This day started with a visit to Arenal park, which has the volcano as its main attraction. The last time the volcano erupted was 1968.
To get to the view of the volcano, one has to walk through a forest. Most of the forest is post 1968, as it was wiped out in the eruption.
These are some of the rocks that the volcano ejected:
The volcano and then looking back towards Lake Arenal:
Lava:
Part of the erupted material was used as the basis of a dam which became Lake Arenal, one of largest lakes in Costa Rica and its major source of hydropower.
For lunch, we stopped in another small town and were on our own. What does one get when one is on their own? Chinese food, of course? The pre-meal was rolls (below). I had stir fried rice with "Chinese Sausage", which I had never heard of or seen before (it tasted a lot like a hot dog - since then, I have seen it here in the States).
Continuing to drive up into the mountains:
You could tell we were getting close to coffee country, as little plantings started to show up everywhere. It reminded me of vineyards stuffed in every corner in the Napa Valley or on The Rhine River:
This was the view from our hotel room in Monte Verde:
Another White Nose Coatimundi showed up looking for a handout:
Sunset:
Video: White Nose Coatimundis
Those hotdog looking Chinese sausages are pretty common in Asia. In fact, at Christmas time in the Philippines, is it common to score them in a decorative pattern, grill them, pop a marshmallow onto the end of the skewer and serve by the hundreds.
ReplyDeleteEd, I had never seen them before - how interesting that they are so ubiquitous! And sure enough, a week after we got home, we found a Thai-Chinese place that had them on the menu.
Delete