Below Belief

We have a lazy morning with a nice fruit and omelette breakfast in the sun. Our trip to the volcano is this evening with a local guide who speaks excellent English (learned from tourists) but who turns out to have broken his leg in a soccer match three days ago. Never mind, his brother will take us.
Fancying some exercise before the trip, we set off on a hike along the road to Lake Arenal, skirting the volcano, which supposedly takes us to a swimming lake 3km away. By the time we leave (with plenty of bakery goodies) it is mid-day and very hot. Typical. So we walk and get rapidly sweaty in the heat. The view of Arenal is always striking, but we find no lakes. After about an hour we find “Los Lagos” (the Lakes) a kind of elaborate resort hotel which claims to have lakes and pools. Desperate by now for a swim to cool off, we go in and see if we can negotiate a go on their flume tubes. It turns out they are for under tens only but they will drive us in a 4WD jeep up to the lake for £12 each. Hmm. We steal a paper map and wander innocently through the gates hoping to walk to the lakes for free. This turns out to be possible except that it involves a very steep track.
By the time we reach the top, we’re knackered. But there is an impressive observatory platform where you can see the volcano side and frequently see hot rocks come tumbling down from the crater. Below us is a beautiful green-blue lake and we can’t resist a swim even if it is raining. It must be the low-season because our only company is two labourers at the lake. We check with them if we can swim and then dive in. It’s a spectacular location: the sound of large rocks falling all the time leaving tracks of smoke dotted down the volcano. We have to head back for our 5pm rendezvous, so wearily we set off for Fortuna. On the way we see a tiny snake about 12 inches long but very thin with black and red hoops. We observe it carefully and later find out it is a coral snake, one of the most poisonous in Costa Rica and which normally grow to be much larger. We also pass a tree with young green bananas that aren’t nice and an orange tree with paradoxically green oranges,. The “greens” are lovely and tasty so we take some. Our saviour comes a few kilometres from Fortuna in the form of a blue pick-up truck who gives us a lift on the back into town for free. So we get half an hour to change out of our wet clothes (it’s rained a lot) and get a coffee before meeting our guide.
Unfortunately, the guide’s brother is a rather poor substitute as he cannot speak any English so we are destined for a silent tour. Things are even more disappointing when he drives us through pouring rain all the way back to Los Lagos where we’ve just come from, pays to get in where we walked free today and takes us all the way back to the lake. Al and I just laugh. Here we park and walk up the side of the forested volcano. It is absolutely pissing it down but this seems to be a recurring theme for volcano tours, particularly reminiscent of Pacaya. It even begins to thunder. We scramble up lava rocks until we reach a cordoned-off “danger area” where we can see right up the active side of the volcano. Although it is misty we can see the glowing crater and frequently large firework displays of twinkling red lights as rocks drop off the top. Sometimes there are so many fragments that the red light appears to flow down the side. It is cool. We can’t stay long in the wet but I take some fairly hopeful photos and head down.
Great views on the way. Next stop are the hot springs which are a great end to the evening. There are four pools with water supplied directly out of the ground. The top pool is a scalding 63 degrees and the others are progressively cooler, leading down to a bar area. It reminds me a lot of Centre Parcs with a fog rising off the water in the cold air. It is luxurious and relaxing and the view is somewhat more impressive than Centre Parcs. As it gets darker the sky clears and a full Moon comes out. We are treated to an amazing view of the hot rocks falling down Arenal and you can hear the clatter echoing across the valley. It is captivating and magical, demonstrating the raw power of nature. Arenal was inactive (a mountain) until 1968 when the top blew off and wiped out many villages nearby. Now the crater is “open” – meaning the pressure is reduced and there’s little chance of another big eruption. What makes Arenal special, and one of the most active and studied volcanoes in the world, is that it’s “open” phase has lasted 31 years so far whereas most volcanoes stay open only one or two years before closing and allowing the pressure to build again. Until three years ago there was a regular and powerful eruption here every 30 minutes. Nowadays they occur only a few times each day. The power of it is still amazing. So we enjoy a few beers and soak in the hot water while we watch the live display. Bliss.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 31st, 2004 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Central America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.