The highlight of our trip so far came at the end of our hike round the national park at Arenal, the volcano. More of that later.
Our afternoon started with an explanation of how they know that Arenal went back to sleep at the end of 2010. It had awoken with a vengeance on July 29th, 1968, destroying three villages and killing around 80 people. We saw the lower slopes, but the peak was covered in cloud.
On our walk we learnt lots from Isaac our guide, who said if it moves, don't touch it! Apparently there are 750 snakes in Costa Rica including the eyelash snake who likes to curl up in beautiful yellow flowers! No more sniffing beautiful yellow flowers then!
We saw lots of birds including a rainbow toucan and a fiery tailed toucan and Isaac was delighted to point out a white hawk, King of the forest.
We also came across a white faced coati! Whilst the below isn't our photo, we think we have a feasible one on the 'good' camera!
The Coati is a raccoon-like omnivore, but is more slender and possesses a longer snout. It is a nosy, busy little creature with an insatiable appetite. The Coati is gregarious and noisy as it travel about in groups of from 6 to 24, holding its tail almost erect and chattering with others.
This grizzled gray-brown mammal grows 30 to 55 inches long and stands 8 to 12 inches high at the shoulder. It can weigh from 10 to 25 pounds. Males are almost twice as large as females.
The Coati has a long snout that is white near the tip and around the eyes, which often have dark patches above. The Coati has small ears, dark feet and a long, thin tail (as much as 2 feet long) with 6 or 7 dark bands.
Coatis are diurnal, spending most of the day foraging for food, which includes insects, lizards, roots, fruits, nuts and eggs. They are very fond of fruit, especially the manzanita berry.
A little further along Isaac suddenly got very excited and produced a pen knife to dig out the volcanic mud in a layer beneath the 'ordinary' mud. David dug some up too, so we are now carrying a bag of mud along with our luggage!
Next stop was a magnificent waterfall which no one could be persuaded to go in with Isaac!
It looked very exhilarating...maybe 30 years ago I would have done it.
We traversed three hanging bridges without too much trauma, although I was reminded of a recurring nightmare I had as a child about crossing a hanging bridge with a raging torrent below.
Some of the filming of Jurassic Park took place here in Costa Rica and we saw one of the scenes! As were the Peru scenes in Paddington!
Back in the van we (2 Mexicans, 2 Ticos, 2 Italians, one American, one Scotsman, one Canadian and us) were driven on appalling roads to a pond by the side of the road. It was pitch black by now. With just the light of the moon and a torch, Isaac climbed a tree and brought us a fine specimen of a red eyed tree frog.
Amazing creature that looks just like a leaf when it's in it's camaflarged state.
And so to the highlight..... Picture the scene.....we are with a bunch of strangers and our guide pulls up at the side of the road. Tells us to strip down to our swimming costumes and leave EVERYTHING in the van. iPhones, cameras, money, passports, shoes, towels, everything..... And his 'mate' will guard it while we head off bare foot into the blackness. Across the road and down some slippery, presumably volcanic rocks, to a hot spring. Talk about adrenalin rushes.... Holding hands with a 75 year old woman (not sure who was helping who) we made it to the top of the waterfall where two Ticos (male Costa Ricans) took each hand and threw/hurled/launched me into the pool below! It was like being in a giant hot tub with 40 or so others. Underfoot there were rocks and stones and the water coming from the top was like a natural massage. Health and safety where are you? We were given plastic cups of Costa Rican rum and sprite and a mud pack smeared on our faces. 40 mins or so later we emerged dripping to make our way back up to the van and back to the hotel!
And to cap it all.....it wasn't raining and didn't rain all afternoon!
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