Arenal Kayaks Tours on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

Woke up this winter solstice to dreary skies. Didn't expect to be out kayaking. So it was a pleasant surprise to be rousted out by my wife late in the afternoon to get on the lake.

We put in at one of our favorite nearby locations which is one of the old roads to the former pueblo of Arenal. Not much room for parking or maneuvering as the lake level is near or at the full-pool mark already this year.

Since the weather has been cold and rainy for the past month or so we've not had a chance to get out to explore all of the newly flooded areas or paddle farther up the rivers than we normally are able. A tour just the other day finally put us back in the water and we did explore the large lagoon that appears behind the city park when the water level is high. Looks like the constant rain and cold has finally broken up for a while and we'll get to check out some of the areas we know are fun at high-pool. And with the tourist season finally picking up we hope to see more of you stopping by Nuevo Arenal or call us from your hotel in La Fortuna to arrange a tour before the lake is drained to provide energy for the country.

The image above and this one to the left should give everyone an idea of the gorgeous late afternoon we had for kayaking. There was some wind that we paddled into for the first 1/2 hour on the way downlake to the location of a river we like to check. We were able to paddle in quite a ways on this one. We floated over the area where I know we'd hiked when the lake was low.

Heard a loud racket back in the jungle but couldn't identify the source. I did see a great grey egret fly off into the trees so maybe that was it. As we exited the river however, an otter jumped from a floating piece of driftwood into the water about 5m from us. A loud splash, much too big to be a jumping fish. Sure enough, he poked his head out of the water a couple of times long enough to check us out and plan his escape. We wondered then if the first racket was another otter. Guess we'll never know for sure.

So now I'll give you some idea of what full-pool is. The next series of shots are taken in a location where we are now able to paddle through the trees. Normally, of course, these trees are high and dry on their own little peninsula jutting out almost perpendicular to the shoreline. With the water so high now, this peninsula has disappeared altogether.