Tuesday March 11, 2014
Breakfast was at the hotel again, and then our ‘regular’ driver picked us up to take us to The Springs. This was the only excursion we did not pre-book as we were not sure how much Mallory would be able or willing to do, and I was a bit nervous that the resort might be fully booked. No worries though, it was not busy at all!
The person who sold us our tickets at the hotel thought Mallory may be a little young for some activities, but deferred to the opinion of the Club Rio staff working at the riverfront. We wound up buying a day pass, good for two activities each, and took the first shuttle bus down to the river. We were there early enough for Chad and Liam to get signed up for the 9 am rock climbing. They had a private session since the place was deserted.
At 9:30 am Mallory and I went for an hour-long horseback ride and again, it was a private tour. Our guide Oscar pointed out lime, avocado, and mango trees as we rode through the jungle, up through the hills into the horses’ pasture and back down through the river before heading back to the stable. This was Mallory’s first time on a big horse on a trail ride and she did so well! On our ride we saw toucans and a wild boar.
After our ride, Liam and Chad headed out on the 11 am river tubing session. They ran the river twice, and Liam absolutely loved it. They saw a sloth in a tree on the riverbank, too. Mallory and I meanwhile hung out in the hot springs waiting for them to get back. We sat in the hot springs above the main waterfall where you have an excellent view of the tubers coming down the river.
When the boys finished, we all went for lunch in the Rancho, which was really nice and very good. We rested for a bit after lunch, and then Chad and Mallory left at 2 for a tour of the animal centre, which turned out to be a private tour! We were surprised by how few people were at Club Rio in the morning and early afternoon. Mallory loved all the wild cats, and this turned out to be one of her very favourite parts of the trip. At 2:30, Liam and I went tubing, since Mallory did not want to use her second activity credit, though she was big enough for everything except the rock climbing, and the staff was willing to let Liam use Mallory’s unused credit. (The hot springs and animal rescue centre tour do not require an activity credit.)
Tubing was a blast, and Liam loved it just as much the second time. The sloth was still in the tree when we went by. The guides dumped both of us into the river since neither of us took a spill on our own. We did our two runs, and got back in time for all of us to go on the 4 pm animal rescue centre tour, since Liam and I hadn’t done that yet and Mallory was more than willing to go through a second time. Unfortunately this time the tour was crowded – it was a huge group and kind of rushed since it was the last one of the day. But getting to go into the sloth and toucan enclosures sort of made up for that. We still couldn’t see the sloths very well, but all the toucans were friendly and the keel-billed toucans were beautiful! We got some great pictures of them.
We took the last shuttle bus of the day back up to the main lodge, having spent the entire day at Club Rio, and called our taxi for a pickup. While we waited, we browsed the gift shop, though we were discovering that most of the gift shops in the area sell more or less the same items. Back at Los Lagos, we had dinner at Las Palmas again (cilantro tilapia for me), caught up on the internet a little so Liam could research the various species of toucans so he could write about them in his journal (note that the wifi here is painfully slow), and then went as a family for a quick hot springs dip before bed.
Cook Family Travels 