Arenal Volcano and Monteverde

18/06/09 - 20/06/09

After the few days in Drake Bay, it was time for us to move on and to part company with Martine and Baudewyn, who were heading for Panama, while we were going north to La Fortuna. The journey was too long to do all in one day so we ended up back in San Jose for the night. We did not like the capital any more this time around :) We arrived in La Fortuna the following afternoon. The small town is at the foot of the famous Arenal Volcano, which has been continuously active since a huge eruption in 1968, which destroyed three of the surrounding towns, leaving La Fortuna untouched, hence the name. The volcano is the reason why everyone comes to La Fortuna, because at night, weather-permitting of course, you are able to see lava running down the sides of the volcano. Unfortunately for us, it was pouring with rain while we were there. We still managed to see some lava but the view was obscured by the clouds and the rain. I have taken a photo from the internet to show you what it should look like, as I wasn't able to get any myself :) After visiting the volcano, we went to the natural hot springs, which are heated by the lava (a very pleasant 42 degrees). Apparently the waters began to warm up two weeks before the 1968 eruption, but nobody knew why.

Our next stop was Monteverde, which we got to via a jeep-boat-jeep (or so they call it here), which involves getting a minibus to the nearby Lake Arenal, a boat across the lake, followed by another minibus direct to your hostel. It made a nice change from the bus :) The thing to do in Monteverde is a canopy tour, and the one we did was called Canopy Extremo (Extreme Canopy). This involved ziplining around a course of 14 cables of various length very high above the ground (the cables ranged from a height of 225ft (68m) and 450ft (137m)). There were also two surprises on the way: a 90ft (27m) high abseil, the speed of which was controlled by the member of staff letting you down, and a tarzan swing, which like the name suggests, meant stepping off a platform and swinging to and fro on a rope, before being caught by two of the assistants. I didn't enjoy the initial drop, and Vic and I both screamed loudly when we did it, but the swinging back and forth part was great, and the whole experience was unforgettable, although I don't think Vic will ever want to do anything like it again. We were not able to get any good photos of each other on the cables (although I have a couple of videos of Vic which I will try to upload soon), so I have again taken a couple of photos from the internet to give you an idea of what it was like for us.