Costa Rica Blue River Thermal Resort

Flowers, Birds and Thermal Pool

Blue River Resort and Hot Springs is located in the province of Guanacaste. The resort is located in the Rincon de la Vieja rainforests. 

Resort Accommodation

Garden Walkway

Thermal Steam Cave

The garden area at Blue River hosts a variety of plants, flowers, birds and butterflies. The following pictures are just a few of the plants and flowers.

Bird of Paradise

False Ginger

There is a butterfly house located in the garden. This is a beautiful area to sit and watch the local butterflies.

Costa Rica Borinquen Thermal Resorts

Beautiful Costa Rica 

This was our fourth visit to Costa Rica. The area we explored this time was the province of Guanacaste in the northwest area of the country from Liberia up to the Nicaragua Border.

We rented a car from Avis and thought we had a great deal on insurance. However, when we went to pick up the car, we had to pay an additional cost for local insurance. 

Before driving to our first accommodation, we stopped in Libera for water, snacks, lunch food, and beer at Walmart, cash from the bank ATM, and a quick meal from McDonald's. We chose to fly overnight from Los Angeles, landing at the international airport in Liberia and arriving before 7 AM. 

We had booked accommodation at three Costa Rican thermal resorts before doing an all-inclusive resort on the beach. The first location was Borinquen Thermal Resort. Check-in at all our accommodations was not until 3PM with no exceptions. We were prepared and had our carry-on luggage with our bathing suits and sandals so we could use the pools until our room was available. We left our luggage in the car until we could access our room.

Borinquen Resort Accommodation

Thermal Pools

 Outdoor Wood Grill

Borinquen Resort is located on the side of a volcano. The rooms are either separate or attached buildings. This requires a lot of walking uphill or requesting a ride from the transportation vehicle.

 

Climbing the Hill

View from the Top

Ecuador - Quito

Ecuador is a small country that straddles the equator in South America with a diverse landscape. They have the Andean Highlands, the Amazon rainforest and the coastal plains. The Galapagos Islands are a province of Ecuador located 1369 Km from the mainland. We decided to spend a few days in Quito before visiting the Galapagos. 

Ecuador is not a stable country. There are a lot of robberies and demonstrations. We were told not to walk to a restaurant 2 blocks away at night. We felt safe with our guides and tour group but I don't think I would venture too far on our own.

Before joining our cruise tour, we hired a driver to take us to a hot pool area. Papallacta Hot Springs is located 67 Km from Quito. It is a beautiful drive into the Andean Mountains. Our driver showed us several sites as we drove to the hot springs.

Everyone has to wear a bathing cap.

There are seven pools at this site.

It was a great day and highly recommended. The next day we joined our pre-cruise group at the Marriot Hotel in Quito for our city tour of the old town.

Standing on the Equator

A great day touring and we are flying to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow to start our cruise.

Chile - Patagonia - Puerto Natales

 The town of Puerto Natales is nothing special but the boat tour is the reason to visit the area. We stayed at the Remota Patagonis Lodge which is a very modernistic hotel. Bill was able to watch an NFL football game because another guest was streaming it in the lounge. 

We did a day cruise to the Balmaceda and Serrano Glaciers. The senery was spectacular. By boat is the only way to visit this part of Patagonia as it consists of many islands off of mainland Chile.

The following pictures are from our cruise on board and on land.

Our last day of travel with Trafalgar we had to go to Punta Arenas airport for our flight to Santiago Chile. This is were we departed and spent the night near the airport in Santiago befor flighing to Ecuador for our next excursion to Quito and the Galapagos Islanda.

Chile - Patagonia - Torres del Paine National Park

When we were in El Cafalate ten years ago we could not travel across the border into Chile to get to Torres del Paine National Park. Now people can easily drive across the border into Chile. This is a long way around if you were able to go from Glacier National Park to Torres de Paine National Park it would have been a 30 km distance instead of a whole day drive and 279 Km.

Driving to Chile it is a very dry area.

Guanaco

In addition to guanaco, we saw grey foxes and rheas an ostrich-type bird while driving. The sheep farms are numerous in the area as other livestock don't do well. In addition, this area has many gas wells.

Along the way, we stopped at  Lake Esperanza for a short break. 

Lake Esperanza

Mountains between Argentina and Chile in the background

The border crossing on the Argentine side. We had to get off the bus and go into the station to have our passports stamped. Then we got back on the bus and drove to the Chilean border station where we had to take our carry-on bags into the station and have them x-rayed for agricultural products.

At the Chilean border crossing, there was a store and a money exchange. You could exchange your Argentine pesos for Chilean pesos.

We continued on our way to Torres de Pain National Park. At the park office, we had to wait to get approval to enter the park. We waited quite awhile for the approval.

After entering the park we came across a bridge that was used to count livestock. The bridge is only wide enough for the livestock to pass single file. A crazy tourist tried to drive acorss the bridge so it is now closed.

 We finally arrived at Hosteria Las Torres and were greeted by gauchos on horseback waving flags.

Hosteria Las Torres

This was a wonderful all-inclusive accommodation in the heart of Torres del Paine National Park. The meals are well prepared with accommodations for dietary needs. 

The highlight of the area is definitely the scenery. The mountains, glaciers, and blue lakes. You can take a hike or a horseback ride to a remote area.

On the trail

Bill enjoyed his ride down to the lake. It is the scenery that attracts visitors to the park.

The three peaks of the Pain Mountain range is the icon of the park. We had a wounderful two days at this location. Before leaving by bus to Puerto Natales.