Day 4

This guy kept staring at us.  Toucan play at that game.

  This was my favorite day up to date.  Often when I travel, I swear I’ve never sweated more in my life.  I will make that claim yet again.  We began our day walking to Cerro Chura, an extinct volcano next to the famous Arenal volcano.  The walk to the mountain took a great deal longer than we anticipated, and the temperature was hotter than its been since our arrival.  Despite the blistering weather we enjoyed the presence of some of the local wildlife.  A dog, who I took the liberty of naming, decided to act as our guide for a long stretch of the journey.  Unfortunately Sr. Perro was chased off by a hostile pack of his fellow dogs before he could show us the entire way.  Once we arrived at the hiking trail, the magnitude of our endeavor became evident.  It was incredibly hot, dirty, sweaty work.  The trail was in shambles.  The heat problem was further exasperated by the 100 percent humidity at the top third of the mountain, which was encased in a searing hot cloud of moisture.  Mom was clearly having difficulty, and between wheezing gasps she told me to go on without her.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t only up against the heat, time was against me as well.  We had to descend the mountain in an hour and a half if we hoped to get to our next activity.  I had to make it to the top not only for myself, but also for all those left behind.  Finally after much straining and difficulty I found myself at the summit.  The summit wasn’t enough, I had to experience for myself, the lagoon cradled within the mountain many feet below.

The lake inside the volcanoes crater at the top of the mountain.

We thought the trail up was bad.  This one seemed to have been gouged out by an angry, tumbling boulder.  There was one stretch where rock/dirt/root climbing was the only way to descend.  One section required you to crudely rappel down a length of crusty rope.  Finally after arriving at the lagoon, I cooled myself off, ate an apple and returned the way I came (time was ticking after all).  The journey back was naturally many times more difficult.  20 feet from the summit I heard my Mom’s voice.  Horray! She had made it! We quickly rejoiced.  We sat on some wooden benches and enjoyed the view (just kidding, as previously stated we were encased in clouds, and could therefore see nothing).  We descended the mountain in record time, with great deals of fatigue to our knees and calves, and made it back to the house in time for the next activity.

The view on the way down.

After a brief lunch and rest, we set off for canyoning.  I really had no idea what was ahead.  We began with a brief demonstration of how to rappel, which was a major part of the tour.  After that we set off (with another family doing the tour), for our adventure.  We rappelled down small waterfalls, clambered through streams, and zip lined down the mountain.  The scenery was absolutely spectacular.  It was the best I’ve ever seen.  Towards the end of the tour it began to rain, and the lighting became soft yet dramatic.  We rappelled down a 150 foot waterfall.and admired the scenery around us.  It looked like a CGI from some adventure movie.  It was absolutely surreal. With that event, we ended day four.  Hopefully I’ll have some Gopro footage to show how spectacular it was soon.

-Juan