I just discovered that Sunset Tours offers a kayak tour in Cano Negro. I would love to hear from anyone who has done this trip. Please tell me anything you think would be helpful - good or bad. Thanks!

I would think it would be a great kayak trip. We've only done the Cano Negro boat trip, but we recently did the kayak trip in the mangrove near MA and it was a kick.

I'd say the drawbacks might be that you won't get to cover as much territory as the boats - Cano Negro is kind of lengthy trip. Then there is the challenge of trying to keep a camera dry in a kayak. We didn't see a ton of wildlife in MA so not having a camera didn't bother us too much. A troop of white faced monkeys jumped the mangrove over our heads and one had a little baby so that was the only time we wished we had a camera. It rained pretty hard that day so even if we had used the guide's dry bag, taking photos would have been a little tricky.

The upside of being in kayaks is that you can keep quiet easier and possibly see more. You may also be able to wiggle into smaller areas where the boats don't go.

I hope you see a lot of wildlife on your Cano Negro trip - we sure did. Bring your zoom lense if you have one.

Thanks for your thoughts, Linda. We are avid kayakers and, as you suggested, we are able to see lots of wildlife while paddling. That's why the Cano Negro paddle is so intriguing. My only hesitation is that it takes the entire day. With only three days in the area I'm not sure we want to spend an entire day. Oh, decisions decisions! It's great to have so many terrific activities to choose from. I know we'll enjoy whatever we choose. Desafio offers a 2 hour paddle on Lake Arenal. That may be our compromise. The view of the volcano must be awesome from there.

I loved cano negro. I took a boat tour there. from arenal, it takes about 2 hours to get to cano negro. I loved the boat tour, the guide was very helpful spotting and explaining the wildlife in the area. If you want a nice view of arenal volacano, go to the observatory...that is a great place to see the volcano. if you are not staying at the observatory (highly recommended), go there for lunch and stay there all day, there is hiking around the grounds, beautiful wildlife and the volcano so close (especially at night seeing the lava) is amazing. Anyways back to cano negro...sorry. I would also beware of the caymans in cano negro...lots of them. but either way you choose, cano negro will take most of your day. enjoy your trip.

We haven't done the kayak tour, but Cano Negro itself is wonderful. You really don't need to be quiet to see the wildlife - we saw sloths, caimans, capuchins, howlers, and lots of birds - they don't seem scared of the bigger boats. I think the kayak tour would be really fun.

Regarding the view from Lake Arenal, be aware that sometimes you can't see the volcano at all - pretty frequently it gets enveloped in fog and mist. When we did the Hanging Bridges, there's a spot labeled Volcano View, and we couldn't even tell there was a volcano there at all, really just a big bank of fog.

Greetings gcshamman and volcanogirl!
This will be my second trip to the Arenal area. Unfortunately it was sort of a last mintue decision. As a result the Observatory Lodge didn't have any rooms. Stayed there last time though. It was wonderful. Cloud-free views for both days from our Smithsonian room. Of course, just my luck, at that time the lava was flowing on the Fortuna side. This time I'm on the Fortuna side and the lava is going toward the Obsevatory. Oh well. If there is a clear night, we'll just take a taxi around to the Observatory. Well worth the cost.

We will be staying at Montana del Fuego. I spent two nights there last time and really liked our casita. It was at the far back of their property and had fabulous views. Arenal was out front. A gorgeous view of mountains and pastures out back. There was also excellent birding right off our little back deck. I think I'm going to have that same casita this time. At least the reservationist said she'd request it.

Volocano girl, can you suggest any relatively easy hikes in the area? My knees aren't up to scaling mountains. (Anything up to four miles with gentle slopes is ok.) We prefer not to do organized hikes or tours. Anyone else care to chime in? Thanks!

My heart goes out to all of those effected by todays earth quake.

The Hanging Bridges is a really nice hike, took us a couple of hours - we didn't see any wildlife, but we still enjoyed it. If you hire a guide, you would have a better shot at seeing animals. We also did a volcano hike through Sunset Tours - part of it included a drive out to the Observatory. We stayed at the Lost Iguana - it has beautiful grounds and lots of good hiking, so we did some there. Another day we hired a guide who took us out near the land that the electric company owns - we saw a peccary, an anteater, howlers, and lots of interesting birds. The hike wasn't pretty, but we loved it because of all the wildlife sightings. We usually don't see much wildlife in Arenal other than birds unless we do Cano Negro. Our guide was a great spotter.