Vipers and Volcanos

It has been an interesting last few days for us. We decided to do the volcano / hot springs tour, which involves a walk in the rainforest followed by some night-time viewing of lava flowing down the volcano and then Baldi hot springs. We booked the tour in the morning when it was beautiful, bright and clear out, but by lunch it was raining so hard you couldn't walk across the street without getting soaked. Needless to say, we were not very happy. As luck would have it, the weather cleared up by 3pm when our tour started, and we were treated to a crystal-clear evening. Pure luck.

The rainforest walk was really beautiful. We did not see much wildlife, but what we did see was interesting. It started with toucans flying from tree to tree and ended with a poisonous viper curled up in a tree not 2 feet from the path. Needless to say, when the guides say do not touch anything and stay on the path, they mean it!

La Fortuna is on the eastern side of the Arenal volcano, which has jungle running right up to the top; the west side of Arenal is completely different. Lava is actively flowing down this side, so it is grey and black with nothing growing on it. This is the side of the volcano that blew up in 1968 killing 89 people, throwing boulders 5 km or more. Nowadays it is the side of the volcano with the hot springs and major tourist hotels. Arenal's lava is about 900 degrees, which is not hot enough to see red during the day, but at night you can see it clearly as chunks flow down the side at speeds of up to 150 kmh. I got some great pictures using the low light settings on the camera.

We ended the evening with a trip to Baldi hot springs. By now we were cooler and a hot dip was just what we needed. Baldi turned out to be a wonderful place. There are about 20 pools of varying temperatures, the largest of which is about as big as an olympic sized swimming pool. The sides and bottoms of the pool are all done in rocks instead of tiles, and there is an incredible array of flowers and trees around it. All this really made you feel like you were swimming in a tame jungle. In all, a great experience.

Pictures are up on picasa.