Arenal Kayaks Tours on Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

Arenal Kayaks had the distinct pleasure of hosting a World Champion canoeist (British for kayaker) and Olympic contender, Anna Hemmings, yesterday! Anna and her husband, Neil, joined us for a sunset cruise which didn't start out too well in the rain but ended with a spectacular sunset.

We get lots of hits from the search engines about Lake Arenal Weather.

Let's see, this is the middle of October and we've had 5.2" of rain for the month. Last year we had 12" by this time and 33.5" for the month! Could mean that we'll be seeing a lot more rain before the month is out.

Our weather has been affected by El Niño this year so we're experiencing abnormal patterns. Lots of sunshine and hot temperatures but some rain almost every day. Many days there's a huge storm over on the Pacific side that doesn't reach us but gives us a good light show and rumbling thunder.

We see a lot of wildlife around the lake. Mostly birds, occasionally an otter, once in a while iguana and monkey and the rare snake swimming in the lake near the shore.

Today's tour with a family from Great Britain had a chance to see a boa constrictor! The men were onshore for a, ahem, nature call, and spotted a rather large snake with a fat belly hanging in a tree. They were a little surprised I think but since it had obviously recently eaten something they didn't feel like they were threatened. Haha.

Incredible. In our 6-1/2 years in the tropics I don't think we've seen rain like this. We thought an average of 1"/day last year was something but the past several days has taken it to a whole new level.

As I write, it's not currently raining but it's overcast and a breeze is blowing making it feel kinda chilly. The yard is a mud bog and of course our poor driveway really takes damage from that kind of rainfall.

We had great weather in April! As a result we did a couple of sunset tours, and a full moon tour. Being on the lake in the afternoon is every bit as pleasant as in the morning. The lake level has gone down a couple meters so we chose to explore some of the rivers to see how far they go. We proceed slowly and quietly listening to the birds. There is a kingfisher in the trees along the edge, fishing, he flies chattering away when he spots us and we get too close.

After a long, over-extended rainy season it appears that summer has arrived. Sunny days, some evening or nighttime rain, and calm days on the lake are here. The lake remains near full-pool later in the year than normal which means there isn't much beach to play on but lots of area to explore in a kayak. Book your trip now!

It's raining as I write this post. It's been raining almost non-stop since returning from Nicaragua on Wednesday. I dumped 4.5" yesterday and 3.6" today out of the rain gauge and if the rain keeps up I expect we'll see another 3+ inches in there tomorrow morning.

Depressing? You bet. We normally expect to see sunny weather by this time of year. Our "summer" is typically from mid-February through mid-May. We all save up our outdoor projects for this time of year to take advantage of the nice weather. For instance here at Arenal Kayaks we are anticipating replacing the 30-year old roof on the house along with some interior remodeling and adding on some covered patio space. In order to do that we need some dry weather. But with the rain not letting up much at all so far this year those projects languish.

We seem to be emerging from the rain into our summer season here finally. Getting some sunny days. Several in a row this week although yesterday was back to rain and wind all day.

Seemed like the rains just continued at the same pace so we're surprised to see that the accumulation for the month of January was only 16 inches. This is after 3+ months of 30" monthly average so you'd think we would have noticed an improvement in weather. Didn't seem so. Only way to explain it is several nights of clear sky, billions of stars and the full moon was awesome. Followed by overcast and rainy days...

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.