Volcano!

Greg and I are sitting in the rocking chairs outside our hotel room relaxing after a very full day (and it's only 4PM!). In the distance, the clouds are heavy over Arenal volcano, which we can see from our window.

On our arrival in La Fortuna yesterday, the first thing we did after checking into the hotel was to head over to a tour company to plan our next two days. There is a ton of stuff to do here, but very little time to do it in. Last night, the whole group opted to do what I am sure every single tourist coming through here does: a volcano hike and an evening at the hot springs.


Group Shot in front of Arenal Volcano. From left to right: Greg, Suzanne (Toronto), Neil (Toronto), Deb, Ellis (tour leader, from Belize), Laura (Toronto), Tiffany (Saskatoon), Matt, Adam, Lee (UK), Anna (UK), Sarah (UK), Imelda (Houston), Benno (Switzerland), Parveen (Toronto), Jill (UK)

Since Arenal is an active volcano (over 80 eruptions per day), we didn't technically hike on it, but through a rain forest on the south side. If I had to describe the forest, I would have to use the word "thick". It wasn't quite like I expected; bright colours were few and far between, but it felt humid, though it was apparently unusually dry. We saw monkeys swimming swinging from the trees (I actually wrote "swimming" in my notebook by accident so decided to leave it in) and a tiny baby hummingbird in a nest on a leaf near the ground. And a ton of funky insects.

Back in the van after the hike, we were treated to pizza and "liquid lava" (fruit juice, blackbery juice for colour, and guaro which is an alcoholic drink made from a tree that is common in Costa Rica). Then we drove around to the west side of the volcano to watch for eruptions.

Arenal's eruptions aren't the kind that you would usually think of with continuous streams of molten lava running down the sides. Instead, the lava is mixed with sand which requires higher temperatures to melt, so it looks different. What we actually saw in the distance were bright orange chunks of lava tumbling down, maybe once every 10 minutes. It was impossible to get a picture but it was very cool!

We watched for about half an hour and then we went to the HOT SPRINGS! Needless to say, it was a glorious few hours, and I never wanted to move again. There were even waterfalls with steaming hot water, which made a great massage. This was when my camera decided to conk out, but the good part of being in a big group is that there will always be someone with a working camera! We reluctantly left the hot springs at 9:30 and headed back into town for a quick beer before going to bed so we could get an early start today.

Today was absolutely amazing day, but this entry is pretty long already and the group is meeting for dinner in a few minutes, so I'll have to write that up in my notebook on the next bus ride. In the mean time, if you're reading this, drop a comment and say hello!