This weekend I went to nearby Arenal volcano. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is constantly erupting. It is quite near to Bagaces but it requires climbing into the mountains and going around a lake on some very poor roads, so it takes about 4 hours.

I left after work on Friday, and only managed to reach the town of Tilaran before the buses stopped running. Luckily, Tilaran had plenty of things to see because they were holding their annual rodeo or 'tope'. Crowds of people gathered in the central park and there was a fairly large fireworks display launched from the middle of the park. After the fireworks there was a parade of more than a hundred different horses with riders, each one displaying their horseriding skill. The highlight of the parade for the crowd was when one rider lost control of his horse and they ran off at top speed.

The next morning I caught the 7am bus for the volcano. The road skirted the Arenal Lake and had many scenic views of the lake. The road was full of potholes in many places but there were many fancy hotels and other tourist type places. The lake was created in the 70's by a dam and is one of the best places in the world to go windsurfing because of the consistency of the winds. The dam and the numerous windmills here generate alot of Costa Rica's electricity.

The bus dropped me off at the entrance to the Arenal National Park. My plan was to walk to a nearby town on the other side of the lake and either stay there or find a trail to Monteverde, a famous nearby nature preserve. I arrived at the isolated town just before noon and asked at a Snake Zoo where the trail was. One of the tour guides spoke English very well and he said that the trail was no longer in use and I would need a machete to cut my way through the jungle. He invited me to spend the night at his house where he lived with two other guides and his wife. His house had a great view of the volcano and he said that I would be able to see the lava flowing at night, so I decided to stay.

His tour guide roommates had both recently finished studies at University and one of them was having his tour guide English exam that afternoon. He was very nervous because he had failed a few times before and he asked if I would be his tour for the exam. I agreed and I got a very interesting tour of the snake zoo for free. They had many types of poisonous snakes, frogs and other reptiles in the zoo and many of the non-poisonous ones you could touch, including their 5m boa constrictor and python. Outside they a very pretty garden and a butterfly conservatory. My guide's English wasn't great but I understood what he was saying. He was thrilled when later he found out that he passed. After the tour I decided to explore the trail to Monteverde. It climbed steeply and gave a great view of the volcano and the lake. Once it got into the jungle it didn't disappear right away, and I think that it could be used to get to Monteverde, but that's for another weekend.

When I returned to the snake zoo, the english speaking guide, Alfonso, mentioned that they were going to Tilaran to roller skate and asked if I wanted to come, so I decided to go. We were taken there in the back of an old open-back truck and the 2 hour night ride was rather surreal, with clouds of fireflies in the trees and the stars in the sky. The roller rink was sort of a bust because there wasn't many people there. And then when we were ready to leave at 11 our ride was missing. After a lot of worried conversations, they managed to organize a ride back at 4am and we headed to Alfonso's wife's family house to get a few hours sleep. On the way there we ran into the first snake i've seen in Costa Rica. An extremely venemous coral snake was crossing the road just in front of us. I know it was a real coral snake because I had 3 snake guides to verify that it wasn't a fake coral snake.

The next morning I found that an excellent way to bird watch is to lie in the back of a truck in the early morning. Not only are the birds extremely active in the morning, but you can easily see all the birds in the overhanging branches. I saw countless different species. The three guides were very apologetic about the mess-up in transportation, but aside from missing the lava show on the volcano, I enjoyed the experience. After picking up my stuff, later that morning I caught a return ride back to Tilaran. This time there were less birds and I was roasting in the sun, but the panoramic views of the lake were very pretty. There are still many things to do in that area, such as visiting the hot springs, taking canopy tours and watching the volcano at night, that I'm sure I will visit again soon.