
After we cleared immigration, we were met by a Prestige Wings representative to transfer us to the Domestic terminal for our charter flight to La Fortuna Airport, which is 10 minutes from Nayara Springs. We could have had Nayara arrange a road transfer, but the drive takes close to four hours on a good day! That’s four hours that we could be enjoying the resort, so we opted for the flight.
After a 20 minute flight, which was a bit bumpy and cloudy, we arrived in La Fortuna. A time warp video of the flight can be seen here.
We paid the airport fee of $18 and were met by a Nayara Springs driver to take us to the property.
We were greeted by various staff members and promptly provided a series of welcome drinks. They advised our room would be ready at 2:30pm, so we would have to wait about two hours.
We decided to head over to Mis Amores, one of the property’s restaurants, for some lunch. As we sat at our table, the Arenal Volcano came into view. This time of year starts the rainy season, and soon the Volcano will not be visible often, if at all.
2:30pm came up quickly and we headed to our Villa. The room was much bigger and nicer than we could have ever expected. It has an indoor and an outdoor shower with two rainfall shower heads each. The water pressure and temperature were amazing!! Typically, we look forward to getting a shower when we return home because most destinations have low flow and low pressure. Although we don’t like rainfall shower heads, this is a shower we will miss!
Shortly after we got unpacked, the rains started. It was a cold rain, which caused our pool to steam. I didn’t realize that all of Nayara pools are filled from the natural hot springs from the Volcano. The water was so hot! It was great for sore muscles after walking around the hilly property.
We decided to do in-room dining for dinner since it was raining and we were tired from traveling.
We checked the forecast for Saturday morning and it showed all rain for the day, which was disappointing. We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to sunshine. We quickly learned the forecast is never really accurate. Saturday was our first full day on property. We were up early and headed to breakfast at 6:30am at Mis Amores, which serves breakfast a la carte.
After we finished breakfast, we started exploring the property, which is very large. Nayara Resorts has three sections, Nayara Springs, Nayara Gardens, and Nayara Tented Camp. Nayara Springs is adults only, whereas the other two are not restricted. Also on the property are two trails, Sloth Sanctuary and Armadillo Sanctuary. During our stay, we would take these paths often. Since we arrived in Costa Rica, we have been hearing and seeing many colorful birds, but I now have my camera unpacked and was ready to go get some photos!
A Yoga instructor saw us walking around the paths and kindly pointed out a baby Sloth! I don’t think we would have ever found it on our own. It looked like the size of a coconut, and was motionless as it slept in the vines. We walked around it for a bit, trying to get a good angle for a photo, when it decided to wake up and start moving.
Three-toed Sloth baby
After we left the Sloth, we walked around some more and ran into Howler Monkeys!
Howler Monkeys
After the monkeys, we decided to go to lunch. We ordered a Margherita Pizza to share. It was delicious.
After lunch, we headed back to the room. We were sitting on the patio when I caught something moving in the foliage. It was a green vine snake! It was working it’s way up the gutter to our villa, and then decided to move toward the front door. I grabbed some photos and videos before it moved deeper into the forest.
As we left our room to do some more exploring, we noticed another snake, a much bigger snake. I couldn’t see it’s head, but I think it looked like a Python. It was not more than two feet from the path to our room. We quickly moved past it and hoped it would be gone by the time we returned.
After some more exploring, it was dinner time. We had made reservations for Amor Loco, Nayara’s fine dining restaurant. It has live music at night and is directly next to the quiet pool.
After dinner, we took a golf cart back to our room since it was raining and headed to bed a little later on. We have a bird tour scheduled for 5am Sunday morning. The tour coordinator advised us a breakfast would be provided on the tour.
Adam Woods
Take a look below for our next post on our Costa Rica Trip.