Fortuna and Arenal

Arenal and Lake Arenal

Termite nest

This past weekend I went on an excursion with a few of my friends to the town of Fortuna and the Arenal volcano.  We had a beautiful time although we had scorching heat the entire time.  As a group we took the jeep-boat-jeep route to get to Fortuna, the small town near the volcano.  The ride was bumpy for the first hour, because the first hour out of Monteverde is not paved.  Once we were in Fortuna we took a guided hike around the volcano and the guide pointed out plants and animals that were edible and could help for medicine.  He showed us how this one type of ants was a good remedy for arthritis and how termites were a good source of protein and tasted like carrots. 

We got to watch the volcano spew smoke and we heard some rocks roll down the mountainside.  On our way back down we went to a look out to watch the volcano for a little bit more, where our friend Jesse proposed to our other friend Tera.  So this will surely be a weekend they never forget!

Tastes like carrots

After the volcano we went to Baldi, which is a hot water spring resort.  It was very beautiful and the water was very relaxing.  They had a few bars that you could order from while swimming and just pull up to a bar stool.  They also had a few water slides and several artificial waterfalls.  We had a good time, but it kept us up past our bed time because our bus left there at 9pm.

The ants go marching 5 by 5...

On Sunday morning we took a hike around Fortuna and we got to see a lot of plants, a snake and some birds that seemed to be posing for us.  We also saw a line of cutter ants that was quite impressive.  Then we caught a bus and all relaxed on our way home so we could prepare for another week at La Creativa.

The humans go marching 1 by 1