Poas Volcano and INBioparque

Well, it's almost 11pm and I just got the wi-fi up and running at our hotel in La Fortuna. We had a full day which included travelling here.

Everyone was up and ready for breakfast at 7am. We had fresh fruit, eggs, linquisa, bread, rice and beans, and cereal. After breakfast we headed to INBioparque. This is part of the National Institute of Biodiversity here in Costa Rica. We got to see lots of vegetation and wildlife native to the country. We drove from there to Poas Volcano. It was clear on the way up so we drove right to the national park. At the top of the mountain it was very clear. We had an incredible view of the craters that used to be an active volcano.

On the way to lunch we stopped and picked up some snacks and water for the ride to our hotel. Lunch was traditional casada. Rice, beans, chicken or beef, salad, fried yuka, fried plantains and juice or soda. Many jokes about rice and beans already. The ride to La Fortuna was more than 3 hours. Our tour guide gave us great information on the area and the people of the country. The roads wound up and down and around the mountains. Some of the bridges were quite narrow and the hairpin turns were interesting to say the least. Our bus driver, Alex, did a great job of getting us all here in one piece. Most drivers in Costa Rica are worse than Massachusetts drivers. We arrived in La Fortuna around 6:30.

Our hotel is interesting. I learned that Eco in Hotel language does not mean Ecological but Economy. The hotel is right near the center of a nice town and the kids were able to walk next door to a few little stores. We had dinner here, again, rice, beans, spaghetti, salad and chicken. At 8:30 we drove to see the Arenal Volcano. It is still erupting and we saw lava flowing down the side of the mountain in the dark. It was very neat. According to Victor, only about 10 people in 1 million get to experience that in their lifetime. We're pretty lucky.

Right now, it's still very hot and muggy here. We are sitting in the open courtyard that all of the rooms open up on to. We're on the second floor so we can look down on the street. At 11pm everything has been closed for 2 hours.

Tomorrow, we have a full day. Getting up and going to La Fortuna Waterfall, after that, we'll go kayaking on Lake Arenal (no worries, we're all required to wear lifejackets). After lunch we are headed to the hot springs to relax. We will be staying here a second night.

Hope everyone is well back in the states.