We started with an early breakfast at 7 with seats right by the front of the restaurant overlooking the volcano watching birds over the water and then headed over to the reception to be picked up at 8:15 for Sky trek.

When we arrived, we put our bags in the lockers and got kitted out with equipment and they gave me a special helmet with a mount for my go-pro so that I could film from there rather than from my chest strap. We were then given the briefing on how to use the equipment and importantly how to brake and were taken up to the stop of the first zip line in the tram.

There were 7 zip lines in all including the longest which was nearly half a mile in length. There were fantastic views from the zip lines overlooking Arenal lake and volcano and it was such a great way to see the area from a different perspective.

After we finished the course we had chips at the restaurant overlooking the volcano and headed back to the hotel for a chilled out afternoon by the pool and finished off the evening in the hotels termales.

on to Monteverde - Hotel Belmar

This morning we had a relaxing morning in the pool enjoying the swim-up bar and the views across to the volcano whose peak kept peeping out from behind the clouds. We got wood-fired pizzas for lunch by the pool overlooking the volcano and watching wildlife by the lake.

We were picked up after lunch by Canoa Aventura for our volcano hike, which took us along the course of the 1968 lava flows to a view point where we had great views of the volcano and across to the Arenal Lake. The lake is man-made and covers the area to the west of the volcano which was destroyed by soot and gases from the eruption and is used to generate hydro-electric power.

Along the hike we saw lots of epiphytes, in particular bromeliads and orchids such as the One-day orchid (Sobralia sp.), the Spanish flag orchid (Epidendrum radicans) and the endemic Arenal Bromeliad (Pitcaimia Funkiae).

We finished the hike in time to watch the sunset over the lake bathing the volcano in a reddish glow before heading to Eco Termales to bathe in volcanic heated springs under the stars.

on to Zip-lining