Volcan Arenal

Trip Start Nov 20, 2009

106

Trip End Nov 02, 2010

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Where I stayed

Gringo Pete's

(La Fortuna hotels)

Flag of Costa Rica La Fortuna, Province of Alajuela, Costa Rica
Thursday, October 7, 2010

We had yet another day of travel on the 7th to get to La Fortuna. First we left our hostel in Liberia and walked a few blocks to the Panamerican highway, there we flagged down a bus heading to the town of Canos an hour down the road. In Canos we had find to right bus stop to get a bus to a place called Tilaran, another hours ride away, it took a fair bit of asking around to locate the stop. In Tilaran we had a 2 hr wait so got some lunch from a little bar/cafe, then caught the final bus to La Fortuna (around 3 hours more). The bus ride to La fortuna, for me ranks as one of the most beautiful we have had, the road followed the edge of Lake Arenal and the weather was perfect. The lake was picturesque and its shoreline covered in lush green foliage complete with brightly coloured flowers and the occasional villa in amongst it all. The best part was our first views of the volcano beyond the far shore, a perfect cone pointing to the sky making a perfect backdrop to the lake. The road took us right round the lake and then past the volcano so we got some great close up views - the lower slopes covered in greenery, the upper is all old lava flows and the gently smoking crater at the top: pretty awesome

Lake Arenal

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We arrived in La Fortuna mid afternoon and got a room in a hostel called Gringo Pete's, where we were the only guests! That's the low season for you. We spent the afternoon and the following day taking it easy, exploring the town, having a few beers in the evenings and admiring the volcano. The town is 17km from the base but because of its size, it looks and feels like we are right there bellow it. The crater is almost constantly smoking and on the second night we saw it suddenly belch up a big column of smoke! Exciting stuff. Its famous for being able to see glowing lava running down its sides at night, however as seems to be typical for us, this kind of activity had ceased a few months previously!
On the 9th we went out so see the volcano proper. We ended up forking out to hire a scooter to get there and made the most of it by first riding back past the entrance to the volcano reserve to go to the lake. We rode around the lake side road until we found a nice spot where we could get down to the shore. We went in for a swim, which was very nice and refreshing before chilling out in the sun to dry off. It was early afternoon before we headed back and went to the volcano reserve where we had to pay entrance and were given information by a guy at the gate. We also discovered that, somehow, we had completely failed to feel a 5.9 earthquake that had occurred the previous evening

Lake

! There are 2 trails through the reserve (imaginatively called short and long) starting and ending at the volcano observation point. We climbed up to the OP to start with but the volcano was half hidden in cloud cover so went set off on the long trail. It was a really nice walk first going through forest at the base of the volcano, reaching a pretty lagoon created in a big eruption and lava flow that happened in 1968. After the lagoon the trail climbs the lava flow up and out of the forest onto the lower slopes with views of the volcano (still covered by cloud) and the lake, and then curves back round and back to the start. We noticed the clouds seemed to be lifting so we sat a chilled out the OP and waited. They gradually lifted until the summit was only obscured by its own smoke screen. Great sight, and after pictures we left satisfied.

Leaving tomorrow for Monteverde.

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