Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna

I am in a town called La Fortuna which is about a 5 hour bus ride north west of San Jose. Two other trainees and I decided to take our one night a month of vacation to visit the most active volcano in Costa Rica - Arenal. Here is a little bit of history on Arenal thanks to Wikipedia!

"Arenal is the youngest and most active of all the mountains in Costa Rica. Scientists have been able to date it back to more than 4000 years ago. The area remained largely unexplored until 1937, when a documented expedition took place to reach the summit. It was presumed extinct until July 29, 1968 when an earthquake caused it to erupt, after approximately 400 years of dormancy. The eruption wiped out the town of Arenal and killed 87 people. Arenal rises 1657 metres above sea level and overlooks Lake Arenal; both are part of Arenal Volcano National Park. The country's most active volcano, Arenal's eruptions are strombolian in type, being frequent but moderate and can be viewed without danger as long as the viewers are behind the safety perimeter."

We got here yesterday morning and went on a hike in the rainforest at the base of the volcano. The purpose of this hike was to see animals but it was raining pretty hard so most of them had taken cover....we did hear a monkey however! Then at night we were taken to a place where we could actually see the lava coming down the side of the volcano. We were really far away but since it was night time it was really easy to see the lava - this was really cool because I have yet to see real lava in action! After this we went to some hot springs near the base of the volcano where there were 25 different pools that got progressively hotter as you went up in elevation. This was amazing and we really enjoyed being able to just relax and hang out in the pools with the other people that were on the tour with us. We got back from this tour at about 9:30pm which was already wayyy past our bedtimes but we pushed ourselves and went out to dinner and had some drinks with the people we had met which was really fun. I dont think we could have asked for a better day! We slept in this morning and went and had breakfast. In about two hours we are going to head back to San Jose and possibly see a movie and then head back home.

Next weekend we are going on our second site visit. This time we are going by ourselves to visit another volunteer at their site for about four days. This will be another chance to observe volunteers in action and get a better idea of what my life will be like for the next two years! Exciting but also a bit scary!

Thats all for now! Pura Vida!

Emily