Continued from yesterday”¦ Amazingly enough, our guide spotted a two toed sloth with a baby. He was really excited about it and proud of himself. Two toed sloths are rare to start with and hard to spot, so seeing them in the wild is a big deal. Seeing a mother/child duo was an especially big deal. We watched the sloths for a long time, each taking turns looking at them through the guide’s binoculars. True to their nature, the mama barely moved at all, not doing much more than turning her head. The baby also barely moved, though the baby was harder to see. They have an almost prehistoric look to them, sort of like a tiny ape, but even more primeval. Seeing them was so exciting!

The guide pointed out a small fern that curls up when you touch it. Of course, we can’t remember what it is called now. When we were in Tahiti, we went on a tour where the guide had pointed out that same plant to us, mentioning that it was an introduced species, not indigenous to Tahiti. Now we know where it came from. We also spotted the plant in Tonga, too. The guide also showed us a species of elephant ear plant with the biggest leaves we have ever seen.

Here is a shot of Eric and Christi near the end of the hike, when we were on higher ground than we were in the group shot.

Once we were done with the hike, we headed to a view point to watch the lava flow. Again, the guide suddenly told the driver to pull over. This time it was to see Howler Monkeys in the trees. There were three of them, we think, but unfortunately, we didn’t get a good look at any of them. They weren’t howling, so Mike and the rest of the group missed out on hearing that haunting, tortured cry they make. We got back in the bus and went down a very bumpy dirt road. We bounced around so much that our guide joked it was a free full body massage. These must be the kinds of roads Lonely Planet warns about. We pulled over again to look at a toucan perched elegantly in a tree. They really do have gigantic beaks, just like the Fruit Loops character. He flew away shortly after we spotted him. We also saw some wild turkeys running around.

We came to a section of the road where there were quite a few buses congregated off to the side and many tourists milling about. This must be the best spot to watch the lava flow from in town since it looked like every tour group in the area was here. We were near the base of the volcano, in a scenic spot with a river in front of us and lush, green forest all around us. The cloud cover was still there, but it only covered the peak. It was close to sunset when we all clambered out of the bus and took our place amongst the other tourists.

Where we stood was probably pretty comparable in distance to where we had been positioned the night we watched the volcano in Stromboli from aboard Kosmos https://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2008/12/02/passage-from-lipari-to-rome/. We had been impressed with the view that night, and had high expectations for a comparable show tonight. At first we couldn’t see anything. The guide pointed out occasional small patches of what looked like dust being kicked up near the peak and explained those were the lava rocks tumbling down the hill. As it got darker, the lava rocks became increasingly visible, glowing redder and redder as the sky went from dusky to almost pitch black. Since the peak was covered, we couldn’t see the eruptions and the lava shooting up into the air, which is the best part. Nor did the clouds turn vibrantly orange like they did in Stromboli. But, every few minutes we would see a small trickle of red rocks rolling down the mountain, becoming less and less bright the farther down they went. Oftentimes, bigger rocks would break into smaller pieces as they bounced their way down the hill. There were two streams that the lava rocks seemed to follow, but only once did the lava flow down both streams at the same time, indicating that was the only really big eruption that took place. The eruptions were generally about 3 5 minutes apart, but we never actually heard any rumbling, which we thought was odd. We were told that we were lucky to be able to see as much as we did. Often, the whole volcano is socked in with fog and spectators can’t see anything at all.

Mike was really impressed and thought it was a super cool experience. Of course, this is the first time he has seen an erupting volcano in person. Eric and Christi are jaded now. They thought it was a dud. Stromboli had much more impressive lava flow, with lots and lots of lava running down the mountain in multiple streams with every eruption, even the little ones. All we got here was a few rocks with each eruption. And in Stromboli we could hear some of the rumbling, which makes the whole experience feel so much more dramatic and powerful. And of course, we thought Stromboli was a total letdown compared to our life changing experience on the rim of Mt. Yasur in Vanuatu https://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2007/11/09/active-volcanoes-and-the-john-frum-sing-along/.

After only a few minutes of watching the volcano in the dark, we were whisked away for the next part of our tour the Tabacon hot springs. The bus took the bumpy road back to the main road, and a few minutes later we filed into a crowded gift shop and waited for the guide to buy us tickets. The line was long. This was obviously a popular place. At about 1900, we finally had our tickets in hand and could enter. The grounds are gorgeous. We immediately fell in love with it. There is a natural hot water river that flows down from the volcano, and the spa has sculpted their grounds into a series of hot water pools fed by the river. The landscape is full of beautiful ornamental plants that are thriving and verdant, giving you a sense that each and every pool is a secluded paradise of its very own. The various pools are separated by little waterfalls, and some of the pools are accessed by small footbridges going over the waterfalls. It looks like the Garden of Eden. Of course, our camera battery died, so we have no photos of it.

The pools themselves are a mix of man made and natural, with part of the pools natural formations, but completed with man made materials. So, part of the pool will have a concrete bottom, and part of it will be gravel and/or sand. The water is a delightful temperature, like a Jacuzzi, but too hot to sit in for more than a few minutes at a time. Most of the pools are shallow, somewhere between ankle deep and thigh deep.

In most of the pools, you can sit underneath the waterfall. The amount of force from the waterfall is shocking, especially because they really are quite small. Most of the waterfalls exert so much pressure that the water pushes you into the pool, and it takes a tremendous amount of energy to actually keep yourself perched under the stream of water. Eric and Mike had contests to see who could stay closest to and longest under the more forceful falls. A couple of the waterfalls were easier to sit under. Under those, it felt like several angry masseuses were all massaging you as hard as they could at once. It was really nice. All of us sat under one in particular for a long time, enjoying the back & shoulder massage. One waterfall even had a big ledge that went underneath the waterfall, so you could completely pull your body behind the stream of water and simply watch it tumble past you without it actually touching you. Oddly enough, watching the water run was almost hypnotic.

The waterfalls all make misty, steamy air, and if you sit anywhere near them in the pool, as you breathe in, it is like being in a steam room, only better. You can actually feel your pores opening up. Being under that one waterfall definitely was like being in a small steam room. But, if steamy air isn’t your thing, you could move to the far end of the pool and breathe in regular night air, sweetly scented by all the pretty flowers.

We bounced from pool to pool, spending a few minutes in each one. We hit every hot pool in the complex at least once, and we made multiple visits to our favorites. There is also a cold pool on site that is not fed by the river, which Mike went into but Christi and Eric passed on. Mike said it is cooler than the others but not cold. After about 40 minutes, we felt pretty cooked and moved on to the man made swimming pool. The swimming pool is also not fed by the river. The water in it was temperate and comfortable, just right for hanging out in for a long period of time. There is a single waterslide attached to the pool, and we all gave the waterslide a few goes, which was really fun. We probably looked silly next to all the little kids using the slide, too.

At 0830, we were supposed to eat dinner at the spa’s buffet. At 0800, we decided we were starved, so we got cleaned up and went to dinner early. It was a nice buffet. At 0915 we were picked up and delivered back to the hotel, where we slept very well after such a relaxing hot bath and massage. It was a good day, indeed!