Another dry morning but clouds still covered most of Arenal. Today’s activies have not been planned but after a quick breakfast it was decided we go to the Arenal Waterfall for this mornings excersion. It’s about a 20 minute taxi ride from the resort and $7.00 a person to enter. We hadn’t looked to much into what we’d expect, other than a sizeable waterfall. It’s about a 20-25 minute hike down to the falls fairly steep and narrow. On the way down there’s a couple observations platforms to view the falls from waterfall from and when at the bottom the view up is very impressive. The waterfall plunges into a large pool which runs down a river lined with large bolders. Well worth the trip. The hike back up is a little more stressful but a good workout none the less.

We headed back to the resort for a break before another trek to the volcano at 3:30pm. The plan was to do a little hiking, no guide, and see what their was. We had to hussel a little as we didn’t realize the gates to the park closed at 4:00 to give everyone time to get out by 5:30pm. We were able to make it in time which left us plenty of time for the 2 kilometers to the lava flow from 1992. As we walked through a narrow trail surrounded by tall vegitation we kept hearing “whoosh”, “whoosh” similar to the heavy breathing of a large animal. It was almost rythmic and it took a moment to realize it was the volcano. It’s alive !!!!!

We reached the old lava flow after about 20 minutes and walked up a crude set of steps part manufatured part lava rock. From there we followed a trail of yellow arrows painted on rocks and stakes, painted in yellow as well, across lava rocks for a couple hundred yards. We reached a good vantage point where we could see the lake behind us and Arenal in front. We spent about 15 minutes there listening in silence only broken by the singing of birds, “whoosh” from the volcano, and the crackling of bolders tumbling down. Their were a few times where we could see bolders flying down the side after being broke loose by what seemed to be its breathing. Their were no eruptions like we saw the two days prior but ti was a sight to see. No one else was around, just us four, and was a excellent ending to our 4 days here in La Fortuna. Tomorrow morning, 8:30am, we’ll leave for our 6 hour trip to the coast where we’ll spend the rest of week.