Our first four nights we stayed in La Fortuna, outside of Arenal Volcano National Park. The volcano is active, the last eruption in 1968. Arenal is a tourist trap with exquisite beauty. The volcano grows about 5 meters a year. With the grandeur of the volcano in the backdrop one hardly notices the billboards.
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| Arenal Volcano billowing smoke |
Sunday we got up and left our cabin in the rainforest and drove an hour to church. The road was flat and we were able to travel through several small villages and got a feel for what Costa Rica is really like. The church was in the a town of about 70,000 people. Again the waypoints. We got to the suspected area but couldn't find the church. Then we saw father and son walking down the street in a white shirt and tie. We stopped and talked to them and were just a few blocks off from our destination.
There was something so striking about the image of the two white pressed shirts on the backdrop of the of the cities dirt, concert, bars and wire. It was a reminder that the Gospel of Jesus Christ allows us to rise above our surrounding environments and circumstances.
Church was great, because we were out of the tourist zone very few spoke English. The LDS church has the same lessons world wide so I had my English copy on my phone and was able to follow along (somewhat). Relief Society was great. The RS president looked calculated and very organized. I got a warm handshake. However her counselor came up grabbed my by the shoulders, said who knows what in Spanish and kissed me on the cheek with a big smile. A welcome that would warm any woman's heart. The next hour I didn't catch much but it was a welcoming atmosphere and I enjoyed sitting back and watching the interactions of the sisters.
We drove back looking for our next hotel. We both thought we were staying at the Arenal Volcano Ecolodge. We turned off the highway onto our first gravel road (if your thinking gravel, think Grade B at best). And within minutes the gravel triggered my "clutch memory". While tourists creeped along scared to be off pavement , our Yaris flew by giant 4x4's leaving them in the dust. The gravel had cured my driving issues and for the first day I really enjoyed being behind the wheel.
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| View from the Volcano Lodge |
We drove thirty minutes out to the hotel, the road becoming smaller and rough, only to find ourselves at the base of the volcano with waterfalls and trails. We were so excited to stay here to spend the next two days hiking and exploring....only to find out that we were at the wrong hotel. Our hotel was the Volcano Lodge in town. While they didn't have trails or waterfalls, they did make cute jungle animals with their towels.
Monday Jared talked me into zip linning. The girl who two days before wouldn't make a 20 ft jump into the river with a helmet and life jacket on was about to strap herself to a non-American engineered cable to be hurled 600 feet over the jungle floor at 55mph. There were several lines that cris-crossed the gorge. The volcano is rarely visible this time of year due to cloud cover but today was clear.
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| Arenal Valley from the Zip Line |
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| Our pre-death pic opportunity (in case we didn't make it back) |
After the initial push off the platform and the urge to spew a few lines of four-letter words (I didn't but the girl in front of me quickly earned the name "Jersey" for language like Jersey Shores). The views and the feeling of flying overoad the fear. It was a spectacular way to see the valley, lake and volcano. We had about a dozen people in our group from all walks of life. There was 15 minutes between runs giving us time to talk and hear people's life stories.
We finished the ziplines around noon and the day was still clear. We decided to hike Cerro Chato, the smaller dead sister volcano. From what we read this was
THE HIKE and view of Costa Rica. Our window was small but we paid our $20.00 and started off.
The brochure said it was "strenuous". Jared and I are both in decent shape and like to hike. And by NPS standards "strenuous" means that most of the general public can still do it. The hike started in the foothills and quickly we realized what a 2400 foot assent looks like in 1.8 miles. By halfway in I understood what the review title on Tripadvisor "I lost the will to live at the forest line" meant. The fields turned to deep rainforest and the path was a ladder of tree roots. Many being a good three-foot incline at a time. Being 5'3" many steps were higher than my hips.
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| Starting the Cerro Chato Trail |
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| The trail steps, keep in mind Jared is 6'0" tall |
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| The "good" part |
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| The trail upwards |
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| Got to get my giant tree photo in! |
By almost the top I was drenched in sweat and my heart rate was well above what was humanly possible. I didn't think I would make it, that lost the will to live thing set in. Jared wouldn't let me stop and we soon we reached the top to see this view. We just hiked what 99% of the visitors would never see. We caught our breath and hiked the final 100 meters DOWN into the old crater to the Green Lagoon. We made the assent in 1.5 hours (they said it would take 2-3 hours) which is probably why I felt like dying, poor pacing.
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| Em on the top of Cerro Chato half dead |
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| Jared looking like he just walked down the block |
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| View of Arenal from the top of Cerro Chato |
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| The Green Lagoon |
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| Storm rolling in on the hike down Cerro Chato |
Sitting at the lake we hear thunder and started to head down the volcano
trying to escape the rain, which was unsuccessful. But we got through
the most difficult passage before the rain came. After that hike we
spent the evening lounging in the hot tube nursing mangled quads and decided the new hotel wasn't such a bad gig.
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