Volcan Arenal

Here we are at Volcan Arenal. The area is stunningly beautiful and feels unlike any other place in Costa Rica. It is SOOO green! Not just in the National Park/preserve area but all around. There is this huge man-made lake that spreads out in front of the perfectly conical volcano. The Volcano has been shrouded in clouds for the past month but, with a stroke of good luck, has decided to show its face the past couple of days. On our drive up here from Nosara we had to circumnavigate most of the lake. The golden afternoon sun kissed the lush green Bavarian-like hills. The clean lake reflected the blue sky and the volcano had a halo of clouds at the very top. Our first full day here we walked around in the Arenal National Park. You don't get to get too close to this still active volcano but we did do some scrambling on lava rocks and could here the pleasant rumble of the molten rock boiling out of volcano. It fondly reminded me of the sound of Dzeda's coffee maker. In the afternoon we hiked to the La Fortuna Waterfall which was also beautiful. The Finkels arrived in the evening and we ate dinner with them. I soothed my bug bites in the hot tub that night while Emily and I caught up on the 9 months of life in which I have been out of the country.

Today we visited the local Mariposario/Ranario. In the afternoon we went Ziplining with Sky Trek. We took a tram up to the top of a hill and zoomed down across over 8km of zipline back to the bottom. Supposedly we reached speeds of 50mph, but I am not positive. The ziplining (again) was super fun. It is just fast/high enough to be thrilling but secure and no free-falls to not be scary at all. So it's basically FUN FUN FUN.

This evening at dinner we got to see a lava show from the volcano. The clouds had cleared and the volcano burped up quite a bit of glowing orange rock that rolls and flows down the hillside. Pretty Spectacular.