The smell of sulfur hangs heavy in the air as you get closer to the volcano.
We hadn't been able to see it at all yesterday, but it suddenly cleared up this morning.
Holy crap, look at how tall those canes are!
There are views of Lake Arenal here as well.
There was a constant crackling sound as you watched the volcano.
It turns out the noise is caused by huge boulders being thrown out by the volcano tumbling down the side of the mountain.
strike a pose!
The volcano suddenly made a new eruption noise and started spewing all sorts of crap. Spoooky!
Team photo!
Everybody else was hanging out by this sign, so we went to check it out too.
They want you to feel welcome.
We next went for a hike along a 1.5km or so trail. Quite a pleasant day for strolling.
You're never that far from the constantly spewing mountain.
It's even spookier from here.
We then continued along our way past Lake Arenal, which is a man-made lake (hydro dam).
You drive across teh dam as you head west.
There are a bunch of animals called caldimundi(pizote in Spanish). They hang out on the road looking for handouts.
They're pretty tame, but we decided not to make the problem worse by giving them anything to eat.
Cool! Huge eared cows!
What's up with their ears?
What the -- ? If I didn't know better I'd say we were in Switzerland!
It turns out there are a tonne of Swiss people here running things.
The roads get atrocious every few km. You have to wander all across the road to avoid the potholes.
You end up doing a dance with all the other cars on the road.
This is some weird lookout point thing that is completely landscaped ...
Driving on these roads is hard work!
On the western edge of the lake, we started the final leg towards Monteverde, which took twice as long as everything else we had done.
Fortunately, the scneery is gorgeous.
Here's what happens when you hang an SLR camera out your window and snap randomly. Scot's even waving at us !
Gorgeous countryside as we drove past.
Ater 20km of driving on these roads, we stopped and took a snack break. It's exhausting work.
cow.
The roads wash out all the time, so there are dudes who come in with backhoes and fix them.
You end up having to wait for them to finish their work.
Fortunately, there's lots to look at while you do.