One Week In
We have officially been here one week so far in Costa Rica. Yesterday we checked into the swankiest hotel yet, Los Lagos (The Lakes). Our room is the closest to the volcano, in the best area to see the flows.
After checking in, we were relaxing in our room, air conditioner blasting, when we heard a horrific explosion. We both jumped about 3 feet high and ran to the window, expecting to see a massive lava avalanche headed our way. Nothing. Scared us to death. We have since learned the Volcano burps all the time, but still it is slightly unnerving. We are placed directly in the path if the mountain blows, with no chance of escaping 130 mph pyroclastic flows if it so desires. I wish I could share with you the sound of the giant boulders crunching and exploding as they are spit out of the top. Volcan Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world, after kilauaea and Aetna.
After dinner last night (where Emily says she had the best Caesar salad in her life, watch out dad), we hiked up a very steep road to the lookout point, the absolute closest anyone can get to the flow. Our spot overlooks a lake, with the mountain spewing above it. About every two minutes an impressive flow tumbles down the mountain. One of the most beautiful experiences is to see the flow reflected in the lake below and listening to the crunch crunch of the boulders tumbling and exploding.
Although our room is quite nice, the resort itself is like a Mexican Disneyland on crack. Gaudy waterslides and concrete volcanoes abound, with the requisite swim-up bar in the pool. The resort also comes complete with crocodile pool (where I won 1000 colones ( two bucks) from Emily for grabbing the tail of a small crocodile) and butterfly farm.
Tomorrow we depart for the east coast, Tortuguero, where we hope to see some baby turtles heading for the open sea. We are thrilled.
We have also reached rice and beans capacity, I think.
klaus
ps -- after performing spell check, the blog wanted to replace Arenal with Urinal. Funny. I thought I´d pass it on.
klaus
After checking in, we were relaxing in our room, air conditioner blasting, when we heard a horrific explosion. We both jumped about 3 feet high and ran to the window, expecting to see a massive lava avalanche headed our way. Nothing. Scared us to death. We have since learned the Volcano burps all the time, but still it is slightly unnerving. We are placed directly in the path if the mountain blows, with no chance of escaping 130 mph pyroclastic flows if it so desires. I wish I could share with you the sound of the giant boulders crunching and exploding as they are spit out of the top. Volcan Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world, after kilauaea and Aetna.
After dinner last night (where Emily says she had the best Caesar salad in her life, watch out dad), we hiked up a very steep road to the lookout point, the absolute closest anyone can get to the flow. Our spot overlooks a lake, with the mountain spewing above it. About every two minutes an impressive flow tumbles down the mountain. One of the most beautiful experiences is to see the flow reflected in the lake below and listening to the crunch crunch of the boulders tumbling and exploding.
Although our room is quite nice, the resort itself is like a Mexican Disneyland on crack. Gaudy waterslides and concrete volcanoes abound, with the requisite swim-up bar in the pool. The resort also comes complete with crocodile pool (where I won 1000 colones ( two bucks) from Emily for grabbing the tail of a small crocodile) and butterfly farm.
Tomorrow we depart for the east coast, Tortuguero, where we hope to see some baby turtles heading for the open sea. We are thrilled.
We have also reached rice and beans capacity, I think.
klaus
ps -- after performing spell check, the blog wanted to replace Arenal with Urinal. Funny. I thought I´d pass it on.
klaus
posted by Klaus Larsen at 10:52 AM
1 Comments:
Hey stinkie!
-Sorry about the beans and rice thing. That's too bad. I can only imagine there will be more. And the potential firey death sounds intriguing as well, but how often do you get to use a word like "pyroclastic"? That's cool all in itself.
-I'm making 100+ cupcakes for a friend's wedding reception this weekend. any chance you'll be back this week to help out?
xoxoxo, alex
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