Costa Rica, Part 2

As promised: Arenal, howling monkeys and The General!

We took a day trip to see Costa Rica's Arenal volcano. There are several volcanos in CR, but this is one of the only active ones they have. It was a long drive there (about 3.5 hours), but along the way we stopped at an animal rescue reserve. Nice facilities, and it was nice to see a place that would care for injured animals. We ran into the tourist group from HELL there, however. A bunch of 50-something chickens from Des Moines (or something like that) dressed in capri pants and visor hats talking at the top of their lungs, scaring the shit out of every animal in there. At one point, my flash accidently went off on my camera and one of the chickens yells at the top of her lungs "No Flash! No Flash!". I just continued my quiet conversation with Mr. COG and ignored her. This prompts the chicken to say (again, very LOUDLY) "Does she speak English?". Not in a way that was rude (other than it was LOUD) but I successfully stumped her as to whether I was from an English speaking country. Good. That way my continuing to ignore her wasn't a problem, and it wasn't necessary for me to give her the What For in front of God and everyone.

After this somewhat pleasant stop, we made our way up the mountain. And up, and up, and up. About halfway there, we stopped for a nice lunch at a roadside restaurant at Lake Arenal. The lake is partly man made, and the area is rural and charming.

Finally, we reached the top. Of course, this being a rain forest, it was raining. Fortunately, my $3.99 plastic poncho came in handy at this moment. Except hiking in a plastic poncho is a lot like hiking with a giant Ziplock on. VERY hot and sticky, especially hiking up a gazillion steps in high altitude (I don't do altitude well). But the huffing and puffing were worth it, because at the top of the trail was an amazing view of the volcano. The top was visible (I'm told this isn't always the case) and while we were there, it rumbled and smoke poofed (technical vulcan term) out the top. Very cool!

Once we finished our hike, we went to a hot springs spa. They had about 8 or so pools of varying temperatures to lounge around in. Temps ranged from 86F to 116F. I opted out of the 116F pool because I like my own meat to stay rare, thank you. I particularly liked the pool that you could belly up to the bar and have an Imperial. We also ate a wonderful buffet dinner here.

After dinner (and the sun had set), we took a ride to the side of the volcano that was erupting. We were able to see the lava rolling down the mountain on the SE side. What a great sight! I've never seen lava in person and even though it was far away, it was still a sight to see! Once we had our fill of checking out the lava, we started to head back home. The drive took about 3 hours back, and thanks to our tour guide Johann for barreling down that mountain as fast as he could to get us home. I know his driving caused concern for some in our group, but I know he's driven that road more than a million times so I think we were in good hands.

The next morning, after my shower, I was looking out our patio door at something in the trees. At first I thought it was a howler monkey due to the size, almost 2 meters long. It moved positions and I got a better look. Instead of a monkey, it was an iguana! The biggest iguana I'd ever seen! With a giant spiney mohawk down it's back! Holy Crap! Since we had several other small iguanas in the area, I decided to nickname him The General. I'm sure he is the Iguana King of Potrero!

Well, the story of the howler monkeys will have to fall to part 3...I'm out!

-K