Lake and Volcano Arenal

Last Friday we drove to Lake Arenal next to Arenal Volcano.  We got a late start because there were two large nails in our tire.  The four-five hour drive took us eight hours!  The roads in Costa Rica aren't direct, they're windy, narrow, often in bad shape and have no shoulder.  Driving is like a video game.  There are cars and trucks to pass, and people, dogs, chickens, cows, horses, etc. walking along the side of the road (that doesn't have a shoulder).

Lake Arenal was spectacular.  It was a mix between Switzerland with its green pastures along the hillsides, and a tropical paradise (all rainforest).  People plant flowers and keep their fields and yards cut.  The drive around the lake was worth the trip itself.

We stopped at a cute little German bakery

The trip was lovely until we found out at the German bakery that there had been a mudslide that took out a bridge and we would have to back track a few hours.  A woman told us about a short-cut that included a bad, dirt road for about 30 minutes.  We took the short-cut and that 30 minutes was really two hours of a very bumpy ride.  The dirt roads around here (and there are many) are roads you would never want to drive your own car on!  Oh how we appreciate paved roads!!!

We arrived much later than we had planned (well past dark).  As we drove along the dirt road to our hotel (a different dirt road) with lightening right overhead and our nerves frazzled we arrived to find our reservation wrong.  We waited for a new reservation, drove to our hotel room (a mile or so away) only to have our keys not work.  This happened TWO MORE TIMES!  We went to sleep exhausted.  It had been a long day. 

The next morning we woke up to the most incredible rainforest symphony - endless bird song.  And what we couldn't see when we got in the night before was our incredible view of Arenal Lake from our balcony.  We stayed at Arenal Observatory Lodge which is in the park and right at the base of Arenal Volcano.

I wish this picture could capture the sloping hill with the lake down below.  Let me try this self portrait a little closer...

A little close of me but look beyond

And Arenal Volcano is glorious.  It was inactive for hundreds of years until 1968 when it erupted and killed 80 or so people.  Like Pompeii, the locals didn't know it was a volcano.  It has erupted several times since, and until two years ago you could see lava flow down the sides nearly every day.  It has been dormant two years now.

Here are a few nature shots of plants around our hotel room.

From the large, looming volcano to the details on the leaves I marvel in God's creativity and the sacred divinity found in nature.  I count my blessing we've spent so much time in it this past month.