Costa Rica 2000

Tuesday, August 8, 2000  -  Arenal Volcano

The view of Arenal in the background at Tabacón Hot Springs was amazing!  The first clear view we had of Arenal's crater was this one.

A plumb of smoke for active Arenal volcano.  On the right, steam and smoke from Arenal.  There is no snow on this mountain.  The temperature year-round is in the 70's.  In the original photo (of the picture on the left), you can see a red rock on the left near the crater.

In the original photo of the picture on the left, you can see the faint outline of Arenal.  The red ball at the top of each photo is a large rock slowly (as it appears to us) coming out of the top of the volcano.  As it rolls down the side of the mountain, it breaks apart creating more and smaller red streaks.  As I recall, these photos are approximately 1 1/2 minutes long, so it would be like a 1 1/2 minute movie combined into one still shot.  The photo on the left is the beginning of lava rock falling for 1 1/2 minutes, and the photo on the right is the continuation of the same hot rocks falling.

This was the highlight of my trip.  I do know lots of people who come to see Arenal don't get to due to cloud cover.  Since we saw it clearly in the day and during 2 nights, I feel very fortunate.