Post 8: Volcano, Flowers and Butterflies!

Dad and I got to see one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. It was unfortunately too cloudy for us to see the tip of it and the red-hot lava crash down the volcano at night, but it was still quite the sight to see! Arenal volcano has sustained constant activity since the time it re-awoke, after a span of almost 400 years, with a massive eruption in 1968 (not really that long ago)!

We stayed at a really nice hotel there with a beautiful view of the lake and volcano and an awesome pool! Since we had been going non-stop since we got here, we decided to take an easy on Monday. We walked around the hotel, enjoyed our wonderful complimentary breakfast with great service, took pictures, relaxed in the hot tub and we ended up taking a walk to the Butterfly Conservatory.

This was probably one of my favorite memories of this tropical adventure with my Dad! We were told that there was NO way we could walk to the Butterfly Conservatory (because of the distance, hills, curves, etc.) by some other tourists so we were determined to prove them wrong. I mean, it seems crazy to use our own 2 feet to get somewhere, doesn’t it? Ha!

While we were walking there, a cute little dog (I named him Wish Bone) decided he was going to join us. He was a very friendly dog and led us almost all the way there! We walked right through the little town while saying hi to the locals and taking a few pictures. After very slowly walking up the last hill to get there, we made it! I think it took us about 10-15 minutes.

We got there around 3, not realizing that the Conservatory closed at 4. But then our guide Leeza (from Seattle, Washington) told us not to worry because someone came in behind us. The first part had many different types of plants, flowers and trees. Then we went through the four different habitats where the butterflies lived. I think the coolest one was inside the “Forest Habitat.” This butterfly was called the “Glasswing Butterfly” which had transparent wings. They were hard to get pictures of because they were so hard to spot! We also saw the Giant Owl, Dead Leaf, Blue Morpho and many more!

After we went through the whole Butterfly Conservatory, Leeza said we could take the “Rainforest River Walk Trail” back to the front building where we would exit. She reminded us to be careful and to be very aware of our surroundings! At the very beginning of the trail, I saw a snake! Only being a foot or two away, we started taking pictures and videos of it because we didn’t know what kind it was and wanted to find out. Little did we know it was a “Coral Snake” which is one of the most poisonous snakes in the world! It possesses the second most potent venom, after the rattlesnake.

Dad wanted to get some good footage of it so he encourages me to “scare the snake” to get it to move. As you can imagine, I was already squealing with excitement and said “YEAH RIGHT DAD!!!” After the almost-snake attack (maybe a little dramatic, but who knows?!), we tried to continue on down the trail. Due to the recent high rainfall, we were unable to cross the stream. Leeza said the rocks might have water on them and to be careful. The rocks were actually completely under water and there was no way we were to get across dry!

As we turned around to go back, it started to rain. We tried to find a dry spot, but then Dad just yelled “RUN!” So we ran back to the building where we started and I kind of felt like we were in Jurassic Park or something! Did you know those movies were filmed in Costa Rica? Anyway, just as we started our journey back to our hotel, the rain let up. Dad and I laughed at the rain, since we have had past experiences with getting caught in the rain!

On our way back, another dog (Panda… named him too) joined us. He seemed a little more independent than Wish Bone, but still was happy to walk along with us. As we got closer to our hotel, Wish Bone joined up with us again! So there we were, walking our dogs! Haha. It made me miss Mojo and Rodney (my boyfriend, Ross’s dogs) a lot. Wish Bone actually followed us all the way to our room so we let him in for some water. We could tell he was somebody’s pet!