We are at Arenal Volcano, perhaps the most amazing natural site I’ve seen in my life. The photo below approximates what we are able to see from our balcony. Arenal is farther afield though, at six kilometres, and the view much less dramatic than this, but still amazing. Simply amazing.
We can watch the lava flows moving down the mountain at an incredible clip.
(Linkjacked from a GoogleGroups site)
We are at Arenal Lodge, and got here after driving seven hours from Tamarindo along narrow, winding roads that reminded us both of Tuscany.
Truly amazing.
So, this is how the day went.
Ellie had had a horrible yesterday evening, having napped not a single bit all day. In fact, we’d had to bail from a restaurant because she was so tired and cranky. Our fault entirely.
And so it was an early bedtime last night, which resulted in an early wakeup this morning: 7:00am. We didn’t actually hit the road until 10:10, and I still don’t understand what took us so long.
Our first way-point was the bridge over the Tempisque River, otherwise known as the Taiwan Friendship Bridge, built in 1990. Elliotte has fallen asleep in the car almost immediately, and stayed that way until stopping, an hour and half later. She had a snack while I took photos of the bridge.
I like bridges.
We then mad our way via smaller backroads to the InterAmericana Highway, wherein our pain started. You see, despite its grand name, it remains a two lane (one in each direction) undivided highway with no shoulder to speak of.
Sharing said highway with us are bicycles, dogs, chickens, HUGE lorries, and huger trucks hauling (even) huger logs. When you get caught behind one of those, you’re going at 40 kmh. If you’re able to pass, then you can proceed at 80. Until you run into the next bottleneck, five minutes later.
It was an amazing drive, particularly up the switchbacks that snake back and forth up and over the central mountain chain of Costa Rica into the Valle Centrale. Travelling at 20 kmh, you really can appreciate the scenery.
We were finally able to pull off the InterAmericana at San Ramon, and we heaved a sigh of relief. This was now about 2:00 pm, and time for a real meal for Ellie (and us!). We found a great place (Rainforest Restaurant) about an hour later. The road had turned surreal by now, and the scenery stunning.
Here’s where both the road and the scenery transported me back to Tuscany, two years ago. Twistier and turnier than those previous, climbing up and down the hillsides, through beautiful little villages with colourful gardens. And all the way, hoping that some crazed Tico wouldn’t veer into our lane and force us off the road.
(No one did, although a tractor pulling a wagon of hay, and cutting into the InterAmericana, almost did a couple of hours earlier.)
Arrival in La Foruna at around 5:00 pm. It would take us another half hour to get through it, wind around a couple of more hills to Arenal Lodge, negotiate our way through the gates (I’d booked online, and hadn’t received a confirmation number), and then drive slowly the two kilometers up a mountain paved with cobblestones.
I shit you not, two kilometers of cobble freakin’ stones.
We arrived, it is beautiful, and Elliotte had caught up on her sleep. Unfortunately, the top half of Arenal was clouded over. It happens about half the time. A little reminiscent of Mount Robson, when is clouded over 90%, and of which few people ever get to see the summit.
Sitting on the porch, we were presented with a display of two parrots flying in formation in front of us. Real. Live. Parrots. All shimmering yellow and green and orange.
Later that night, after Ellie got retired, we stepped out onto our porch, sat in rocking chairs, and watched as lava flowed down the northern slopes of Arenal Volcano. At our distance (and with the glare of a half moon, and surrounding landscape lights, the sight is much less stunning than most you see from the InterTubes. But for us, it was stunning nonetheless.
A deep red glow comes up from the top of the cone (it is the most perfect composite cone volcano I’ve ever seen… the only one, in fact), and every now and then you can watch lava flows roll down the mountain at incredible speeds.
No smells, no sounds, and definitely no danger, our being six kilometers away. These are calm eruptions with lava flows, not the like the volatile clastic eruptions of, say, Mount Saint Helens. More like Mauna Loa in Hawaii.
Tomorrow we walk the suspended bridges above the rain forests and take a hike to some volcanic features. Then back to Tamarindo for our last two nights.