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Published: July 25th 2006
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Volcan Arenal
Obviously you increase your chance of getting caught in an eruption if you stay longer than 20 minutes!!!!! So here we are safe and sound in San Jose, Costa Rica. We´ve made it all the way through five countries in the last six weeks with only the odd dose of ´Montezumas Revenge´to have troubled us!
So we finally left our tour last week and had the last eight days to explore Costa Rica for ourselves. It was a bit of a relief to finish to be honest as we have been itching to travel at our own pace, eat when we want to etc. etc. So last Friday we set off for La Fortuna, a small town that sits under the shadow of Volcan Arenal, the 3rd most active volcano in the world. For both of us, this part of Central America was the real pinnacle of our trip during our planning stage. We´d spent so much time looking at the internet of pictures of the volcano erupting and lava pouring down the sides and couldn´t wait to get there. Unfortunately 1 in 2 people who go to La Fortuna never get to see Arenal as it is shrouded in cloud, and add in the fact that we were going in rainy season, the odds were pretty much
Proper Hummingbird
A little bit better than the last one we posted stacked against us. When we arrived, the volcano was covered in cloud, so much so, that we didnt even know which direction it was in! But, with only the faintest of hope, we decided to go on a jungle trek which led out to the viewpoint following a visit to the Baldi Hot springs for a couple of hours. On the day we had planned to do it, I persuaded Nadine to wait till our final day in the hope that the rain and cloud might clear. But that day, it rained harder than anything we had seen in the previous six weeks. But in true British spirit, we still went on the tour and got bloody soaked. After trekking through a pretty crappy rainforest for an hour and a half, we finally emerged out to the volcano, still shrouded in cloud! But....in true hollywood fashion, Moses seemed to part the clouds in one fell swoop and revealed the volcano to us. And it was amazing!!!! As it got darker, we could see lava pouring out of the top and spilling down the sides. It was a real magic moment and one we will both remeber for years to come.
Lava Flow
Photo doesn't do it justice The guide with us said we were extremely lucky and noted that the on day we were going to go, they had brought the group back twice on the off chance of a viewing but to no avail (Mucho brownie points for Stu then!!!). After the viewing we went to the hot springs which were fantastic. We sat in the hot mineral waters, supping beers at the wet-bar, watching more lava pour out of Arenal. Talk about Heaven. And then to top it off, just before we got on the bus back, the clouds came in again and hid the volcano. It was as if the script was written solely for us that night. Its a shame that the photos and footage that we´ve got will never do it justice.
So, after that, we moved on to Monterverde. The site of the biggest protected rainforest in Costa Rica. We spent three lazy days here and were full off good intentions when we turned up but that soon changed. Firstly, the main attraction is walking in the cloudforest but we couldn´t be bothered to do that as there´s a good chance you wont see anything and we had already done
General Custard
This nag was ready for the glue factory after it had dragged my fat backside around the rainforest! the walk in La Fortuna and were suitably unimpressed. The second thing to do is to do the zipline canopy tour, but as we had done one in Nicaragua, we couldn´t be bothered to do that either! What we did do though was a horseride tour on the tracks within Monteverde. As both us have never done horseriding before, this was our equivalent of extreme sports, although I dont think the lazy nags got above 5mph! It was a really chilled out way to see the countryside and we stopped at a mountainside cafe where hundreds of hummingbirds would feed on the balcony (as you can see the new bird photo is slightly better than th last!). Both us felt as if someone had repeatedly booted us up the backside the next morning, and I always thought the slight twinge you get on your butt after a bike ride was 'saddle-sore', but the bruises on the inside of my thighs proved otherwise! I guess they coined the term a few years before bicycles came on the scene!
So we are finally back in San Jose, and await our flight to Lima, Peru and once we've seen Paddington Bear, we'll
Monkey Business
Us two and Mel from Oz hanging about in a tree send you a photo.
South America here we come!!!!!!
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Mel
non-member comment
thanks SO much for putting that photo up Stu... ha ha. Thanks again for a great trip guys..see you soon!