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.
Pukaskwa National Park
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Well yesterday Doug and I traveled to Pukaskwa national Park just out side of Marathon to take photos. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and moderate temperatures. We walked to Horseshoe Bay and then took the new trail to the left of the bay towards the mouth of the Pic River. Horseshoe Bay has a lot more beach front than last year, as the lake is down by about three feet. Mind you it is a beautiful sandy beach. The trail head that we took was at the end of the beach to the left.
In Edinburgh
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We’ve been in Edinburgh for 2 1/2 days now, and we count ourselves lucky that today is the first day of rain we’ve seen, as we were warned by many Scottish friends to “bring your waterproofs” before we left. The weather is damp, but much warmer than home at this time of year. (there’s the weather update for all our Canadian friends – weather tracking is a Canadian sport…)
Back In Canada
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Well, we finally made it back to Marathon. Our flight leaving Lima, Peru at 12:10 am was delayed by an hour and then took about an hour to taxi to take off. This was because some of the Peruvians on the flight did not get the concept that they had to be seated in order for the plane to take off.
Received Plane Tickets
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Well we finally got our plane tickets for our trip to South America. Spent 2 hours with the travel agent on Monday going over the itinerary and making sure all the dates match up correctly. Good idea as we found one internal flight that was booked for the wrong day and quickly had it fixed. So as it goes now our schedule is as follows:
- July 7, 2004: Thunder Bay to Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- July 8, 2004: Toronto, Ontario to Quito, Ecuador (via Atlanta, Georgia and Bogota, Columbia)
- July 19, 2004: Quito, Ecuador to Lima, Peru
- Aug 5, 2004: Lima, Peru to Thunder Bay, Ontario (via Atlanta, Georgia and Toronto, Ontario)
We also have about 5 internal flights that Gap Adventures have booked as part of the trip.
