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To Arenal
Friday, October 29, 2010
Our last morning at Jinetes de Osa, a quick wave good-bye, and we all piled into a small, beat-up van. The roads had returned to driving condition, which meant we could fly out of Drake Bay, rather than having to travel all the way back to Sierpe and loose another half a day.
I use the term driving condition loosely, since we were still required to cross a huge river which shouldn't have been there. This was the section of road that had flooded so bad a few days ago, they closed it down. Wow, it must have really been flooded!
We saw a few interesting things along the road to the airport, including a family of pigs that were playing in someone's yard. They had with them the tinniest little piglets I've ever seen, maybe only a foot long. It looked like two adults and three children, so we stopped to giggle for a second before moving on.
We soon arrived at the airport, which was very small. We had some time to walk around before our flight departed. There is only one or two flights a day out of Drake Bay, so that helps show just how remote of a destination this place was.
The small building where we all took refuge from the sun also housed the ticket counter (if you can call it that), and a small gift shop filled with local, handmade souvenirs. Each person was required to weigh their bags, which came with very strict guidelines. These planes are so small, and each seat was filled, that weight becomes a major issue.
This is another one of my favorite shots from the trip. Be sure to click on the image and view full size. Unfortunately Blogger reduces the size & quality of uploaded images, but you can still see a lot of the detail. I like the translucent part of the wing where the barbwire is showing through, pretty neat.
It didn't take long before our plain arrived, and we were airborne. It was only a short one hour trip back up to San Jose, but I managed to sneak in a quick nap.
We headed to the car rental office, and it suddenly dawned on us that we hadn't driven in a couple of days. Costa Rica does not have many overpasses like Panama City does, so I was expecting our GPS to work quite a bit better in my adopted country.
Driving in any foreign country can be confusing, and although the GPS did work much better than expected, we still managed to get ourselves lost a few times on our way to Arenal Volcano. The first was due to some confusing freeway signs, and we ended up driving along the freeway's skirt, on the wrong side of the road.
When we made it out of town, and into the country side, the GPS started to breakdown a bit. It kept showing us roads that simply didn't exist, or were literally dirt trails unsuitable for automobiles. We made a few detours, and took a few wrong roads, and turned our leisurely drive into a full-on excursion.
There are many roads to Arenal, but not so many signs, although signs did help get us out of a town at one point. We ended up taking a long way around, but at least we were making progress, or so we thought. We hit major road construction, and there was nothing we could do but turn the car off and get comfortable.
After what felt like an eternity, the flagman finally started waving cars through, and we were moving again. I tried to count the cars parked in the opposite direction, waiting their turn. After ten minutes I stopped counting.
We were now headed down the hill, and into a valley. Across the way we could barely make out the shape of Arenal Volcano. Dad was insistent that it was still a few days worth of driving away, and given our past driving experience, he very well could have been right.
San Jose was a long ways behind us, but at about 4:45pm, we finally reached the base of Arenal. We were on the backside, and now needed to drive around the volcano to our destination, Arenal Observatory Hotel. Our goal was to arrive before the sun set at 6pm.
We got about 3/4ths of the way, when the fog & clouds broke, and we had a spectacular view of the crater. Although we had a schedule to keep, I pleaded to pull over & get some pictures, because I knew how rare of an opportunity this was.
I grabbed my camera, and stepped across the street. Just then the mountain rumbled, as if to say, "Hello, welcome back." I looked up, and saw a plume of grey smoke starting to form. I freaked out and started pointing & yelling, "Its erupting!"
Mom immediately joined me and we let our cameras fly wild. We couldn't believe our luck. Of all the wrong turns, and construction, and everything that had to happen for this moment to take place is beyond words.
The three of us sat for a moment, enjoying the view, before jumping back in the car and pressing on. We still wanted to see our room's view before dark, but that would require a trip up a nine kilometer dirt & rock trail.
Arenal Observatory Hotel is at the base of the volcano, the closest hotel to the crater there is. However, the road leading into the hotel is not paved, and filled with craters of its own. Scott & I took this road in a little compact car with motorcycle tires on it. As fun as that was the first go around, lets just say that I was glad to be in an SUV this time.
Our room sat with an unobstructed view of the volcano. A wall of floor to ceiling windows ensured that we could see any eruption from anywhere in the room. This picture was taken in the evening from our back patio, two feet from our back door.
