It was a short night after being awakened by the screaming, swearing and crying after our next door neighbors got home around 4 a.m. and found they'd been robbed. The police arrived and questioned them and they had a pretty good idea it was this kid Jeremy who they knew from previous runnins. One of the guys who came here at the same time we did mentioned that Jeremy had been sitting with him that night and a guy approached him with a box with some brand new shoes in it. Jeremy had said that $80 for them was too much. Coincidentally the next morning Jeremy shows up wearing the shoes. Part of the $400 loot?
We walked downtown and lo and behold the bank honors master card! It's the same bank that didn't in San Jose but now we're good to go for a while longer. We checked out the town which is loomed over by the Arenal Volcano. The peak is cloud enshrouded but it's still pretty ominous. We also found a wireless internet and I was finally able to get my blogs done and downloaded two days worth of pics onto facebook. The picture part is pretty time consuming taking about a minute per picture.
Tonight was our night to visit the volcano and we were to leave at 5 pm. When we returned here to pay for tonight we were told the place is booked for the w/end so this is our last night here. We found another place for the last night in La Fortuna so today will probably be an internet day as we have two hours to kill before we're able to move in.
We left here about 5:30 and arrived at the base of the volcano around 7 pm. It was very dark and damp. We set out along a jungle trail with about 25 others. Flashlights were essential as the trail was rough and muddy in spots. We hadn't gone far when we came to a suspension bridge over a fast flowing river. The bridge was about 75' across and was limited to 5 at a time. Well it's a damn good thing is was dark so I couldn't see. I was halfway across and holding onto the guy wires when I realized there was no net between the wires and the actual bridge! A huge fat guy was behind me (that made up for two people) and the bridge was bouncing like a trampoline. I was loaded with camera and backpack for my laptop (which I was now afraid to leave in the room) and getting across that damn bridge really freaked me out. I had visions of ending up in the river and not stopping until I reached the coast.
We hiked for about a half an hour through the jungle and you could hear the volcano off to our right. It sounded very much like thunder. We finally got to a lava field where we crossed and found (or tried to) a comfortable spot to view the fireworks. The top was still shrouded in clouds but occasionally you could see sparks and glowing lava for brief periods. It was too far away to get pictures so I guess we'll get some postcards. Our flashlight began to get weaker as we walked out so we followed another couple as close as we could. We had brought long pants and rain gear and sprayed our deet on but there were no bugs. After we got out someone spotted a small snake on the road. He said it was a coral snake but it was a look alike as the colored stripes are in a different order.
The next stop was a half an hour away wherre some of the people went into a hot springs in the river. This river really moves and it's hard to believe it could be so hot. We hadn't wanted to do the springs so we hung out with some of the others while the rest went in in the dark with their flashlights. We did see a coatamundi that our driver was feeding bread. The face resembled that of a bear.
Arriving back here it was lights out pretty quick. Jo's picked up a cold and hopefully it will pass quickly. We've made reservations at a place on Arenal Lake for Sunday night where you can view the volcano from your room (or so we've been told). That's it for today.
LINK OF THE DAY
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28461&l=bd298&id=680056043
