Arenal
Trip Start
Jun 16, 2008
1
6
23
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Arenal Volcano National Park,
Province of Guanacaste,
Costa Rica
Friday, July 4, 2008
The jeep picked us up on time and we set off on the bumpy Costa Rican mountain roads again, passing through communities with the obligatory slam on the brakes to just miss a stray dog which seems to happen on a lot of our journeys here
Waterfall
. After about an hour drive we reached the lake where we got on the small boat to take us to Arenal where we got back onto a jeep/minibus. This time the minibus experience was a bit different as the comedy-duo organising the transport figured a way of fitting 14 people and all of their luggage into a maximum 12 seater vechile! My Spanish may be limited (hablo muy poco Espanyol - I only speak a little Spanish) but thankfully I was on hand to translate some American into English for our Costa Rican guides who were confused by the "Areenal laadge", rather than "A-re-nal lodge", that the-typically-lazy-with-their-pronunciation Americans we were travelling with wanted to go to (something we have noticed with all the Americans we have met)!Thankfully the crush didn't last too long and we arrived at our hostel, checked into our 8 person dorm which we were sharing with two friendly Germans Max and Till, with Max the spitting image of German footballer Dietmar Hamann - although he didn't seem too impressed when I told him this, saying he thinks Hamann is ugly and he wasn't comforted any further when Oli added that if he was a girl he'd sleep with Max in an attempt to re-raise his self-esteem!
We wanted to make the most of our first day here on Thursday, seeing as our date to be in Nicaragua is edging closer, so in the morning we headed to a waterfall in La Fortuna. It cost three pound fifty to get past a very happy and helpful ticket man and then after walking down about two million steps we reached the water
Volcan Arenal
. We ventured across the slippery rocks to the pool and Oli, Ellie and Natasha took a brief swim before we headed back up the steps. At the entrance we waited for the taxi we had booked, but which never arrived, before hopping into another in order to get back for the excursion we had planned at 3:30pm.The excursion we went on in the afternoon began with a trip to Volcan Arenal, La Fortuna's famous active volcano. The trip began with a trek through the rainforest at the base of the volcano with our guide Marcus who all of the girls liked at first (only to later realise he was like all Costa Rican men when he invited them out to bars that evening - without me and Oli!), and he showed us howler monkeys, spider monkeys, toucans, woodpeckers, a bee nest, a humming bird, various plants and his best chat-up lines. Having finished the walk we got back on the bus to head to a good vantage point for the volcano where we would wait for the lava that never came!
The second part of the excursion was probably the best however. We were taken to Baldi Hot Springs (not Balti as I had told the Germans!) where we could swin in about 16 different springs of differing temperatures, the hottest one 67 degress, heated by the volcano. After two and a half hours there we nearly missed the bus back to the hostel but in heroic style Marcus wouldn't leave without us and returned us 'home' safely to the girls' relief. Still wet and trampy from the springs, we headed to the local pizza restaurant for a pizza every bit as cheesy as Marcus before retiring to bed.
Today (Friday) the group has split as Oli and Natasha are heading back to the lovely San Jose for a week-long Spanish course whilst me, Ellie and Rachael are going to head to the Nicaragua border crossing tomorrow. Favouring becahes over classrooms we will spend some time in Southern Nicaragua before working our way up to Esteli in the North where we will begin our teaching and be re-joined by Oli and Natasha.
