La Fortuna
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We left San Jose yesterday and arrived in La Fortuna. We hired a guide to take us mountain biking around Arenal Volcano – it was great! The volcano is still active, and several times during our ride we could here it erupt – unfortunately, as this is the wet season in the rain forest, we could not actually see the top of the volcano, but the eruptions sounded a lot like thunder. Our guide was very good about explaining the history of the volcano to us. The last big eruption was in 1980 at 7:00 am – it spewed hot ash in a cloud around the volcano for 14 km, and killed 87 people in 2 villages that were destroyed. Five years later the side of the volcano was blown off by a lava eruption, and he showed us exactly where the flow went – it looked like a long, low hill that tapered out from the base of the volcano. The amazing thing is, if you weren´t told how recently the volcano had erupted, you would never know, as things grow so quickly in the rain forest that the village area and the lava flow are completely covered in full grown trees, tropical plants and flowers. The animals are all back, and the government has dammed a lake at the base of the volcano for hydro electric power.
Just before the volcano erupted, there were five towns around the volcano, now there is only one original town left. Two were destroyed by the volcano, two were flooded by the hydro lake, and we biked through the oldest town. There were three little girls at the side of the road throwing old coconuts at a papaya tree, to try to get the unripe fruits to fall so they could use the fruit skins to make paper. It was pretty funny to see. There was also an immaculate soccer pitch at the side of the lake that was maintained by the villagers. (That was a political statement for the amusement of all our friends in Marathon)
The amazing thing about the plants was that there were all kinds of different flowers growing in the ditch and in the forest that we go to Home Hardware and pay money for so we can plant them in our gardens at home. Here they are weeds that need to be cut back so they do not overtake the roads in a single rainy season. Our guide could not believe we pay for these plants in Canada.
The best part about the whole trip was the animals – there were all kinds of beautiful birds that I will have to identify when we get out our guide book, but we did see beautiful sergeant tanningers, and lots of vultures – they are like pigeons here (maybe we were just riding too slow…) On the way back, we got to see a whole family of howler monkeys in the trees, and some pretty impressive howling between competing males. It was fun to watch the babies practicing climbing on the small vines while the mothers kept care, and the males protected their troop. We must have stood and watched them for 10 minutes in the rain.
We finally raced the support van back to the start of the trail, and soaked, but happy we were dropped off back at our hotel. I was amazed at the amount of volcanic sand and ash that was on me from the road, but there was practically a gravel stream of it going down the drain in the shower. Note to self – use bikes with fenders on wet volcanic roads, lest you would like your crack filled with black ash.
Today we´re going cannoning, then we’re off to the hot springs. We hope all of our family and friends are enjoying themselves as much as we are…
Take care,
Noel & George (we miss our doggies)
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