31st March 2015 – Boquete to Arenal – 2015-04-02 04:28

Today we have a 506 kilometer drive plus a border crossing into Costa Rica, so we attempt to leave at 7:30 am, however it takes us longer to get our breakfast than we anticipated, so we end up getting away at 7:45 am. Our drive through David and to the border was on an excellent divided road that took us 1.5 hours.There is a big police presence in Panama and control points are common, most of the time we just get waved through, like today, but sometimes we need to stop and show our passports.The border crossing took a total of 2.5 hours for all 7 cars to get through. The first through are rewarded with a cuppa while the remaining cars finalise their paperwork.Driving into Costa Rica it is very lush and green and clean with beautiful plants and palms growing everywhere. We have about a 400 km to drive so we need to push on a bit to try to get to the hotel by 7:00 pm. The roads are pretty good with a lovely road going along the Pacific coast. The country side remains very lush with lots of huge palm plantations. We stop next to a river on the Pacific coast for lunch right next to a cafe run by Americans.ÿ So we are faced with a decision, will it be tuna on a dry biscuit or an avocado smash on a bagel with an iced coffee for lunch?ÿ The bagel won and it was delicious.ÿ As usual we draw a bit of a crowd, the local policeman came over to take a photo and have a chat.ÿ We also noticed that we picked up a hitchhiker on the headlight, a beautiful butterfly.With about 100 km to go we leave the main roads and start to climb over the continental divide across the mountains on the road to the Arenal volcano area. The day is getting towards dusk and we drive through the aptly named forest of clouds as we drive up into the clouds and quite a thick fog. As darkness falls we drive on some magnificent MG roads as they twist and turn through the country side of Costa Rica. We eventually arrive at our Spa Resort Hotel and after a bit of confusion where we have to go we find ourselves in our room. The Avenal area has hot springs, with the water being heated by the active volcano, which we can see from our hotel room.