Jan. 27 - Arenal Volcano

“Collect moments, not things.” —Author Unknown

Arenal Volcano makes a beautiful backdrop to the little village La Fortuna. It looms large and ominous over the pastured green hillsides that surround its base. At the moment it’s in a resting phase, but it still remains the country’s most active volcano as it has for the past 43 years.

The volcano formed 7,000 years ago from the adjacent (and now extinct) Chato Volcano, Arenal’s most recent eruptive period began in 1968 with an explosion that buried three small villages and left 87 people dead. It was active with almost daily effusion of smoke and lava until July 2010. The area that surrounds the volcano is home to a number of hot springs, thanks to the geothermal activity beneath Arenal. Arenal is the most famous volcano in Costa Rica, but it’s not the only one. The country hosts six active volcanoes and sixty dormant or extinct volcanoes within its borders.

There are quite a few places to hike around the volcano, The 1968 Trail, the Arenal Volcano National Park and Arenal Observatory Lodge. We decided to spend the day at the lodge since it offers a variety of trails through the tropical rainforest, primary and secondary forests, pasturelands and manicured gardens. In our five mile hike we had a chance to see three waterfalls, tons of flora, lots of tropical birds and even a snake. But we still haven't seen the top of Arenal Volcano or a monkey.

Lake Arenal from the lodge

Danta Waterfall

One of the hanging bridges we crossed on our hike

A view from along the trail

The dormant volcano Cerro Chato

Part of the trail near the second waterfall

A local family showed us where this waterfall was

The third waterfall we found today

Part of our hike was on roads through the resort grounds. This road is lined with Rainbow Eucalyptus trees.

The lodge has a large bird feeder near the deck. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different birds.

This is a White-faced Coati they related to the raccoon and we've seen them everywhere this week.

Costa Rica is very lush...there is something growing everywhere...even the fence posts and rocks have something growing on them. Here are just a few of the things we saw today.

Trail map for Arenal Observatory Lodge