The Awesome Forces of Tabacón by
DARCY RHYNO
After 10 weeks of non-stop travel, an adventurous couple finds renewal I step into the mineral waters heated by Arenal, the volcano looming over us, and take a seat on the underwater bench beside my wife. Relaxing into the gentle current, I let out a long sigh, the soothing waters slipping over my skin. We’re alone in one of dozens of secluded pools surrounded by verdant jungle at the heart of Costa Rica’s first and finest hot springs retreat, the five-star Tabacón Grand Spa Thermal Resort. These are our last days in this amazing Central American country. For ten weeks, we’ve been wandering Costa Rica with the goal of getting to know it, one Photos Courtesy of Tabacon Grand Spa Thermal Resort unique ecosystem at a time. It turns out, we may have saved the best for last. We start the day with a hike across the volcanic scree that covers the face of mighty Arenal. The active, perfectly conical mountain still smokes, rumbles, and leaks glowing molten rock. Its slopes are 14 E N S E M B L E VAC AT I ON S I FAL L 2022
littered with hardened lava, cooled perhaps decades ago. Among the chunks of rock, rare slipper orchids somehow thrive beneath the tropical sun. Our hike is the first of many local adventures available here. Others include boating, cycling, a waterfall adventure, birdwatching, rafting, and horseback riding through dense rainforest—which is what we choose for our second excursion. As we climb up another side of the volcano, the air is noticeably cooler and more humid and the trees hang with so many mosses, bromeliads, and orchids, they weigh the strong limbs down close to the ground, which the monkeys and birds don’t seem to mind. Recuperating in thermal springs after such adventures is precisely what Jaime Mikowski envisioned. He’s the Costa Rican architect who first saw the potential for the mineral enriched Tabacón River. In the 1980s, his dream was