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Published: April 5th 2006
The clouds parted and we awoke to a spectacular view of the Arenal Volcano far from our balcony. We were incredibly lucky considering no one had seen it for weeks due to cloud cover. We had a lovely pancakes, maple syrup, and plantain breakfast (again...), and prepared to mount our horses! Yep, we decided to make our 3-hour journey to the volcano by horse!
Now during the course of our trip, James and I had decided to place each animal we crossed in to 2 categories: Crazies and Assholes. For example, animals we had never seen before and did not know the names of (and there are many) were referred to as Crazies. Animals such as Hummingbirds who are beautiful but did not stay still for photographs are Assholes. My horse was an Asshole. He cantered whenever he wanted to (mostly down steep narrow muddy paths), and leaped off a large cliff. Had I not been holding on for dear life, I'd now be one with the mud and maggots. The horse riding experience was one of the scariest of my life (you should have seen these trails), but the views were spectacular with the active Arenal Volcano in the
distance surrounded by a lake, and the vultures soaring overhead, somehow made it all worthwhile.
After that horse ride, we took our sore bums on to a boat across the lake to La Fortuna - the town that lies at the base of the volcano - where we checked into a youth hostel. In the evening we toured the volcano - first we went entered the Reserve Park where we saw birds, more tarantulas and monkeys, then were able to climb an old lava flow from 1992. From here we could see and hear the volcano spewing out lava boulders that came tumbling down. By nightfall these boulders that were simply clouds of smoke by day were now bright red and exploding before our eyes. Spectacular!! A couple of hours later, we were swimming in the hot volcanic springs at Baldi. We were exhausted but the hot water soothed our sore horse-beaten bodies.
The next morning we visited a posh resort called Tabacon, where we swam in a series of volcanic hotsprings under waterfalls surrounded by palm trees, lush vegetation and hummingbirds. We spent the afternoon sipping Pina Coladas in the warm pool bar under the sunshine with
a specatular view of Arenal. Now that's what I call Pura Vida...
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