Let our journey begin!!  Reasonably small entrance fee here but one thing is for sure, they do not use any of the money for road upkeep.  Cool road but not for a two wheel drive vehicle!  Many of the roads in Costa Rica are much better traveled in a 4X4.

Below, Laurie is looking at the Arenal Volcano hoping it does not blow its top as it did in 1968 killing 68 people and destroying a few towns.  The town of Lafortuna 'The Fortunate One' is named that as it was on the opposite side of the volcano and was spared when it erupted.


Lots of cool flora and fauna to observe during our 4 mile loop hike to the viewing platform for the lake and volcano.


Cool moss covered trees everywhere.  Some really tall and others really wide.


The path we hiked in on had a nice tread with very few muddy spots.

Love the root system on this plant!

Strange leaf patterns here.  Very waxy feeling to them also.


This large bird looked to us like a cross between a blue jay and a parrot.


We would never give a handout to wildlife but when someone else does it.....


Lake Arenal in the distance looking 180 degrees from the volcano. Cool little bridge we had to traverse to get to the viewing platform.


Above is the 1992 lava field that we wandered through.  This is also where the viewing platform is.


Thank goodness we did not have to heed the warnings on this sign!  Stranger things have happened we suppose as we recently viewed our lunch spot in January 2020 being engulfed by lava on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii on September of 2022. Check out the NPS video of the destruction of our lunch spot below:





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