One of the things I was most worried about during this trip was trying to find a taxi on Christmas to take us to the Baldi Hot springs. I decided to book us for the whole day there, lunch and dinner. When we got to Arenal I was grateful to find that Baldi was across the street from where we were staying. And actually the area is so tourist oriented that Christmas is just another day at work for many of the tour operators.
It was pouring, which was going to be very interesting. We wore our ponchos to get to Baldi. They had 25 pools which was plenty, and definitely was the party hot springs. They had music blasting so loud that it was nearly a nuisance! It was funny at times because as you’re trying to relax in a spring you had to listen to some loud techno. The lunch buffet was mediocre at best. Between all of these hot springs this was the worst for us, and the one that we didn’t go to, Tabacon, was probably the best of the three. Those springs are so natural that you are up against the river – that would have been the one to go to. We were so unimpressed and bored with Baldi that we left after lunch. It was also pouring so every time we walked to a pool we were getting rained on, which was fun when you were in the spring, but not when you were walking around. This place get also incredibly crowded with tour buses, but definitely not the type of place that Dallas and I would go to at home. We liked Eco Termales better as well, private, quiet and didn’t seem as amusement park-y. There was a guy that looked to be pleasuring himself while staring at us which freaked us out so we left that pool, then an old man tried to spit out of another pool but it didn’t quite make it. We ran back to our hotel after that. Only 3 hours in the hot springs poor us.
Costa Rica doesn’t serve real butter by the way. They are a country full of margarine which is really gross. But I am in plantain heaven. That’s totally my favorite food, it’s hard to find it done perfectly though and spongy, tough bananas aren’t so good.
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