Arenal

Travel to the Arenal Volcano is often via taxi-boat-taxi because it is faster to go across the lake than around it.


One of the best things about geocaching is that it tends to take you to places you might otherwise know about. This one took us to the lava fields. The formerly peaceful mountain erupted in 1968 and has continued to be very active since then. We hiked through the sugar cane and the jungle here . . .


Then climbed up a few rocks and the volcano appeared in our view.

We heard something that sounded like percolating coffee but realized that it was lava rocks rolling down. With binoculars, we could even see them moving. After marveling for a few minutes, we moved on to grab one cache, then hiked across the lava field from a 1992 eruption to get information for a second one.


The next cache was missing and it was raining so we took cover and Chris dug into her Mary Poppins backpack to find supplies for replacing it. (That backpack is amazing. Mary herself would be impressed.)

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a herd of horses running down the middle of the street towards us. Sometimes, there is nothing to say. . . You just have to grab the camera.