The Arenal Observatory Lodge was the best place we have stayed so far, with European style cuisine but with beautiful ingredients, especially the tenderloin steak. We celebrated the midpoint of the trip with a memorable bottle of Argentinian malbec/shiraz.
But today we had to leave. The volcano was shrouded in cloud and it was raining. We drove along good asphalt roads through plantations of almost every type of tropical produce feasible, and stopped at the Neotropical Centre Sarapiqui. The weather had improved and it stayed sunny if cloudy for the rest of the day.
This stop was to look at the archaeological remains, but as these merely consisted of a few crude interments from about 500ad, they didn't detain us for long.
On to Heliconia Island. Originally developed as a botanical garden, the island is at a confluence in a bend of the Puerto Vielho river.
It was bought eight years ago by the present Dutch owners who built themselves a house and some guest villas on the property.
Henk says there are eighty species of heliconia on the island and I have no reason to doubt him. The gardens are superb with many other plants represented, especially palms, gingers and massive bamboo stands. Lots of birds including quarrelsome hummingbirds too.
No comments:
Post a Comment