Part 2 of 4
February 1, 2023
Day 4 & 5: A Relaxing Day in San Jose Followed by a Farming Family, an Active Volcano, and Volcanic Hot Springs!
Today was a low-key day, the calm before the large group of women I’ll be traveling with arrives from various places all over the US. The only other person in this group I’ve ever met before is Slow, who I’ve been traveling with the past two days. I know Bunny, the host of the trip, through Facebook but we have never met. I don’t normally travel in groups like this because the social aspect of it overwhelms me a bit, but I am excited to meet them. The first of them arrived last night and we chatted briefly before heading off to bed. The rest will arrive today.
Slow and I head down to breakfast early then return to our room and I decide to wash my hair– including my dreadlocks, which is a process. I’d like to not wash them again the whole time I’m here and I have time this morning so I utilize it. I shower and spend some time catching up on social media and emails while Slow goes back to sleep for a bit. I hear from Bunny, who I’ll be rooming with for the rest of the trip, and gather my things to move over to my new room.
The new room is so big I think we could have fit three of mine and Slow’s room inside it. Bunny and I laugh about the absurdity of it, and I change into my swimsuit to head down to the pool. I lounge for the rest of the morning, and then Slow and I meet for lunch at the hotel restaurant and run into most of the rest of the group. Several of them need things from the store and I offer to walk them over to the supermercado that Slow and I went to a couple of days ago. I grab several canned cocktails so that I don’t have to spend $8-10/drink at the hotel bar, and we return to the hotel, where I lounge some more and have a few drinks before our pre-trip meeting and dinner this evening.
At 1730 the group meets beside the pool and we get to meet our local guide for the trip: Catalina. After introductions and going over trip details, we hop on a bus and head to dinner. For now, my Uber days are over. I have trip-provided transportation from this point on! We are booked at an Argentinean restaurant for dinner. The food is fantastic– I order a steak which is unusual for me (not because I don’t like steak; I LOVE steak. I’m just very particular about how it’s cooked and seasoned). But I figure if I’m going to order a steak at a restaurant, this is the restaurant to do it at. I’m not disappointed. Back at the hotel everyone disperses to rest and pack. We are leaving early in the morning.
February 1, 2023
The group meets early in the lobby to finally depart San Jose this morning. I’m excited to leave the urban valley and get into the mountains for good! Today we are visiting a family farm to learn about how food is produced in Costa Rica, then we will hike at the Arenal Volcano, followed by a dip in pools warmed by the activity of the volcano before dinner. It’s going to be a long day, but the weather is perfect and we are all buzzing with anticipation.
A two-ish hour bus ride gets us to the Herrera Family Farm, where we learn to make homemade tortillas, tour the farm, sample fresh-from-the-tree fruit, and enjoy a homemade meal. As someone who majored in agriculture twice in college, it’s so interesting to see what a farm looks like in another part of the world. This farm grows such a large variety of fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and animals– including tilapia. It’s quite different from the predominantly monoculture model of the US and is a good reminder that there are other ways of doing things.
We leave the farm after lunch and head into the small tourist town of La Fortuna to retrieve two of our group members who had some flight delays and have finally caught up to us. They hop on the bus and we head toward Arenal– one of five active volcanos in Costa Rica. An “active” volcano is one that has erupted in the past 10,000 years. Arenal last erupted in 2010, but today we will be hiking over the lava flow from the 1968 eruption. This eruption buried three towns, destroyed multiple farms, crops, and herds of livestock, and resulted in the deaths of 87 people. Today, the area around Arenal is being re-cultivated and as we begin our hike we see several crops being grown on the open hillside before entering the canopy of the jungle.
Below are a few photos I captured on film while at Arenal Volcano National Park.
Arenal is over 5000ft tall, but there are no trails that go to the actual summit. Instead, we will be hiking a trail up to a view of the volcano and neighboring Lake Arenal. The hike is pleasant with some elevation gain and it feels good to finally go for a bit of a hike. The trail is crowded with groups of tourists from all over the world, and if you know me at all you know this is NOT the kind of trail I normally hike, but viewing an active volcano is not something you get to do everyday so I’m not even too bothered by the crowds.
The group spreads out over the trail and I get to spend some blissful time alone on the trail before reaching the summit. The foliage here is a bit different than other parts of the rainforest; it’s more sparse and scrubby, and beneath my feet is hard, black rock– hardened lava left over from that eruption in 1968. The black rock contrasts dramatically with the green foliage and blue sky. I reach the “summit” of this particular trail to a spectacular view of the lake and an open panorama of Arenal, who still has her head in the clouds as usual. Our group is going to rendezvous here, so I wait and snap a few photos. Eventually the other groups of tourists disperse and the rest of my group arrives and we get the summit to ourselves for a few minutes before descending.
This is a loop trail, so we continue on and as we get closer to the parking area we are all excited about the hot springs, which are up next on the agenda. I think people often discount “hot springs” because many of them are really just curated pools full of warm water, but honestly, what is so bad about that? The springs we are visiting tonight are in fact man-made pools, but the water in the pools has been heated by the volcano and enriched with minerals as it travels through the earth. They are wonderful, and soaking in them in the perfect, relaxing end to a long day. Plus, there was a swim-up bar. What more could one want?
Still She Roams 