Hot springs and lava rocks

Volcan Arenal
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After our last week staying in San Jaoquin de Flores, a few of us decided to make our way to Flomingo, and stop for a couple of nights in La Fortuna to see Volcan Arenal explode. We dropped our stuff off at Gringo Pete’s, (the hostel we booked) packed our swim suits, and headed for the Baldi Thermae hot springs. Once there I’m pretty sure all of our mouths hit the ground when we noticed a full bar was in the swimming pool, loaded with people in bikinis and speedos getting drunk and laughing loud. We found a spot for our bags and soon swam up to the bar for a drink. I got a Mono Loco, which was a delicious concoction of bananas, rum, and liqueur. After another Mono and a cigarette, me and a friend went to explore the numerous other pools of varied temperatures. Some were like mazes, others had waterfalls, and one even had a brass sculpture that adorned the center of the tranquil pool at the top of the springs. Amazing. We walked back to the bar, waded around a bit longer, and headed back to Pete’s.

Gringos in the springs
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The next day was spent mainly at the hostel, playing card games and drinking wine. At about ten thirty at night two of my friends, a couple of Brits we met, and myself decided that we needed to take a cab as close as we could to the volcano to see it explode, (Gabe, Che, and I missed it the night before for various reasons). We told the cabby to drop us off at the last restaurant closest to the volcano. We got out, pulled up some chairs on the street, and waited. The explosions could be heard by loud sounds similar to thunder. Large clouds covered the top two thirds of the volcano, making the sky glow a soft red from the flying lava. Then, house size lava rocks would roll down the face of the volcano shattering into dozens of cherry red boulders. This happened maybe six or seven times in an hour. The most beautiful site I have ever seen in nature.

Getting drunk and laughing loud