Sunday 13th November - Hoy visitamos la lavanderia

This morning we have to pack, which is getting easier with practice, and we still have time for another look at the Cayman lake before breakfast but there is nothing doing. It is warm and humid but there are quite a few clouds around. There are a couple of different birds on the feeders by the restaurant including this rather attractive Black-cheeked Woodpecker.

 After breakfast we check out and point the car westwards towards our next destination, Arenal, an extinct volcano that stopped being extinct in 1968 and created quite a bit of havoc for a few years before going dormant again. The first sixty kilometres of road are quite good, generous width single track with flyover junctions in most cases. Some of it is obviously new and does not feature on D's road map. The latter bit of the journey is on less well maintained surfaces and the Mitsubishi's suspension gets a bit of a workout. As we move west we climb a bit and see it start to rain. 

We have done some research and identified a laundry in La Fortuna, the nearest town to Arenal. Google suggests that it is not open on Sunday but we are here for a couple of days and could come back tomorrow. On that basis we turn off the main street for a recce. It does open on Sundays so we fish out our laundry and approach the counter. D leads with "Ola. Hablas Ingles?" which produces a shake of the head.  D frantically tries to work out how to say "Can we leave our laundry and pick it up on Tuesday?". The lady behind the counter taps her phone furiously then shows us a screen that reads in English " Laundry 2000 colones per kilo. Ready in 3 hours. Open until 7.00 tonight." 2000 colones is about £2.85 so a pretty good price. We check in 3 kilos and work out a plan to return this afternoon.

By now the rain is getting heavy. We decide to head to the hotel in the hope of being able to check in early. The road is quite busy but people turn off at different resorts and thermal spring venues so we can get a decent run.  We climb and turn right across the dam that was built to create Laguna de Arenal, the largest lake in Costa Rica. The waters cover some of the villages destroyed by the volcanic erruption in 1968. Our hotel is signposted off to the right where there is a manned barrier and our reservation is checked before we are admitted. The man tells us that it is 2 km to the hotel. The road is steep, twisty, cobbled, very wet and covered in fallen leaves so a good test for the four wheel drive on the car. Encouraging notices are posted along the route.

At the hotel we are welcomed by Brazilian lady who thinks Costa Rica is a cold country. We check into our rather splendid Junior Suite with a huge balcony overlooking the hotel gardens and facing the volcano across the valley. Despite the rain the garden has hummingbirds which pleases R greatly.

Over lunchtime the rain stops and the clouds almost lift off the volcano. We get a short walk around the grounds but then it closes in again. The drive back to La Fortuna to collect our laundry is through a mixture of low cloud and heavy rain. We take the chance to stock up with a few necessities before R fulfills a long held ambition to drive in Latin America. 

Back at the hotel dark falls and a very noisy frogs chorus starts up just outside. Could be earplugs tonight.