Ultimate Vacation Spots

posted by Travel Cat on Jun 7

Our Last Destination In Costa Rica. 

Well, we have finally arrived in our last destination this month, and it was well worth waiting for - our room has a perfect vista of the volcano itself. 

Uninterrupted views from an almost floor-to-ceiling wall of glass!!  It was certainly awe-inspiring to sit on the bed and look out over this vast volcanic pyramid!

Getting There Wasn’t Easy….. 
I needed the bed after another hair-raising, side-to-side, bumpy and really ‘unsafe’ drive here from Samara.  We stopped at the same ‘macaw’ cafe, where we swapped buses, and found ourselves on our own for the 3 hour drive.  Not long after leaving we were in the mountains, and could see all 4 volcanoes in this region - Arenal, Rincon de Veija, Miravalles and Tenorio - all topped in clouds (as they always are) on the horizon.

Then, the driver stopped for lunch!

We just wanted to get there really, but he had other plans!  We followed him inside and he was sitting down eating his soup and roll before we had even ordered!  Then ours took so long to arrive that he had finished his and was off chatting to the staff in the gift shop next door.  No tip for him then…….

Then as we neared the end of Lake Arenal - there she was - towering over the other end of this giant man-made water park.  She was amazing.  Such a beautiful site with the water reflecting her size and perfect conical shape - and as if perfectly timed, the clouds all disappeared off her top, and we had our first full view of the whole volcano.  Wow.

Even though the remainder of the journey was 52 kilometers along a road with seemingly no straight bits at all, it was worth it.  Well, I say that, but I was really starting to feel a bit unwell with all the turning left and right being thrown back and forth.  And it was worse watching the road ahead as where the road had fallen away into the lake - they hadn’t fixed it at all, they had just changed the markings in the road to make the lanes thinner!

The Volcano:
The road passes very close to the base of volcano close to La Fortuna town, and you got to see the lava and rock-scarred face of this active volcano - the most active one in Costa Rica.  You almost wonder as you drive by - ‘if I’m driving past chunks of lava here on the roadside - that means last time it exploded it came past where I am now….’  It’s all a bit frightening if you think about it too much!

Mind you, saying that, it didn’t stop us going on a night tour of the volcano (along with another 200 people it seemed) to see the red-hot rocks tumbling down the sides towards us! 

It wasn’t as ‘active’ as I’d been thinking - as you see these one’s on the National Geographic channel which are spitting fire and lava out all over the place.  This one was confined to a few groans and grumbles then a quick show of red rocks splitting open as they fell down.

I wasn’t disappointed at all, but I was hoping for a big explosion or something - although sitting on a lava bed in the path of the volcano itself was probably not the best place to be making a wish like that!!!!

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