Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna

From the cloud forest of Monteverde we came across the continental divide to the Caribbean side and down into the rain forest of Arenal and La Fortuna. Arenal volcano had been pretty dormant for a long time, but then suddenly erupted in 1968 destroying a small town and killing many.  Since 2010 it has been dormant again, but the volcanic cone is still off limits to people just in case.

The volcano dominates the landscape and Lake Arenal (another man-made lake) nearby.

The Sleeping Indian.  You can tell he's a bloke because there are no boobs and he's a bit excited.

Coming down from the cloud forest, I couldn't help but feel that the landscape felt quite alpine. The area used to be covered in forest, but a lot was cleared for beef cattle grazing, often by foreigners making use of the cheap, fertile land and with little regard for the environment. The Costa Rican government has put an end to this and now there are many national preserves and environmental laws, including things like 'the banks of every river is national land and must be forested' (I'm paraphrasing).  Costa Rica spends vast amounts on education, and produces 98% of it's electricity through sustainable means. It was the first country to go over 200 days without needing to burn fossil fuels to supply it's electrical needs. They also abolished their army, and instead spend the money on education and healthcare. The old army headquarters is just across from the hotel here in San Jose, and has been turned into a National Museum and Butterfly farm! I do like the thinking!

One downside of all the tourists that come to Costa Rica though is the high cost of living.  Housing and food are both pretty expensive.

We took a boat across Lake Arenal to get to La Fortuna

Mrs Coati with babies

La Fortuna is an outdoor activities kinda place, with white water rafting, ziplining etc. It is also a lot more humid than Monteverde and after the travel several of us just wanted to relax by the pool. This being rain forest territory, it did of course start pissing down, but that didn't stop us!

Then Laurie found a fruit under one of the trees in the hotel. We weren't sure what it was, but it was nicely rugby ball shaped though was also quite hard. In the absence of it's proper name we called it 'Danger Fruit' and played catch with it.

Danger Fruit, or as we found out later, Coca!

The hotel place was actually bursting with wildlife, and I saw a whole bunch of stuff there including toucans, agouti, and a Montezuma Oropendola. I've also included a few other things below that were seen in the area but not in the hotel.

 Click here for video!

Someone tell me if this video link works - will save me uploading the videos twice

Montezuma Oropendola

Tropical Mockingbird?

not sure

also not sure

Ruddy Ground Dove

Another Vulture

Cow

I still didn't fancy white water rafting the next day, so instead went to the waterfall for a swim.  It was a fantastic place.  Very beautiful and lovely water.