BrAAAAWck - Polly Wanna Cracker

Left the Tree House of faded glory and did a dash north west to the Arenal Volcano. All the guides describe it as one of the most active volcanoes in the world. They also mention it is one of the cloudiest volcanoes in the world. We can certainly attest to the cloudiness, and have seen a few boulders come flying down the side of the mountain but no rivers of molten rock yet. We were able to see if for about 45 mins yesterday afternoon.

So right now we’re sitting on the veranda of the hotel looking out at the lushest of valleys, watching the buzzards fly above the rain forest. We’re booked in here for three nights so a chance to do some laundry, kick back, see lots of birds and butterflies and generally continue the pursuit of practically nothing!

The Tree House we stayed in a couple of nights ago is owned by an American couple with a thing for humming birds. Its pretty amazing to sit on the porch and watch a dozen of the little birds zoom around you fighting and feeding. We spent a couple of hours sitting and drinking coffee and just watching them. Taking pictures was much harder - they weren't hanging around for long enough to focus properly.

Also of note were the 4 bats that took up home in the rafters above our front door. We assumed if we didn’t bug them they wouldn’t bug us. This was a much nicer tree house than the first one - we'd recommend it to anyone - dry comfortable beds (the other one was like sleeping in a wet sponge) and it also has a lovely trail leading through some light (but sweaty) forest down past a waterfall to the river. But they only had space for us for one night so we moved on, checking out the places around the volcano.

Arenal Lodge, where we are now, is quite big but nice. Three multi-coloured macaws aren't bothered by the visitors at all, swooping around us and making faces all yesterday afternoon. We were given the last vacant room in the place which is right next to the bar\restaurant where there was a kid's birthday party on last night - the tree frogs competed successfully in volume with the waiter-turned-singer.

This morning we went into town forgetting that it is Sunday - everything but the chemists are closed. Instead we went up a dirt road to the butterfly farm and spent 90 mins being taken through a not for profit farm that is trying to re-establish rain forest back to areas that had been clear cut in the 70's. They had 4 large conservatories full of butterflies (which it turns out are as difficult to take pics of as monkeys and humming birds). They also have a bunch of tree frogs all taken from the local area. I would love to claim that we stumbled across the frogs while bravely hiking through the dense rain forest, but a fact is a fact and they were in the petting zoo!

The basic rule here is that if its small and colorful it's dangerous. The wee red frog is only about 1cm long, the stripy one is maybe 1.5. The coolest was the red eyed frogger with the sticky feet. It actually sleeps on the underside of large leaves.

A highlight of the butterfly tour was as we walked out of the farm area, a 'troop' of toucans flew overhead with their long colorful beaks. The range and abundance of wildlife in all its forms is humbling.

When we got back to the lodge, we had a wee bite of lunch and were accosted by a couple of Scarlet Macaws. They landed on the railing on the veranda just as Cripsy's fries were served. So lunch turned into an avian version of the crocodile hunter as we bravely kept the Macaws at bay using spoons and packets of salt. In the end the Macaws won, stealing a chip from Chris's plate and then flying into the restaurant. Turns out they aren't local birds but Brazilian and raised by the lodge owner who lets them fly free in the Jungle, and lets them steal food from the Lodge guests.

Again a great couple of days.

Lots of beautiful birds, no bugs, a beautiful lodge with wonderful people and a very shy volcano.

written by  REB on July 29, 2007 from Arenal, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Welcome to the Jungle...
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