volcano. Arenal is an active volcano complete with lava flow, its own weather system, hot springs and a perfect conical shape. The country side surrounding Arena is lower in altitude than the meseta central where we live, and Arenal is about as far from an ocean as anywhere in Costa Rica, meaning that the weather is hot and humid, without much of a breeze.Our first stop was the Fortuna waterfall where we descended hundreds of feet to the canyon floor and enjoyed a swim in the pools below the falls. The water offered welcome relief to the heat up above, even to the extent that Nancy commented that it was the first time she had been cold in two months. Of course, that was before the climb back out of the canyon.
As with most attractions in Costa Rica, the area is accessed by paying an admission fee. Being the recent recipients of proclamations by the Costa Rican immigration service
granting us temporary residency status (and no, the process is not done yet!) we decided to try to get the Tico admission price. Pero, no hablamos espanol! Since we do not speak Spanish, the guy at the desk was insisting on seeing our Tico ID cards, which have not been issued yet, and we kept showing him our printed proclamations, while one of our group kept telling him that we were residents. After about 10 minutes of discussion between the clerk and our friend, the clerk finally relented and we paid the admission in Colones (which Nancy learned in class means “Columbus”). Our friend proudly proclaimed that we had saved about a dollar.After lunch we headed to the forest to enjoy a canopy
tour. For the uninitiated, a canopy tour consists of riding down a series of zip lines anchored to trees. In our case, it was 12 lines, the longest of which was about 500 meters. It started out simple enough – we walked down a few stairs to a platform, where the guide hooked our harnesses (one person at a time) to the zip line, telling us not to brake because this one was short and shallow. This instruction, of course, followed a 10 minute safety lecture on the importance of braking lest you crash into a tree. As promised, the first line was an easy glide 
with a rapid transition without pause to the second, steeper, longer line at the end of which the guide hooked us to a static line on the tree. Standing on the platform anchored to the tree waiting to hook into the third cable, we noticed that despite the descent, we were well above the forest floor. We popped out of the trees on our way across the valley on the fourth line. Regular readers of this blog will remember that hillsides in Costa Rica a
re quite steep, and the sides of this valley were no exception. I’m not sure how high we were above the river, but it was high enough to give me that feeling of braking on black ice. After mumbling a newly acquired Spanish swear word (gleefully taught to me earlier in the week in a staff meeting) I realized that if the harness or cable broke, the leaves on the trees below were so large that they would surely break my fall. Nancy, who found this experience exhilarating, was quite amused by the juxtaposition of tension, since I am the one that enjoys climbing activities while she has to lie down to look over a cliff. By the last line, we both felt the excitement and highly recommend the experience.The remainder of the day and evening was spent in a series of hot spring pools that varied from cool to “you’ll be cooked in 15 minutes”. Unfortunately, clouds covered the volcano so we could not see the glowing lava beds up above.
Sunday we climbed aboard a 4-wheel ATV and rode across a farm field to the base of Arenal, then down to the Fortuna river (complete with
a heavy downpour) and back to where we started in time for a hearty Tico lunch before we headed back home. Nancy’s canopy tour exhilaration waned as she drove for miles on end behind a slow moving truck full of cows along mountain roads that make the “Going to the Sun” road in Glacier look like I-80 across Nebraska.
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