On the road again! We're heading down off the high cloudy hills of Monte verde & descending to a small town built at the base of an active volcano called Arenal. I'm sure it will be just as picturesque, though not as cold or wet as it is in Monte Verde.
We packed our bags into the bus at a reasonable time of 7.50am & departed soon after that.
The first hour of the journey went by unremarkably. Tom napped which helped with his recovery from last night & I admired the landscape, while trying not to feel too motion sick.
As part of Costa Rica's effort to provide environmentally conscious tourism, you can not hike this volcano, but the unobstructed view alone on the ground from only a couple of kilometres away is stunning.
When the boat reaches the docking point on the other side of the lake, we all disembark & hop on another private bus which takes us the 30 minutes to the town of La Fortuna & our resort style accommodation. We've made really good time & arrive just after 11.30am.
Check in isn't till 2pm, so a group of us including Tom & I, walk across the road to the Soda, which is what they call a cheap local food restaurant in Costa Rica. Here we eat a nice lunch, drink a few cold beers & then walk back to the resort to hang by the pool. I also use this time to look up local activities & tours.
At 2pm, we get our key & gain access to cabin 110! A really nice, private accommodation in the form of a cabin with 3 beds including a kind bed, air con & a private bathroom. It's very clean & comfortable. I'm looking forward to sleep already! After we check in, I walk back to reception to talk to Veronica about a tour that 8 of us would like to do tomorrow.
It involves animals, so understandably G Adventures can't organise it or necessarily condone it. I really respect this about the company. Too often animals are misused for tourism purposes & essentially financial gain. However, the tour we want to do is very animal & eco friendly, so I can use Veronica's phone & book us in for tomorrow. Exciting!
The view of Arenal Volcano from our accommodation!
We packed our bags into the bus at a reasonable time of 7.50am & departed soon after that.
The first hour of the journey went by unremarkably. Tom napped which helped with his recovery from last night & I admired the landscape, while trying not to feel too motion sick.
The area is so green with lots of hills, red dirt, farm animals, mountains & low hanging layers of different cloud's all swirled together in the sky making one hell of an abstract design.
The few people we did see were waving & smiling at the bus. It was really good to see hundreds of wind turbines through the hills.
Seeing the wind turbines stirred up a lot of interest & Veronica used this opportunity to give us some cool facts about Costa Rica. She said 90% of the countries energy requirements are supplied via green, reusable energy, by methods of geothermal, wind & hydro electrical power. She said there had even been a few years where the country came very very close to reaching 100% of its power from these sources. Interestingly she also said that Costa Rica has had no army since 1949 & the government has been able to invest this money previously used for military, back into health & education. The people in Costa Rica are said to be the happiest, which is likely a reflection of the government's investments, the stable economy & the lack of civil war. This combined with its economy & it's progressive views of protecting it's natural habitat & beauty, make it one hell of a country. Both Tom & I agree that we could easily live here.
After the first hour we stopped at a rural cafe for coffee, a toilet break & to admire the view.
It was honestly a stunning view. Looking down the valley & rolling hills. Directly under the lookout was a small farm with some calves, white fluffy bantem hens, a proud & loud rooster, cat & dog. Their interactions provided much amusement.
Unfortunately the coffee was incredibly bad.... one of THE WORST we've had this holiday!
Not even 3 serves of sugar could save it.
It was here, while cringing & reluctantly swallowing the coffee, that I found a metal wall plaque among the gifts on display. It's a mock speed sign, depicting a sloth & the speed of 0.01kph.
It was only $10 US, which was a bargain & will be a nice little reminder of Costa Rica to go in our future house.
After this we had another hour of driving which brought us to the edge of a very large lake & a water taxi. We all loaded into the water taxi & spent the next hour on the lake, enjoying the scenery both on the lakeside & what was reflected back off it's perfectly still surface.
After 30 minutes in the boat we could see the volcano coming into view, the top half was obscured by cloud, but hopefully it would not stay shy for long.
Unfortunately the coffee was incredibly bad.... one of THE WORST we've had this holiday!
Not even 3 serves of sugar could save it.
It was here, while cringing & reluctantly swallowing the coffee, that I found a metal wall plaque among the gifts on display. It's a mock speed sign, depicting a sloth & the speed of 0.01kph.
It was only $10 US, which was a bargain & will be a nice little reminder of Costa Rica to go in our future house.
After this we had another hour of driving which brought us to the edge of a very large lake & a water taxi. We all loaded into the water taxi & spent the next hour on the lake, enjoying the scenery both on the lakeside & what was reflected back off it's perfectly still surface.
After 30 minutes in the boat we could see the volcano coming into view, the top half was obscured by cloud, but hopefully it would not stay shy for long.
It's last major eruption happened in 1968, when it erupted unexpectedly and totally destroyed the nearby town of Tabacon. You can still see in vivid detail the patterns or track's on the side of the volcano that indicate the lava flows descent. Since then, it was Costa Rica's most active volcano & one of the ten most active volcano's in the world. Since 2010, it has been dormant, though due to it's active history & youth (its estimated age is less than 7,500 years old) it will likely become active once again.
As part of Costa Rica's effort to provide environmentally conscious tourism, you can not hike this volcano, but the unobstructed view alone on the ground from only a couple of kilometres away is stunning.
When the boat reaches the docking point on the other side of the lake, we all disembark & hop on another private bus which takes us the 30 minutes to the town of La Fortuna & our resort style accommodation. We've made really good time & arrive just after 11.30am.
Check in isn't till 2pm, so a group of us including Tom & I, walk across the road to the Soda, which is what they call a cheap local food restaurant in Costa Rica. Here we eat a nice lunch, drink a few cold beers & then walk back to the resort to hang by the pool. I also use this time to look up local activities & tours.
At 2pm, we get our key & gain access to cabin 110! A really nice, private accommodation in the form of a cabin with 3 beds including a kind bed, air con & a private bathroom. It's very clean & comfortable. I'm looking forward to sleep already! After we check in, I walk back to reception to talk to Veronica about a tour that 8 of us would like to do tomorrow.
It involves animals, so understandably G Adventures can't organise it or necessarily condone it. I really respect this about the company. Too often animals are misused for tourism purposes & essentially financial gain. However, the tour we want to do is very animal & eco friendly, so I can use Veronica's phone & book us in for tomorrow. Exciting!
After this I go back to the pool to relax.
On my way I spot a giant moth & at the pool a small guinea pig like animal is spotted behind a garden. We've spotted an Agouti! How exciting to see one here. It's too quick to photograph, unfortunately.
We have a quite night here & make the most of our cabin & air con. Which is a strange thought when compared to last night in Monte Verde when it was quite cold & we had a quilt & socks on to go to bed.
- Alli
On my way I spot a giant moth & at the pool a small guinea pig like animal is spotted behind a garden. We've spotted an Agouti! How exciting to see one here. It's too quick to photograph, unfortunately.
We have a quite night here & make the most of our cabin & air con. Which is a strange thought when compared to last night in Monte Verde when it was quite cold & we had a quilt & socks on to go to bed.
- Alli
The view of Arenal Volcano from our accommodation!
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