Later that evening, after the sun had set, and my parents lay in their bad, I lay in mine, we witnessed yet another spectacular display.
The rain had picked up again, which was perfecting timing for us since we were cozy & comfortable. Then the lightening started, and lasted for hours. We were dumbfounded as the sky lit up with brilliant flashes of light, briefly revealing the lurking volcano. Strike after strike, with more and more thunder all the time. This meant the storm was getting closer.
I tried so hard to capture the lightening with my camera, but just couldn't do it. It was like a game at first, but eventually got too frustrating. Why not just sit back and enjoy the show, and that's exactly what the three of us did, for much longer than we ever expected...
We saw a few interesting things along the road to the airport, including a family of pigs that were playing in someone's yard. They had with them the tinniest little piglets I've ever seen, maybe only a foot long. It looked like two adults and three children, so we stopped to giggle for a second before moving on.
The small building where we all took refuge from the sun also housed the ticket counter (if you can call it that), and a small gift shop filled with local, handmade souvenirs. Each person was required to weigh their bags, which came with very strict guidelines. These planes are so small, and each seat was filled, that weight becomes a major issue.
We headed to the car rental office, and it suddenly dawned on us that we hadn't driven in a couple of days. Costa Rica does not have many overpasses like Panama City does, so I was expecting our GPS to work quite a bit better in my adopted country.
Driving in any foreign country can be confusing, and although the GPS did work much better than expected, we still managed to get ourselves lost a few times on our way to Arenal Volcano. The first was due to some confusing freeway signs, and we ended up driving along the freeway's skirt, on the wrong side of the road.
When we made it out of town, and into the country side, the GPS started to breakdown a bit. It kept showing us roads that simply didn't exist, or were literally dirt trails unsuitable for automobiles. We made a few detours, and took a few wrong roads, and turned our leisurely drive into a full-on excursion.
There are many roads to Arenal, but not so many signs, although signs did help get us out of a town at one point. We ended up taking a long way around, but at least we were making progress, or so we thought. We hit major road construction, and there was nothing we could do but turn the car off and get comfortable.
After what felt like an eternity, the flagman finally started waving cars through, and we were moving again. I tried to count the cars parked in the opposite direction, waiting their turn. After ten minutes I stopped counting.
We were now headed down the hill, and into a valley. Across the way we could barely make out the shape of Arenal Volcano. Dad was insistent that it was still a few days worth of driving away, and given our past driving experience, he very well could have been right.
San Jose was a long ways behind us, but at about 4:45pm, we finally reached the base of Arenal. We were on the backside, and now needed to drive around the volcano to our destination, Arenal Observatory Hotel. Our goal was to arrive before the sun set at 6pm.
We got about 3/4ths of the way, when the fog & clouds broke, and we had a spectacular view of the crater. Although we had a schedule to keep, I pleaded to pull over & get some pictures, because I knew how rare of an opportunity this was.
I grabbed my camera, and stepped across the street. Just then the mountain rumbled, as if to say, "Hello, welcome back." I looked up, and saw a plume of grey smoke starting to form. I freaked out and started pointing & yelling, "Its erupting!"
The three of us sat for a moment, enjoying the view, before jumping back in the car and pressing on. We still wanted to see our room's view before dark, but that would require a trip up a nine kilometer dirt & rock trail.
Arenal Observatory Hotel is at the base of the volcano, the closest hotel to the crater there is. However, the road leading into the hotel is not paved, and filled with craters of its own. Scott & I took this road in a little compact car with motorcycle tires on it. As fun as that was the first go around, lets just say that I was glad to be in an SUV this time.
Later that evening, after the sun had set, and my parents lay in their bad, I lay in mine, we witnessed yet another spectacular display.
The rain had picked up again, which was perfecting timing for us since we were cozy & comfortable. Then the lightening started, and lasted for hours. We were dumbfounded as the sky lit up with brilliant flashes of light, briefly revealing the lurking volcano. Strike after strike, with more and more thunder all the time. This meant the storm was getting closer.
I tried so hard to capture the lightening with my camera, but just couldn't do it. It was like a game at first, but eventually got too frustrating. Why not just sit back and enjoy the show, and that's exactly what the three of us did, for much longer than we ever expected...
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