Arenal

I'm back in San Luis from my weekend adventure to Arenal. Let me tell you, it was full of ups and downs. Before I get into all of it, let me first give more of a background about where I am. The University in located in the....town of San Luis. I'm not even sure I can call it a town, it's pretty darn small. About 400 people live in San Luis, and everyone knows everyone. San Luis is about a four hour drive from the capital of San Jose, and it is pretty high up in the mountains. San Luis is located in the Region of Monteverde, and there are apparently several San Luis, so it is best for me to say that I am in San Luis de Monteverde. About 30 minutes away from San Luis is the larger town of Santa Elena. It is even further up the mountain. Monteverde is actually the number 2 tourist destination in Costa Rica, Arenal being the first and I think Guayabo rounds out the top three. We drove through Santa Elena in order to get to Arenal, and damn it is touristie. San Luis is very laid back an quite. There isn't even really a central down town area. Anyway, so we took the trip up the hill to Santa Elena in two 12 person vans. Yes, I said two. We had to take two because the hill is so steep the van cannot hold more than about 6 or 8 people. Once we got to the top of the hill we all piled into just one van. Then we drove about two more hours on a winding dirt/rock mountain road. It was beautiful. We got to see many rainbows. We finally made it to Lago Arenal. Once we arrived there it was pretty dark and cloudy. We waited at a rest stop for about 30 minutes and then boarded a boat to cross the Lake. 

The lake is absolutely beautiful. I was totally reminded of Loch Ness. Unfortunately I did not find any see and Lago de Arenal Monsters. The lake is surrounded by mountains, and there was one mountain in particular that loomed high above them it, it was the volcano! It was really really cloudy, so we were not able to see the top of the volcano. It was very eerie knowing that we were extremely close to a volcano that is active and characterized by pyroclastic eruptions. The ride across the lake was about 45 minutes. Then we hopped into another waiting bus and were whisked away to our hotel room. Our hotel was really cute. Each of us had our own little cabinas. The beds were extremely comfortable and they made cute animals out of our towels. 

We had lunch at the hotel and then after that we set off to the Arenal Observatory. The Observatory was located on the other side of the volcano, being on both sides in one day was supposed to optimize our chances of seeing some molten hot magma, but alas, it was cloudy....the entire time. The observatory was very pretty and really really close to the volcano. Again, we were all petrified. The fact that we couldn't really see it also made it very scary. Also, the fact that we all have decided that Costa Rica is prime Jurassic Park territory, going towards a volcano only increased our fear. All of us have become very attached to Jurassic Park and we are dying to watch it. Several of my peers have even downloaded the theme to the movie and it has become our theme song. At various moments during the day many of us break out in a whistle. The song inspires us an we are in fact playing in on repeat while I am typing this very blog. As we made our way up the volcano we decided that we are going to make a Jurassic Park movie of our very own. So we began to orally write our script. 

Here is a quick run down of what we have so far, although there have been several revisions. Basically we all travel to Costa Rica with our professor to learn about the wildlife and all the wonderful things it has to offer. Amy gets a weird feeling before boarding the plane and decides not to come. During our trip to Arenal, things start to go awry. As our professors take us out into La Selva Tropical we begin to hear strange noises. Sadly Amar is the first to perish. He tried to take a picture of a T rex while simultaneously trying to domesticate it. He does not succeed. During a tour of the volcano, Sandy and Jim suggest we go up and look in the crater. All of the students think this is a bad idea, but they go anyway. While they are up there, it erupts. Sad, but fitting. The next day, Ashley decides to go and sunbathe. She is gone for a very long time and we go to look for her and we only find her T-Shirt and one shoe, she disappeared! Sadly, next to go is me. Those of us remaining are walking across a suspension bridge and a Pterodactyl  swoops down and pick me up and then takes me back and feeds me to her babies. Next off our list is Allison. Allison loves animals and she comes across a cute baby dinosaur and tries to play with it. Turns out its not a baby and just small vicious dinosaur and it did not want to play. Adios Allison. Finally, the hero of our story, Wyatt is plucked off. We have varied the details a couple of times, but basically he tries to save Kate and sacrifices himself to Veloci Raptor. Kate and David run away before they see the Raptor rip Wyatt to Shreds. Kate and David are the ones who survive. Amy changes her mind and boards a later flight and comes to save the day, she brings a lot of guns. Oh and I forgot about Erin, I think we decided she cracks under the pressure and becomes a cannibal and tries to eat us, and then disappears into the jungle. There is a lot I am leaving out, and we have also started the sequel. 

Okay, now back to the weekend. After we got to the observatory we tried to look at the hidden volcano. We actually were able to see some fumeroles, which is like steam escaping from the volcano, so that was pretty cool. We took a hike to a very pretty waterfall and that is when the most amazing thing happened. We saw a Margay! A Margay is like a small leopard. It was beautiful, and it actually just walked slowly past all of us on the trail, it sniffed my shoes, and then peed on Ashley. Hilarious! The Waterfall was small but majestic. After that we went back to the Observatory and had dinner. Then we drove the windy dark road  back to the hotel. Then being in gringos that we are we spent sometime at the hotel bar, fun and dancing ensued. 

 

It poured all night. t rained all the next day. We visited Arenal National Park (in the rain) and hiked about a mile in the rain to see some lava flows, which actually were pretty sweet. Then it got really good. We went to Baldi Hot Springs. Baldi takes water that is heated from under the ground and puts it in 20 different pools of varying temperatures. It was the most amazing and relaxing afternoon of my entire life. I could have stayed all day.

There a lot more for me to tell, but I don't have enough time to write it! More later!