I'm jolted awake as the bus lurches violently to the right. Everyone screams. Just as I think its going to tip over, it rights itself and screeches to a halt. Is the bus driver totally wasted? It would not be a first in Latin America. But why is the bus shaking?
Turns out I was experiencing an earthquake, 7.6 magnitude. The epicentre was on the other side of the country, but it felt pretty strong from where I was sitting!
It was slightly worrying, therefore, that I was heading to the town of La Fortuna - at the foot of the most active volcano in Costa Rica. Volcan Arenal used to make small eruptions every 20 minutes but it has calmed down over the last two years. We thought we might see some action as the earthquake broke a sizable piece off the crater rim and caused a few landslides, but there were no major fireworks.
The volcano is beautiful. You can't climb it, but you can walk through the forest surrounding it to a lookout point. From the lookout point you can also see the site of the town of Pueblo Nuevo, buried under 25 meters of volcanic rock from the last major eruption in 1968.
The forest contained lots of wildlife. As usual I saw lots of monkeys. I seem to see monkeys every day in this part of the world! I began to understand why the locals wonder what we find so interesting about these animals they see all the time. It would be like a tourist getting excited about seeing a dairy cow. Or a sparrow.
We saw some wild turkeys, which reminded me of The Hunger Games (the book I've just finished reading). I couldn't help wondering if I could survive in the trees hunting wild animals while people tried to kill me. I decided that I would back myself to prevail. The best thing we saw was the red-eyed tree frog. It had no problem sitting in my hand while we took pictures and nonchalantly hopped back onto a leaf when we left.
We visited a nice refreshing waterfall and myself and Jelle (from Germany) jumped in. I tried to stand under the fall but it was so powerful it squished me into the water.
A fairly scary thing was that the earthquake had caused a landslide on the bank of the waterfall. If we'd been there a few hours earlier we'd have been dodging boulders!
At night we found ourselves drinking vodka in some hot springs with a few locals, torches and stars providing the lighting. Lovely end to a lovely day.
The next day I rented a bike and biked out to a good spot to take a picture of the volcano. Unfortunately the clouds weren't playing ball. After waiting for a good amount of time they finally shifted enough to get a semi-good picture.
After biking back in the blazing sun, I needed to cool down. Someone had told me about a swimming hole complete with rope swing. Whoever had that idea is an absolute legend!
Next stop Monteverde. In the meantime, here is a picture of the mountains they call The Sleeping Indian. And another picture of the frog.
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