Pura Vida!

Wow! We have had quite a time here in La Fortuna; definitely one of the best parts of the trip. La Fortuna is the town at the base of Volcan Arenal, the most active volcano in Central America. We arrived Friday afternoon and found a quaint, little hostel called Gringo Pete's. Its great, $4pp, what a deal. We had to ask a Tico where the volcano was because it was raining and we couldn't see anything through the clouds. But we thought, what the heck, if we're here, we're going to try every night to see an eruption. That night we went with some other hostel-folks to go see the lava flows (its best to view at night). Our guide told us some history of the volcano that was pretty interesting: before 1968 it was a dormant volcano with a conical shape and the crater on the top. When it erupted it actually erupted from a smaller crater down on the side and over the years has built up itself, to where now that crater is higher than the original one. Anyway, we were not so lucky this night...let's just say that after an hour and a half of staring at clouds in the night sky, we had to give up. Our guide told us we could come back for free the next night for another chance.

So Saturday we woke up and took the bus to Arenal National Park. We hiked through the jungle around the volcano and came to the old lava fields. It was so cool! Arenal's lava flows aren't exactly like Hawaii, it spits large boulders. It was great to climb all over them, good thing they were nice and cool by now! We were also able to climb to an overlook of Lake Arenal; it was beautiful. We were so lucky that it wasn't raining (for once)! We continued hiking to a river and then continued to the mirador...where you're supposed to be able to take great pictures of the volcano. We were able to see more of the cone than we had ever seen before, but those pesky clouds just wouldn't move from the crater.

We continued our volcano day with an afternoon in the Baldi Thermae (hot springs!) It was great, the water was so warm and relaxing. It was hard to believe the volcano had created all the warmth. We chilled out all afternoon, read our books, and played in the waterfalls. That night was our return trip to attempt to see lava. Our guide had told us about this great restuarant right by the lava lookout. So we figured, at least we'll get a good meal even if we miss out on the flows. Well that was an understatement! We both got steaks as big as plates and covered in mushrooms for $8! The white plastic chairs were definitely a disguise for this gem of a place. Finally Costa Rica has come through with a good meal. Little did we know the best part of the night was yet to come...

I guess we had just ordered when I heard a bunch of yells...suddenly Arenal had come alive! The restaurant went black and we hurried out to get a better look. The whole top was blowing red hot lava! My words will not be able to describe the feeling of watching a volcano erupt just kilometers away, it was amazing! The lava rocks would tumble down the side and burst with more sparks into smaller rocks. Imagine one of those fireworks that bursts, floats, and then the smaller parts burst again. Our guide said this one of the best eruptions they had had in a while, we felt so lucky to have seen it. The best part was...Arenal wasn't finished. The volcano kept spitting lava all night. What a beautiful sight! And all of this over the best steak dinner we've had in weeks. Our volcano day couldn't have ended on a better note.