Blue River Resort day 1

https://www.blueriverresort.com/

March 16-17 2022

Booking for tours online was a bit challenging, after emailing them multiple times and trying to schedule with out any response, we decided to book a room and stay the night. This came with confirmation of our stay! We also booked to do the Cathedral waterfall via horseback for when we arrived, for $55 apiece.

An all day pass includes a locker, lunch, hot springs, pool with water slide, mud treatment, sauna, botanical gardens, butterfly gardens, blue river hike to grand waterfalls, and the dinosaur park all for $70 apiece. Getting a room for the night with two queen beds for three people with the adventure pack was $217 or $64 apiece. This included everything the day pass offered with breakfast included instead of lunch. So staying the night we saved $6 and had a day in a half to enjoy the resort.

We drove ourselves in our rental car up to the blue river resort, it took about 1.5 hours to get there. They told us to be there before 9am to go to the waterfall, and we arrived about 15 min before. The guy at the desk told us that we were to late that they were getting ready to leave already. So we booked the next one at 1pm and got to explore the resort while we waited. They told us our room would be available around 12 but to check in around 10 to see if it was done yet. We started getting breakfast, they had a buffet set up for only $6 (free the morning after your stay) with a lot to choose from.

Botanical gardens

After eating we walked around the botanical gardens. There are lovely plants all over the resort but in the botanical garden you get a chance to be more submersed in them! There are walking paths/ bridges running the length of the gardens. With over 700 varieties everyone can find something they have never seen before. All the major species of trees and flowers are grouped together for convince for guests. There are trails and benches all along the path to allow for hours of enjoyment. Fallowing one of these will bring you to an area where the resident sloths will hang out. (We were not fortunate enough to see them due to the rainy weather.) Just past this is the butterfly garden enclosure.

Butterfly gardens

Flying all around your head the exotic Costa Rica butterflies go about feeding, mating and laying eggs. There are multiple enticing fruit food stations for the butterflies to lap up the juice. It is said they can smell up to miles away.

There is a display center that homes the pupae and displays the life cycle of the butterflies. Also showing eggs from the butterfly farm that breeds many species including Morpho, Siprueta Esterlene and Danaus Plexippus.

All around the butterfly garden and outside in the botanic gardens are specific plants for the butterflies to eat. These plants are grown to attract female caterpillars. Outside the gardens you will notice plants that have bags made on netting on the branches, these are pupae that forming and they will be brought inside as they mature.

Now our room was ready, we went to bring our stuff out of the car and to change for the hot springs! The room has a large AC, small refrigerate, coffee pot, and a nice large bathroom, it also has a large TV in it for some reason.

Hot Springs

While hot springs are all over Costa Rica and are known all over the world very few are natural and even less can brag about their mineral content, like the Blue River Resort has.

There are layers of molten rock formations that are infused with water deep under the volcano, Rincon de la Vieja . This gives health- giving minerals that feed the hot springs. The bubbling volcano- like mud structure sinkholes in the botanical garden that the water breaks though reach temperatures at 140 degrees Fahrenheit! In the pictures you may notice a green hue in the water. this is dissolved copper, a mineral that is naturally in the water and acts as a natural disinfectant. Though in the mornings we did see them drain and spray out each pool with bleach to clean them for the day!

The five pools at the resort are all maintained at different temperatures. Two of them are freshwater pools, one has a water slide and the other is the largest out of all of them (this one was closed when we went). Out of the three hot springs two are kept at cooler temperatures while the other is kept warmer. We discovered the weather plays a large part in this as well, when it was raining the hot pool was cool enough to be bearable while during the day we couldn't even get a full foot in! There is only one under cover, this one is the hottest one, with being under cover it traps the heat in as well. They are very relaxing hot springs have been used for years in therapeutic treatments. We all also noticed how soft our skin was after spending hours relaxing in the waters. Even helping some with some skin conditions.

Mud bath and Sauna

Another path in the botanical gardens brings you to the mud bath and sauna. Every one told us after that they were told to do the sauna first then to do the mud bath, and after it drys to rinse it off in the shower or in the near by spring. We did it backwards, doing the mud first then the sauna.

The mud has a very strong sulfur smell I personally really liked it, this apparently makes me odd. Though this is considered the most important component and occurs naturally in proximity to volcanoes and hot springs. Sulfur reduces stress on the body and decreases inflammation, it is also used to treat fungal infections, scabies, psoriasis, eczema and acne. There is also hydrogen, bromide and fluoride, this silica- rich geothermal mud is from the Rincon de la Vieja like the water for the springs. Free from impurities the mud is very thin and slippery, dont be afraid to put it all over you skin will feel so amazing after!

The sauna cave is built over the hot spring's creek capturing heat to create the steam. Helping it be natural and environmentally friendly. The temperature of the hot springs in the cave are the same as the ones outside of it at 140° F. It will only take a few minutes for the steam to open your pores, helping the mineral infused steam clean your skin.