As the United flight circled the San Jose airport before
landing, it was quite apparent that Costa Rica is green… very, very green. We
went through a long but reasonably efficient immigration line, picked our bags
and headed out to be greeted by Bairon, our driver from SJO international to
Arenal Volcano Inn in La Fortuna. As soon as we were in the outskirts of San
Jose / Alajuela area, the city atmosphere gave way to nice greenery along the
way. Soon thereafter, we felt like we were driving through a very lush green
park all the way… for miles and miles! Part of our drive was in the Pan
American Highway that links Panama – Costa Rica – Nicaragua. Actually this
highway links countries in South, Central and North America, including the
three Central American countries I mentioned.
We made our first stop at a roadside restaurant, ala our
Dhabhas, called Mi Rancho. All of us were hungry and we were pleasantly
surprised how easy it was to get vegetarian food there. After about a 30 minute
break, we were on our way and had the first glimpse of Arenal Volcano. We drove
by La Fortuna town before reaching Arenal Volcano Inn as the light was fading
on Saturday, Aug 10th.
We were going to Cano Negro on Sunday, our first fullday
in CR. But before that came breakfast in the hotel – and it was such a pleasant
surprise – rice & beans, with potato curry and hash browns on the side, in
addition to the classic continental spread. It became clear to us that food was
not going to be a problem for us in CR. Cano Negro wildlife reserve is situated
at the Costa Rica / Nicaragua border. We were advised to carry our passport,
just in case, as we were going to spend time in the last Costa Rican town by
the border, Los Chiles. The drive was 1 ½ hours long. Midway, we stopped in a town by the San
Carlos River. The place was called Los Iguanas, and with a reason. The trees by
the bridge on the river were teeming with iguanas. Hundreds of them - big ones,
small ones, huge ones. And these herbivorous reptiles weren’t shy posing for
the tourists either.
We reached Cano Negro and hopped onto the boat. While
this was supposed to be a tour with others, it so happened that we were the
only group that day. Our guide, Carlos, was cool, was constantly providing us
with plentiful info. We were traveling up stream, away from Nicaraguan border.
We saw several birds and monkeys in the couple of hours we were there: green
heron (the smallest in the heron family), emerald basilisk (a bright green
lizard that can walk on water), howler monkeys (so called because of the noise
they make), spider monkeys, white faced capuchin monkeys; the birds we saw included
anhinga, kingfisher, amazon kingfisher, toucan, egret, few varieties of ducks
and passerini’s tanager; we also came by a tree that was filled with
caterpillars, and another with long nosed bats.
This trip included lunch and our guide had called ahead
to let the restaurant know that we were vegetarians. We reached the lunch spot
at noon and waiting for us was delicious, home style traditional Costa Rican fare
– rice, beans, yucca chips, salad, avocado, iced tea and corn tortillas. The
food was delicious. The hot sauce they gave had significant punch – well done,
Costa Ricans! Just as we started eating, we experienced the first of the Costa
Rican rain forest thunder showers – it rained for about an hour and boy, did it
rain! The lightning and thunder accompanying the rain was breathtaking.
On Monday, Aug 12th, we went on the Arenal
Volcano hike. Arenal Volcano was dormant since 1550s before erupting again in
1968. Since then, the volcano has been active. Right now, it is just smoking
without any lava activity. Our guided hike took us through the area where the
1968 eruption has since been replaced by lush vegetation. This was also a walk
through the rain forest, so we did end up seeing quite a lot of animals –
crested guan, agouti, silver nosed coati, Montezuma oropendola, song wren, long
nosed bats, white faced capuchin monkeys and a tarantula inside a bromilia
plant. Our guide this time, Huberth, had specialized in eco-tourism and was
giving us lot of interesting info. The last leg of the hike involved climbing
over lava rocks from the 1968 eruption to a viewing area. Just as we reached
the viewing area, it started raining – nowhere as heavy as yesterday, but hard
enough to encourage us to use the rain gear we carried from home. Arenal
Volcano never looked the same to me – it always had different levels of cloud
cover around it and each time I looked at it, it had a different face. These
changes would occur in as few as 5 minutes! There was just one day I had a
clear shot of the volcano from our hotel.
That afternoon, we loitered in La Fortuna town. We
lunched at another traditional Costa Rican restaurant where the waitress wore
traditional CR dress. CR is another country that has taken to red-white-blue in
their flag and national colors. La Fortuna is a small town with tons of
souvenir shops. By my reckoning, the girls must’ve stepped into every single
shop they saw J
That evening was our last night in Arenal Volcano Inn. We dined in the hotel
restaurant, Que Rico. And during our dinner, we were also treated to our 2nd
experience of the rainforest thundershower. The fact that this was happening in
night made the lightning all the more beautiful to look at.
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