Explosive Excitement

After an exciting adventure down the San Carlos y Peña’s Blancas River, our risk taking group hiked a path of volcanic rock in search of a close up view of the very active Arenal Volcano. Along our path we came across a plant known to the Costa Ricans as the “Planta Dormilona” aka the sleeping plant. This name comes from the crazy fact that if you swipe your fingers through the plant, it will close up and it will not spread open for many hours. This is a defense mechanism to trap prey such as small insects. Another interesting find was the Gurarumo plant. This plant is eaten by our lazy Costa Rican companions, the sloths. This plant produces toxins that give them a veerrrrrrryyyyyyyyy slooowwwwwwwwwwwwww sensation.

 

After about 45 minutes of hiking up volcanic remains, our group reached our designated observatory point. The view was astonishing. The volcano was so close we could almost touch it…JUST KIDDING!! Although, we did have the best seat in the house! Arenal is a breath taking, cone shaped volcano. Our destination was approximately 5000 feet above sea level! And the tip of the volcano is often covered by clouds. Good thing we called ahead so he could clear his cloudy schedule and show us his entire shape. The Arenal volcano is over 7,000 years old! And that’s fairly young! - In volcano years that is.

The volcanic material that has covered the land of Costa Rica has added the minerals necessary to produce the delicious coffee that most of us drink at our beloved Dunkin Donuts of Starbucks.

The volcano stopped lava activity about two years ago for an unexplained reason. Geologist have not been able to determine the cause of this phenomenon, although maybe it got tired of working for free and not getting paid by the local boat tours that would bring tourist into the Arenal Lake to witness the oozing of the lava down the side of the fire mountain. 

The last massive eruption by the Arenal volcano was in 1968, so there isn't one due for hundreds of years, but you never know!! It could be tomorrow.