Arenal: Part 3

On the third day of our Arenal stay, Nick, Steve and I woke up early to do our final hike. George had had enough of hiking through the rainy rainforest, and Sherri was not interested in the intense climb that was promised. We three, though, were going precisely for that challenge, and we would not leave until we had it. As we drove out the sky was mostly clear for the first time, though of course Arenal was cloud covered still, its peak hidden from us as it had been throughout our stay. Never mind that volcano though, today we were climbing its truly dormant neighbor, Cerro Chato.

We drove up to the information center and headed in to buy our tickets. The man behind the desk had us give him emergency contact info, advised us that the end of the trail was 'very, very difficult', made sure we were bringing plenty of water and mentioned that we should be careful where we stepped, as snakes were sometimes on the trail. This was looking good.

The trail was fairly steep from the very start. We began by climbing up farmland, up a well gardened path with open fields on either side, passing two workers with boisterous weed whackers tending the grass. As we climbed, we got some great views of the farmland and the city of La Fortuna below. We also craned our necks upward at the peak of Cerro Chato, which like its sibling Arenal was topped with clouds. We wondered if the cloudless sky foretold a clear sky over the mountain, but we knew this was unlikely. Nevermind, the climb is what we were there for.

We have only begun to climb

Then, very suddenly, the farmland turned into thick, dark, misty forest. We had entered the national park part of the dormant volcano, and it was a world of difference. Suddenly the path consisted mostly of climbing up tree roots and artificial wooden steps, with not a single flat or nearly flat length of trail. There was very little winding either; this trail was unabashedly straight up the volcano, no fooling around. We pulled ourselves up using the trunks of moss covered trees, pushing up on our knees and being careful not to lose our footing on the mud. We took comfort in the knowledge that no raucous ATV could possibly follow us up there.

A very steep climb. Go ahead ATVs, give it your best shot

While we did not find any deadly poisonous snakes on our way up, we did pick up a little reptilian hitchhiker. Nick with his eagle eye spotted a very well camouflaged lizard on a tree, and deftly picked it up for a picture or two. Having gotten a good number of shots of it with the camera, we placed it on Steve's shirt where it resided on his shoulder like an epaulette. We got him to stay with us until after a while he jumped off onto another tree, probably having gotten tired of the bumpy ride.

Oh hi lizard

After some very intense climbing the path abruptly went right back down, steeper than on the way up. We had reached the top of the volcano, and now it was time to check out the inside. Carefully making our way down we shortly reached the center of the crater, all lined with trees and containing a big lake in the middle. Nick and I stripped to our bathing suits and slowly walked into the freezing water, looking up for some sign of a warm sun but the clouds were still there for the most part. Nonetheless he and I (I after being egged on a bit by the other two) submerged ourselves into the water and swam around, feeling energized while Steve stayed on the shore and caught all the action on camera. A couple laps later, we swam to shore and put back our clothes on, shook ourselves a bit warmer, and started to climb back out of the volcano as it was time to head out.

Nick recalls what it's like to be cold

Getting back down was a whole lot faster. We rapidly made our way down the side of the volcano, jumping over the roots and sliding down the mud. We passed several tourists, who to our bemusement had only climbed up the volcano and were already heading back down, having not gone in to see the center! We were told they didn't have enough time, as they were part of a bus of German tourists and it would be leaving shortly. We felt sorry for them, since they missed out on getting to see the lake and clouds rolling above it, but such is the downside of relying on fixed tours.

Scaling volcanoes is hungry work

It was midday when we drove back into the hostel to pick up George and Sherri for the ride back to San Jose. We gathered our things, sorted our laundry and paid our outstanding debts. As we were packing up the car, we noticed a row of photographers on the lawn of the hostel. We looked up and finally saw the top of Arenal, the first time the clouds had parted above that volcano since we had arrived. We lined up with the other photographers and got our own pictures of the good view before we drove off, heading back south.

Finally!