Arenal Volcano

I’m sad to report that Arenal did not come out to play while we were there. No shakes, no lava, no giant rocks flying in the air. We got nuttin’. For the first 16 hours we were there couldn’t even see the the darn thing because of all the clouds.

The two days that we spent at Arenal Observatory Lodge was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. It was easily in the top three, and that is major considering the fact that I had some kind of flu-cold concoction. At one point I  thought I was going to die up there on the side of that volcano, and really it wasn’t a bad place to go. With all of the lush vegetation, noisy animals and breath taking views, it was piratically heaven anyway.

At about 6:00am on Friday morning we woke up to catch our plane from Atlanta to Liberia, Costa Rica. It was the most painful plane ride I have ever been on. Between the insane turbulence, my low blood pressure, the bucking bronco of a pilot, my flu-cold sinus pressure, the violent landing and the six year old boy sitting next to me unsupervised by his parents (don’t get me started), it was easily the longest three and a half hours of my life.

When we landed, I thought that my sinuses would chill out and I could lay off the cough drops and Tylenol. I was so wrong. To get to Arenal, we had to drive up and down mountain after mountain after mountain, and the vegetation and humidity were constantly changing. We started in what looked like the African Planes during the dry season and ended up in a very dense and lush jungle. In addition, parts of the drive, particularly the last 20 minutes, were very jarring. I couldn’t breathe, see or swallow when we reached the front desk to check in. When I asked the kind man behind the front desk if we needed to dress up for dinner, he smiled and said, “You look great just like that.” He probably gets paid a bonus for being charming.

We paid extra to have a room that allowed us to lay in bed and look at the volcano. So where’s the volcano you ask? It’s hiding behind the densest clouds I have ever seen. This time of year in Costa Rica is the dry season, which may make you think that the sky at Arenal should be crystal clear. That is not the case. During the dry season, moisture is pulled from the jungle to make up for the lack of humidity which results in frequent cloud cover in the mountainous jungle.

We shrugged off the missing Arenal, hoping it would show itself in the morning and checked out our habitat for the next two nights. Steve and I took advantage of having our own beds. Being on my death bed, I was in no mood for snuggling, and being afraid of catching the plague Steve was more than happy to keep his distance.

This shower was amazing. The water got extremely hot, extremely fast. I’m usually one for being polite to the resources when I travel, but I admit to sitting in the shower for long periods of time inhaling the steam. I believe it was a gift from God since I was who knows how far away from medical facilities.

The room was so simple. No internet, no clocks, no TV, no iron and ironing board and we’re pretty sure there was no AC. It was primative but perfect.

The best part was the double sliding glass and screen doors. We kept the glass doors open the entire time we were at the lodge. The jungle animals put us to sleep at night and woke us up in the morning. Without technology to keep us up, we went to bed after relaxing on the balcony and reading a few pages in our books. We were asleep by 9:00PM each night, and awake by 6:00AM.I could easily spend the rest of my life having my schedule guided by nature.

The next morning, I woke up eager to see the volcano. But when I sat up in bed, all I saw was this. I thought for sure that the clouds would have lifted over night, but that was not true.

Every morning after breakfast, the Lodge offers a free guided nature hike and tour that lasts about three hours. The staff kept encouraging us to go. They tried with promises of waterfalls, birds and maybe even monkeys. We told the sweet staff, that as magical as that sounded, we came for the volcano and we were going to sit and watch it until we got some action.

For a few hours we sat on the large deck outside of the restaurant taking pictures of birds and giggling at the Bird Snobs while we waited for the clouds to part.

We also gazed at the lake that sits at the foot of the volcano.

Then we decided to wander around the property for a bit and venture to find the Smithsonian Room and seismograph.

We sat up on the Smithsonian Observation deck and waited some more.

While we were up there a few small breaks in the clouds came.

We zoomed in to see the old lava flow paths.

After awhile, we mosied back to our balcony.  We waited some more.

Each time a break in the clouds came, we took dozens of pictures.

Steve made fun of me for being a “lazy photographer” because I was leaning back with my feet propped on the railing. I had my sunglasses on, a cereal bar in one hand and my camera in the other clicking away.

We waited more.

Look you can almost see enough to speculate how big the volcano is!

Steve decided that he should go inside and take a nap for awihle. Just as he drifted off, the clouds lifted and out came Arenal.

And just then the enthusiastic hikers (Bird Snobs included) came back from their nature hike. We had been sitting there waiting and watching for hours, and as soon as the are in sight of the volcano again out she comes.

Arenal stayed out for a couple of hours.

There is no way for us to know if there is steam coming out of the top or not. Since we can’t know for sure, we can pretend we saw steam mixed in with the clouds.

We went to lunch and watched Arenal some more.

We continued to hope for the clouds to totally disapear, but we had no such luck. We also prayed for some volcanic action but Arenal did not put out. Not even a little bit.

This picture is the only time we handed our camera to someone and said “Please take our picture.” Any other pictures that were taken of us on the trip are being held hostage by our friends and their cameras.

After lunch and a very short walk, we returned to our room and napped. When we woke up, Arenal was hiding behind the clouds again, and we didn’t see her again for the rest of our trip. That night it poured down rain. The rain and wind woke us up several times that night. We were really hoping for the volcano to wake us up, she was snoozing. I would have thought that the jungle creature would go silent in such a heavy rain storm, but they kept on chattering all night long.

I took this picture from the airplane on our way home. I can’t say for sure if this is Arenal or not. The plane didn’t have one of those location tracker maps on the headrests (serious pet peeve of mine – I like to know where I am) so it’s could have been Arenal, or maybe another volcano in Central America that happened to be on a lake. It could have also just been a  an ordinary mountain on a lake.

I want to pretend that it was Arenal and that, that is steam coming off of it.

I also want to pretend that this was another volcano we flew over that was putting out steam, but it could have been a fire. There were fires all over the place.

Before we left Arenal, Steve and I decided that we would return to the Lodge on a future trip. When we return, we will come in May or the wet season when the volcano is visible more often. We will talk to Arenal before we get there to make sure she is willing to give up some lava and spit house size rocks into the sky. We would tell Arenal that our kids are coming and they don’t understand a volcano that does have lava spewing from it, so she better not disappoint them and make them think Santa isn’t real in the process. Maybe by the time we return we will know some of the bird names and their mating calls so we can keep up with the Bird Snobs.

I miss Arenal and Arenal Observatory Lodge deeply. Even though we had the rest of our  trip ahead of us, it was hard to leave that place. It was peaceful and calm. Other than making sure we made it to meals on time, there were no obligations. Time did not matter. There was nothing to do except to relax and take in the world that surrounded us. The people that worked there were some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They are eager to help you and make you smile. They exhibit “Pura Vida!” to the fullest. Arenal was “Pura Vida!”

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