Friday 20 November 1998
Today was amazing, starting with breakfast then walking so far to Arenal Lodge! On the way there, we saw bromeliads, and lots of lush vegetation. It seemed quite odd to me to have the asphalt road be so closely surrounded by huge jungle vegetation. Later I realized the truth - that the asphalt was like a scar through the jungle. It used to ALL be jungle.
After some miles of walking, we arrived at the entrance of the road to Arenal Lodge. Just as we were all, "oh my god we still have so far to go" a guy in a small red pickup truck drove up, "want a ride?"
I was all, "errm" and Kathryn was all, "yes!" so we hopped in and bounced several miles to a bridge in the back of this truck and WOW!!! How incredibly exhilirating that was to have the wind in our faces and sometimes rain and incredible bouncy bouncy bouncy potholes and driving partially in the ditch at an angle to avoid potholes or, rarely, other traffic.
So so much fun.. He drove us about 3 miles and dropped us off at a bridge and told us the rest of the way to the lodge. After the truck ride, we saw chickens which were not wild, but I thought it was pretty funny to see them among the trees.
Very beautiful, though the pics didn't come out great, was the multi colored bark of the eucalyptus trees.
I took two pics of Volcano Arenal shrouded in clouds.
Arenal Lodge was nice, but only one step above boring except they had an observatory with a seismograph and set of pics of Arenal erupting.
They also had a nice bridge. I was looking at one of those trees with the big leaves
To make our ride back oh-so-much shorter, Kathryn talked to Doug and LeeAnn (sp), and they drove us back in their rented jeep. (Look back at the bridge picture. I bet that was them ahead of us!)
