Before you jump to conclusions, I should explain that we didn’t see anything as spectacular as the photo above, but nevertheless, we had an interesting experience.
We had a big adventure that night. We met in front of our hotel at 7:00 for a night tour of Arenal Volcano. Before the tour began, the leader told us that we were in for a secret treat: We would also have a swim in a hot springs, so everyone ran to their rooms to grab their swimming suits.
The VW minivan drove us slowly down a very bad road, weaving back and forth to avoid the potholes. It then began climbing up the slope of the volcano, until coming to a stop and unloading us. We were all given flashlights and began walking further upslope for about 150 meters. It was difficult to distinguish the mountain because cloud and darkness obscured it, but we could see red hot rock, crumbling as it rolled down the slope, breaking up, then rolling further, while making the sound of big clinkers.
Off and on the clouds would blow away, and we could see the apex of the volcano, which displayed small showers of red specks of lava against the dark night. Fortunately, there was no foul sulfur smell, something I had expected, probably because of the wind direction and some rain showers.
Several times we heard the “breath” of the volcano; low, short bursts of air. Twice we heard explosions from deep inside the crater, but we couldn’t actually see anything.
The Arenal Volcano did erupt in 1968, after being dormant for 400 years. That later blast killed 86 people.
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