Welcome To My Secret Volcano Lair

Blue jean frog...because it has blue legs.
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As any rationale person would do when arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica, they look for the first opportunity to get out.  Such is the case when we arrived to this dirty, traffic grid-locked, and most uninspiring city.  Our first destination would be a two day visit to the small town of La Fortuna, which hosts the third most active volcano in the world, named Arenal.

A steady precipitation greeted us upon arrival in La Fortuna.  I´m told this is the case with most rain forest...I was always under the impression from the travel brochures that it never rains here-who knew?  Anyway, we opted not to cancel our jungle hike and volcano tour, and carried on through the steady rain.  This was a good thing.  The jungle was alive with multiple orange spider monkeys, swinging their way through the dangling vine growth that hung from the canopy above.  And if that wasn´t entertaining, we witnessed exotic birds that produced a myriad of sounds, all of which you would expect from a dense jungle setting.  Unfortunately, no toucans, but we did receive a nice token when Arenal displayed a mini-eruption, timed perfectly when we crossed a clearing in the jungle foliage to allow for a Kodak moment.  As night fell, the clouds slowly parted, allowing us a mother nature style drama with lava careening down the side of Arenal´s steep walls.  To me, it looked like an inverted fireworks display as the large chunks burst upon impact while they crashed and bounced against Arenal´s uneven terrain.  As we departed the viewing area later that evening, howler monkeys barked their familiar call, alerting us that they were eager for our departure.

ample opportunity for a free falling death.

Licking not recommended
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It was back to the bus so we could finish our night with a visit to Baldi hotspings.  Although it looked fun on initial appearance, I couldn´t stop thinking that the hot spring pools were nothing more than an oversized petri dish.  Hygenically-challenged individuals dotted every pool, making me wish that our visit was less than the two hours they allotted us.  Nevertheless, not a bad day.

Our second day in La Fortuna was spent zip lining through the jungle´s canopy.  Having done this in Belize, we thought no big deal, that is until we got there and gawked at the cables that were strung across the valley gorges, and in many cases, accompanied with multi-hundred foot drops that would provide ample opportunity for a free falling death.  How exciting.  I was just happy that South America afforded me the additional weight loss as to not test the integrity of the single, yes single, cable that we would be zipping across.

AFLAC!!!!
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We used Arenal Mundo Aventura for our zip lining adventure.  Boasting a single cable of over three thousand feet, and with ten lines stretched over a multitude of river-cut gorges and waterfall plunges, they did not disappoint.  Moreover, on one of our platforms we had a toucan soar within 50 feet of us, about as impressive as a Blue Angel´s delta formation flyby.  I´m pretty sure I saw a trail of Fruit Loops trailing behind him.  And to my astonishment, our 40 dollars went further than the zip lining tour that we had booked.  We got to visit an indigenous tribe!!!  Yeah.  Complete with the token rooster cocka-doodle-dooing, our tribe visit lasted only 20 minutes, fortunately with no samplings of native foods, or over night visits.  This is a good thing (see lake Titicaca blog), for no indigenous tribe visit will ever leave me unscathed.  During our 20 minute presentation, a nice village dog came up to me and welcomed my pat on the head, reciprocating with several licks of my forearm.  Nice doggie.  Noticing I was having too much fun with my new friend, our tour guide whooshed the dog away with a hand-gestured flick of the wrist.  What the hell?  Moments later, our guide kindly explained to our group that the tribe dogs are left with eating horse manure for nourishment.  I guess this would explain their malnourished appearance.  Oh well, at least I got to chase one of the tribe´s turkeys (photo opp.), and was presented with the chance to buy some of the local crafts.  Lovely.

Can you guess the name of this butterfly? (owl)
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Would our 40 dollar tour finally come to an end?  Oh no.  Included in the price was a 30 minute horseback ride.  Now, I´ll swim with hammerhead sharks, maneuver small engine aircraft to their limits, and climb the highest peak in the lower 48 states, but put me on a horse and I´ll assure you that you won´t confuse me for Willie Shoemaker.  I just don´t trust them.  And not that I would have put a win, place, or show bet on the horse that I mounted, but my disciplined animal performed remarkably, adhering to every command that I requested.  It almost made the horseback riding experience enjoyable.

Theres my princess (the one in the green shirt)
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Concluding our excellent value tour, was a visit through a strolling garden of vibrant flowers which eventually led to a butterfly farm and poisonous frog containment area.  I tried licking the red and blue ones (blue jean frogs), but started feeling funny after holding them in my hands for several minutes.

Well there you have it.  Proving once again that there are still some good values found in Costa Rica. Til next time.

bkh