Finally- Hot Springs!

I finally found the Agua Calientes I was looking for last August when I first arrived and now I understand why it was full of Ticos. It would be absolutely impossible to find if I did not understand and could speak Spanish.(ok, a little Spanish). I remember in my first week-end in Costa Rica. I got into the car and headed south from Liberia to Bagaces. I started to follow some signs for some hot springs but remember getting so wound around and lost it was impossible to find. I did find some little mud hole, mind you, and I was so turned off by it I never attempted to travel again to any hot springs, except for the fabulous hot springs I found in Arenal by the name of Baldi which happened to be right on the main road which was the only reason I found it. Today, I did get wound around like the other time, with the road obviously going nowhere, or somewhere I guess, but nowhere I was interested in going, but this time I could ask and actually understand the answer and in no time flat I was at "Thermal Mania."

Since my area, and I guess all of Costa Rica, is essentially surrounded by volcanoes, or better put, in the midst of volcanoes, there has to be hot springs everywhere. The geothermal activity in these areas is fantastic. There are these huge pipes coming from somewhere in the volcano, I presume, spewing forth steam, which is then turned into electricity in the generating plants. I would love to know how much energy is created by the volcanoes and if Costa Rica depends on any outside source for power? They even had wind mills in the area I was in today.

The actual hot springs were great. This time, it only cost $10 for the day and I had access to about 6 pools of varying degrees of heat, a water slide, swim up bar and so on. Not quite as posh as Baldi, but very serviceable and well appointed. There is even cabins on site with their own thermal waters, even though I did not get a chance to look inside. However, I do know where I am going to take my next visitors ( or to put it another way) my first visitor. We will go to this area around Miravelles and choose one of the big three hot springs in the area to relax in.

Although my school only has 80 kids, it has enough after school activities to keep a school of a 1000 kids happy. I played soccer on Thursday, baseball on Friday and tried to stay away from Club Explosion so I did not lose an eye. Kids were blowing up things all over the place. Next week I am going to try my hand at the swim club and hopefully camera club. I keep taking pictures of flowers, especially the bird of paradise, but would love to be able to take some pictures of birds. Not sure if I have the patience!