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I took a tour organized by Viajes Kymbo (www.viajeskymbo.com) to the Arenal Volcano and hot springs. The tour was led by German Sibaja, who proved to be a very able and entertaining tour guide. I recommend him highly as he went above and beyond what can reasonably be expected from a tour guide. He can be reached at german944@hotmail.com and 236-1313 for a variety of tours originating from San Jose, Costa Rica. He can sing quite well too. We visited a cooperative in the town of Sarchi that featured the work of many artisans. The items ranged from high quality souvenirs to moderately priced art. It was a good place to get your shopping done all at once. They take both Dollars, Colones and credit cards. The town of Sarchi also features the world's largest oxcart. It looks like the sort of thing someone built just so they could claim to have the world's largest oxcart, but it is rather impressive. This isn't a criticism, by the way. After all, New York City did succumb to the painted cow delirium that swept the US some years ago. We stopped a couple of times to admire the lush greenery of the cloud forest, although we didn't actually go into the forest. If you want to go looking for monkeys and birds, that's a different tour. You can also do tours where you slide on a cable from one tree top to another. Our final destination was the Arenal Volcano Hot Springs Resort. Make sure to bring a bathing suit. The tour description recommended that you bring a towel, but it turned out you didn't need to bring one as a towel was part of the package at the resort. We had about three hours to sit in natural hot springs fed by the volcano. These included waterfalls and a pool with a "Wet Bar" (you can sit in the pool and order alcoholic drinks). They also have a slide (if you wear glasses, take them off before using the slide). The water smells a little of sulphur, but you would expect that from a volcano. It was very relaxing. We had a buffet dinner at the resort. The food was great. German had promised our group that we would see active lava flows. Despite the fact that it started raining, he came through. The lava flows were a little faint through the rain and because they were far away (thank goodness), but still quite impressive. If you want good photos of the lava, bring a good camera with a long telephoto lens and a tripod. All in all it was a good change of pace from the conference.
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