Strange Questions Asked On Vacation in Costa Rica
Jeanne Leblanc, Courant.com

Among the interesting question I've been asked while on vacation: "Are we going to die?"

I was at the Tabacón spa in La Fortuna. The spa is built around a thermal river that flows out of the active Arenal volcano. There are thermal pools, a restaurant, waterfalls, a water slide and a bar.

It's possible, on a clear night, to see lava shoot into the air and flow down the side of the mountain like rivers of fire in the sky. It's also possible to go into the bar and get so drunk you don't know where you are.

I assume that's what happened to some of my fellow gringos. I was sitting out by the pool when the volcano erupted with a loud roar, as it had been doing all day, and a few people came running out of the bar.

"What was that," an unsteady, sandy-haired young fellow asked me.

"That was the volcano, over there," I said, pointing.

He squinted and looked puzzled. "Are we going to die?" he asked.

"I don't think so," I said.

He went back into the bar.

Tabacón was once what the Costa Ricans call a balneario, a modest, rustic little spa that cost us$1.50 for admission. The pool water was kind of foggy back then, but it was fun, and it was cheap. You could sit in the thermal river and, about a minute after the volcano roared you would feel a surge of hotter water come rushing through.

Today, Tabacón is a much fancier place - landscaped and developed with manmade waterfalls and lots of pools, massage tables and a luxury hotel. Last I knew, a day pass was running us$29 and the tour buses were pouring out gringos like buckets of stocked trout.

The way I hear it, the locals now go across the street to Las Fuentes Termales, a scaled-down balneario in the old style owned by the same people who own Tabacón. No view of the volcano, no Disney atmosphere but admission is just us$8.

Maybe I'll try that next time I'm in the neighborhood.