Trip to Arenal Volcano

Laying out coffee beans to
dry at the organic farm

Another week just flew by. Monday was a full day of classes, but Tuesday we had a field trip to an organic coffee farm in Los Altos, just outside of Atenas. We got a tour of the actual coffee field and then we got to see how they process the coffee. It was cool to see both parts and the requirements they have to fulfill to be certified organic. As if the tour wasn’t enough, the family fed us afterwards as well; we dined on a slightly sweet bread, some sort of custard, lemonade, sugar cane, and of course coffee. I’m ashamed to say that the half a cup of coffee that I tried at the farm was the first I’ve tasted since I’ve been in Costa Rica. But I figured if there is a place to try coffee for a tea drinker, a local organic farm would be it. The coffee tasted good, although I have no standards to compare with other than the nod of approval from everyone else. I am, however, still a tea drinker. More class on Wednesday, but in the afternoon four of us reserved a tennis court at Finca Huetares just down the road from the center. Finca Huetares definitely looks like it’s seen better days, but it at least provided us with a tennis courts, four racquets (one of which was a wood racquet), and five less than new tennis balls. It was pretty weird to try and hit a tennis ball again, but it was still fun to be out on a court. We had a miraculous afternoon of dry weather, so everything was perfect! We were expecting to have to sprint back in a torrential downpour, but that never came.  We had our briefing for the field trip to Arenal Volcano and that was the end of the ‘normal’ part of the week.

Arenal in the distance (on
Saturday when it was clear)

Thursday morning we left for our two night trip to Arenal Volcano and the Tilaran mountains. We had a relatively uneventful drive to Arenal but were pleasantly surprised with the view from the lodge we stayed at, Arenal Vista Lodge. Their motto was “…It’s Beautiful” and while there is no denying that, the view could have been done a bit more justice than simply “It’s Beautiful”. We didn’t actually get to see the volcano because a wonderful weather feature called clouds, but being able to see the base of the volcano behind Arenal Lake was gorgeous. We had a TE lecture on the lawn overlooking the lake, which proved to be a bit distracting, especially when combined with sitting on some ants. After lunch at the lodge, we went to the nearest little town called El Castillo and worked on another outreach project. I was in the mural group again, but this time we were much more efficient (because we had to be) and finished the mural for Escuela El Castillo in three hours flat. All the teachers and kids that walked by gave their approval, which is always nice to hear. After finishing at the school, we were done with scheduled activities for the day and had the evening to relax.

Yes, we went up to the base of the
volcano and passed the 'danger' sign

Friday was our day for orientation hikes in Arenal National Park and to see the volcano up close. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire day, so we had a very quick hike, too some more photos of the base of the volcano and then trekked back to the dry bus. The one thing the weather couldn’t put a damper on was our trip to the hot springs at Los Lagos resort. We got a pretty good deal to be able to use the hot springs at the resort and luckily it didn’t matter that it rained the whole time for that. Los Lagos had quite the set up with a couple of pools and a pair of waterslides as well. We spent over two hours relaxing in the hot springs with the providing a bit of cool respite from the heat. After two water filled activities we were free to do what we pleased. Most of the group went out for pizza, but those of us who stayed at the lodge were treated to a very nice dinner of rice and beans (of course), good fish, plantain chips and guacamole, and salad. To finish off my relaxing day, I read most of the evening away and cracked 100 pages in Harry Potter y el misterio del principie.

The view of Arenal from
my room Saturday morning

Saturday morning found me awake at 6.00 because of the sun shining in the room. In my groggy morning state it took me a few seconds to realize that if it was sunny out then there probably weren’t any clouds, meaning the volcano was probably visible. I then jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and went out onto our porch and sure enough I was greeted with a view of the volcano. I promptly took my camera and wandered around to take 30+ photos of the volcano before breakfast. That was a good thing, because shortly after we sat down for breakfast the clouds rolled in again and we didn’t see the entire volcano again. We packed up and moved out of Arenal Vista Lodge and made a few stops on our way back to the center. The first was a visit to a wind farm near Tilaran, which is just on the other side of Arenal Lake. It was pretty amazing to stand under the wind turbines, and very windy. One of the EcoEnergia employees showed us the control room and gave us a bit of information about the wind farm, and then we also had a field lecture about renewable energy. So, yes, I did just have class sitting under wind turbines in Costa Rica. The next stop was lunch in Tilaran where we went to a buffet and souvenir shop combined. It was definitely an overload on food, which was a shame because the desserts looked delicious. After lunch we got back on the bus for the last stop before heading back; Las Pumas Rescate, a wildlife rescue not far from Tilaran. Unfortunately I got sick after lunch and wasn’t able to go to, but I heard it was amazing, but also pretty sad. After that we started on the last leg of our trip and got back to the center in a few hours. Now we’ve got another short week at the center coming up before we leave for our weeklong trip to Nicaragua at 3.00 am on Thursday.

Me standing in front of the
turbines