Pura Vida! Means literally ‘Pure Life’, but can also be used as a greeting, expression of approval or acknowledgement.
Food - The staple diet is rice and beans; you can have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even if you don’t order rice and beans, they often appear as part of the meal. The breakfast version is known as gallo pinto (pronounced gar-yo pin-to) meaning ‘spotted rooster’ – when the rice is mixed with the beans it takes on a speckled appearance. There are variations on the theme such as Arroz (con) Camarones (rice with shrimps). Rice and beans are key ingredients in a casado (inexpensive standard set meal) that in addition usually consists of meat, salad and plantains (related to banana, very versatile). Meat can be chicken, beef, pork, seafood or fish. Other foods include soups (e.g. sopa de mariscos), and pasta/pizzas/hamburgers. You can guess what I won’t be eating when I get home!
Now, back to the adventure…
La Fortuna in the northern lowlands was a small fertile agricultural settlement before the eruption of Volcan Arenal (Arenal Volcano, pronounced Arran-El). Hordes of tourists came to see the lava flows so some of the local farms developed into tourist accommodation/hot springs etc. After killing 87 people in 1968 and a second eruption that created the second (now active) peak it has been increasingly less active and just puffs smoke as it were.
We had a (private for just us two as it turned out) guided trek in Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal with a local guide, Julio, to the base of the volcano. Although it was not billed as a wildlife tour, we still managed to see some wildlife including an Eyelash Pit Viper (venomous snake), White-nosed Coati (small mammal) and Common Potoo (nocturnal bird related to Nightjars and Frogmouths). The latter is usually difficult to find as it is so well camouflaged that it looks like the end of a branch!
Julio also told us about the history of the volcano and its recent eruptions. It was dormant for 500 years until 1968 and overgrown with forest at the time of the eruption that no one living in the area realised that it was a volcano. Pyroclastic flow (large rocks, ash, gas etc.) flew out of the volcano at speeds of 120km hour and created xxx craters. Later eruptions created a build-up of pyroclastic flows which in turn created another cone. So Volcan Arenal now has a dormant (the original) and an active (the newly formed) cone. Three local villages were destroyed in 1968; the remains of two of them are now submerged beneath Laguna de Arenal (Lake Arenal) which is used to create hydroelectric power. Julio went on to explain that 100% of Costa Rica’s energy is from renewable sources – 45% is from Laguna de Arenal, 40% from other hydroelectric sources, 10% from geothermal and the remaining 5% from solar and wind.
Thanks to the volcano and lava still bubbling underground heat countless springs. It was to one of these hot springs that we visited; there were several different sized pools of differing temperatures, the hottest also having a wet bar. Same as any other bar but the water came above the height of the bar stools and felt like bath water! Three of the pools also had incredibly fast slides. It included a buffet-style meal in the restaurant after wards.
Cano Negro on the Rio Frio was recommended as a good wildlife spotting boat trip. We were not disappointed: Green Iguanas, Spectacled Caiman, Howler Monkeys (including the rare auburn form), Emerald Basilisk (Jesus Christ Lizard) walking on water, Black River Turtle, numerous species of Herons, Egrets and Kingfishers, Anhinga (Piano Bird), Northern Jacana and Swallows to mention a few.
At this point, our group split; 2/3rds of the group were returning to San Jose, with the majority then going onto Panama. The remaining four of us got a new guide and two new people to head to the Caribbean Coast.
Kath & Andy
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