As I stated before the road out of Monteverde across the other side of the mountains was not too bad – just tiringly bumpy. After we hit the paved road it wasn’t long before we came around a corner and saw the beautiful Lake Arenal. It really is lovely despite our view being cloudy and rainy. It’s supposed to be very windy at times and one area had huge windmills similar to those in California areas. It reminded me a little of Swiss Alps in places (without snow) because of the rolling green hills and cows leading down to the lake. Others must have thought so as there seemed to be a profusion of German restaurants and chalet-style houses around. There were also lots of gated communities with huge mansions garnering the lake vistas. Very few Tico (traditional Costa Rican houses) were seen in the main road area.
We stopped at a neat little café and gift shop which turned out to be run by an American family. The young lady who served us shared that her family had move there 11 years ago when she and her two sisters (triplets) were 9 years old. They had all settled there and owned bed and breakfast/restaurant/handicrafts store etc. Really nice people and good food.
Onwards we went and around another bend we spotted our destination – Arenal Volcano. We had a lovely view of it and the “clouds” hovering around the top. As we drew nearer to our lodge I realized however that those were not clouds but rather smoke pouring out of the top of this cone shaped active volcano. You can read all you want in guide books about visiting active volcanoes but it isn’t until you are chugging down the road with 4 out of 5 of your children who are yelling “look at that lava flying out” that you want to slap your forehead saying “what the heck was I thinking (again)!”
We were staying in the Arenal Observatory Lodge which was originally built for volcanologists from the Smithsonian but is now a hotel (it still has a seismology machine that you can watch the needle jumping around) located four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the volcano. Those miles seem way closer I can tell you and the restaurant and many of the rooms (including ours) are built with huge windows and balconies to just sit and stare at this big mountain shooting rocks out of the top.
After swimming and hanging out in the Jacuzzi we went to dinner and had a great meal while watching the sunset to one side of us over the lack and then got to see this incredible lava show. Glowing spurts of red lava would appear at the top and cascade down the volcano seemingly many miles. It was absolutely amazing to see and even to hear! The booming and crashing noises that these huge hot rocks make as they careen down was disconcerting to hear – especially at 2 am when you wake up and can hear it as you try to sleep. I could see the volcano from the bed and wasn’t sure if it was better to close the curtains or to keep an eye on it (hah like we could actually do anything should it go crazy).
Mark (geologist) was obviously quite excited to see it and told us many, many facts about volcanoes and rocks – much of it unintelligible to nongeologists (his lips were moving but I couldn’t understand him He did not give me a definitive answer when I asked if the fact it was shooting off so much lava was a good thing (kind of diffusing the big blow so to speak) but I kept holding on to that ideas.
The volcano was lying dormant for hundreds of years until 1968 when it suddenly and violently erupted and destroyed the town of Tabacon (killing 80). Since then it has been Costa Rica’s most active volcano and is known to put on good shows. We were lucky though that we hit it on an active and clear night.
Sitting on a deck, sipping a nice glass of wine while watching lava flowing was not something to be missed – would not want to live there though!
