We left Cahuita heavy hearted at 9 am, Alex has been such a caring host - we were sad to leave him and his enthusiasm for the animals and going an extra step to make his guests feel good at the 'El Encanto'. Our driver Martin wanted to chit chat...but we tried to catch up on news thanks to the good WLAN in the car. We stopped half way through the journey to buy a baguette, prepacked cheese, chips, water, coke and our favourite gum 'big read' and to look at some giant Iguanas sitting in trees.
Upon our arrival we did what we mostly do; check out the hotel pool. The Arenal Volcano Inn even had a steaming jacuzzi! The view on the volcano could not have had been any better. Its last activity was in 2010.... the locals hope for it to become active again, since this would give tourism another (needed?) boost. Lots of locals stopped farming and changed into tourism, seems to be much more lucrative.
We stayed put for dinner that night and had an early night in our cozy villa with two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, open living with kitchen and 3 TV's. Guess what - I zapped in on the first episode of the 7th Game of Thrones series...where Ed Sheeran has a small (and a bit a weird) appearance.