Volcán Arenal

This was the final week of holidays before I return to school this week. We went to the active volcano in the north of the Central Valley.

The journey
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The town nearest the volcano is called La Fortuna, a 4½ hour bus journey north of San José in the central valley. This was our most mountainous journey, and quite a beautiful drive, some of it in cloud.

La Fortuna
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La Fortuna de San Carlos is one of the nicer towns in Costa Rica that we’ve visited. It’s quite touristy, but there’s lots to do, and a good mix of restaurants and bars. When we arrived we asked where the volcano was, and were pointed to the bottom of a mountain that disappeared into the clouds.

The Hot Springs
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Most of the tours that visit the volcano national park also include a visit to the hot springs. We decided to do a day in each, so we went to the springs by the free shuttle bus from the town. It was a great decision. Tabacón Hot Springs is the site of an eruption that killed one person in 1975, but is now the source of large springs of 40°C water. There are large pools, flowing rivers, streams and waterfalls, all like a hot bath. There’s even a bar in the pool serving beer and cocktails that you can swim up to. And the volcano is overhead, although on that day we didn’t see it because the cloud never lifted. It was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Costa Rica so far. We went at 2pm and stayed until it closed at 10.

Volcán Arenal
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The following day we went on an afternoon trip to the volcano national park. It was again very cloudy, and rain was expected. They even offered to allow us rebook the trip for the following morning if we didn’t want to do it in the poor weather.

The volcano was dormant since the early 1500s until July 29, 1968 when it exploded violently, shooting rocks at over 100kph creating craters as they vaporised in nearby fields. Eighty-nine people were killed, and over 45,000 cattle. It’s been active ever since, with a major pyroclastic flow (a kind of volcano avalanche) in 1992. When we got there the clouds still hadn’t lifted and as we went on the tour the heavens opened. When we got to the highest point, although still in pouring rain, the clouds cleared, and we could see the entire mountain. The temperature inside is 1,000°C, which is cool for a volcano. So the lava comes out as hot rocks, rather than molten lava. You can see rocks tumbling down the mountain every so often, creating puffs of smoke as they bounce down. But as the light faded just before we went, you started to see that they were bright orange from the heat, and broke like fireworks as they tumbled down and split as they hit rocks lower down. It was breathtakingly spectacular. The guides were amazed that we got such good visibility in such appalling weather.

So that’s the end of July, our travelling month. It’s been wonderful to finally get to see so much more of this beautiful country. This week I have training back in the school, and we have a trip away next weekend with the staff before starting the new semester next Monday.