Saturday, May 26, 2007

Day 81 (La Fortuna - Arenal Volcano)

Day 81 - Arenal Volcano We wake up and look outside and look at that view of the Volcano. Just amazing. Did I mention that it is active? Ha! We headed out to do our hike-at-your-own-risk trail around the volcano, towards the lava flow. WooHoo! I can still hear the rolling of the boulders and the crackle of the lava flow and after the 2 hour hike we head do our 3 hour drive back to Grecia:

















Day 80 (Monteverde - Monteverde Cloud Forest)

Day 80 - Monteverde Cloud Forest: Sky Walk - We wake up at the crack of dawn at Samara Beach and get our gear ready for our continued road trip…a 4.5 hour drive into the unknown to MonteVerde to participate in a Sky Walk. But, we got side tracked by the sun that came out to greet us…checked out of our hotel and stayed an hour to enjoy the sunny beach:














We stopped to each lunch this BBQ restaurant named "Restaurante Tres Hermanas"and met this cute little I-have-know-idea-what-kind-of-dog-this-is puppy. Awww! He likes Allen.





WHOAH! You would be happy I din't photograph the HUGE ledge drop to the right in this photograph. SCARY! That's when I thought, "Um…What if we get a flat tire?" Much too late for that thought:



After 4.5 hours of driving, we finally get to the entrance if the Sky Walk Adventure.
So, I couldn't take a picture of the 45ft tall, 2ft wide tall, rusty spiral stairs we had to climb inorder to reach the 1st bridge of 6 bridges in this Sky Walk through the MonteVerde Cloud Forest:

























After the Sky Walk, we head out for another 4.5 hour drive to La Fortuna for Volcano Arenal. Allen drove through enormous rain and fought with fog to get us to our next hotel stay in La Fortuna at Hotel Arenal Springs where we will wake up and look outside of our door and see Arenal Volcano. It had been a long day of getting lost and finding our way again, so after we got our room we decide to eat a late dinner at a commercial Steak House Restaurant that had the cast of "Bonaza" nailed to the walls and the Ticos (male costa ricans) were dressed up in cowboy outfits. HA! I ordered the most delicious and biggest mussels in the world:

After dinner, we drove to the side of Arenal Vocano that secretes lava and watched it flow for 30 minutes. AWESOME! Unfortunately, I didn't have the $10,000 National Geographic photography equipment to take night images of the lava flow. But, here is an example I googled: