Hot springs at Tabacon

We woke this morning to glorious sunshine in the most perfect location you could imagine. The hotel is a small family business but the plot they have here is amazing. Paul and I missed breakfast as last week we got up at 5.45am every morning and I refused to get up until at least 9am today! I had my first hot shower in 6 days and my god it was bliss. I didnt realise how much I took hot water for granted until now. We went up to the swimming pool about 10.30am and laid in the sun for a few hours. The pool has a great view of the Arenal volcano and although it’s mainly cloudy, there were a few minutes where you could see the very top of it.

Paul had read about a place close by called Tabacon which is a hotel but also has some hot springs on the grounds. I’m not sure what I was expecting but I couldn’t have imagined how beautiful it would be, I think it is the most beautiful place I have ever visited. We had some lunch in the restaurant then went out to see the resort. The springs are natural rock formations with hot volcanic water running through them creating waterfalls. Bridges and paths have been built around them so you can easily get between the pools. The water was between 30 and 50 degrees depending on how high you went and the bottom of the pools were formed by black volcanic rock. We spent a good few hours moving between the different pools and using the waterfalls to massage our aching muscles.

There were also several man made swimming pools in the resort filled with the same volcanic mineral water so they were also lovely and warm. The main pool had a slide and a bar in the water, we ordered a few rounds of beers and cocktails and I felt a bit drunk as mine were made from Rum! At 6.30pm we went back to the restaurant for some dinner and saw Nadia and Asma who joined us. We decided to have an early night as the hot water had made us sleepy so we got a taxi and went back to the hotel.