Hot Stuff

From the Caribbean Coast, Libby and I made a quick bounce down to my favorite place in Central America (hint, it rhymes with De Frenchilleh Parm) and then back toward the northern region of the country toward the Arenal volcano. Several long but breathtakingly pretty bus rides later, we stepped out of the bus and into the swarm of obligatory tour guides.

A pretty valley on our way there.

My first surprise was how the volcano dominated the horizon. I had expected to have to go on a road trip to really see it, but instead it loomed just over our shoulders. Arenal tends to be sort of timid as volcanos go, often spending much of the day wrapped in clouds - this was as clear as I ever saw it:

A few nights later, our opportunity for lava hunting finally presented itself.  We hopped in the tour bus, scooped up some friendly (yet VERY high maintenance) passengers from another hotel, and headed toward the edge of the volcano. Across a hanging bridge and into the woods, we found our lookout point and settled in.  Rain on our way there meant that the mountain was even more hidden than usual - sometimes I saw absolutely nothing in front of me but fog.  Flies arrived in droves.  Our companions complained....and complained and complained.  Yikes.  This was not going well.  Then, a slight clearing of clouds.  A disturbing rumble from somewhere far off.  An explosion of red on the side of the volcano! 

 Lava! 

I was amazed.  The Arenal volcano doesn´t produce the sort of liquidy rivers of lava that you may be imagining - rather, it launches house and car sized fiery rocks into the air with amazing force, tossing them down the side of the mountain.  What you end up seeing is something that looks like progressive fireworks.  The first enormous rock hits the side of the mountain and shatters, and then each of the "small" pieces goes on to repeat the process. Awesome in the real sense of the word.

When our time was up for lava gazing, we headed back toward town to soak ourselves in the thermal river nearby.  There are several resort-style hot springs that line the road near the volcano, feeding the lava-heated water into beautiful pools and waterfalls.  That however, was not our style for the evening.  Rather, we pulled up near a bridge just beyond the resorts and picked our way down to the entirely free, entirely bubbly, hot and relaxing river below us.  I could not get over the power implied in heating an entire river to jacuzzi temperatures. It´s enough to make a person kind of nervous! Thankfully, as you´re worrying about these things you´re also reclining in a natural whirlpool, which graciously robs you of whatever stress you might be having over impending lava doom...