Enga mellom fjella

Volcano: Rincón de la Vieja.

Costs: ₡10.000 ($20) for the ride in the mini-van, ₡700 to use a private road, ₡5.050 ($10) to enter the national park. Or about $31 overall.

mE:

Large bulky lumps of congealed lava may not be as pretty as Mt.Fuji (or Arenal) but they still perform!

Rincón de la Vieja isn't the highest volcano nor the most spectacular, but it IS active. Irazú and Barva are sleeping; Turrialba and Arenal just took a snooze; Poas throws out its sulfurous fumes; but, RdelaV is rumbling. Due to increased activity it isn't possible to go to the main craters (more than one) but one can visit mud-pots, fumeroles, waterfalls, water-pots, thermal waters, vents ...even one volcancito.

One could easily roast a chicken ...or sacrifice a virgin.

Neither was available.

The plop-plop of the mud pots was nice. White-grey and burbling. The faint smell of sulfur from steaming vents was perfume. The multi-colored rocks and water were nice touches.

But...

the rumbles coming from the volcancito were ominous. The cracked rock and scorched vegetation added to the joy-joy-joy.

I mostly enjoyed myself.

However, I did not join the ten kilometer hike to an even larger waterfall. The other four in our group did (one Guatemalan woman from Illinois, a natural leader; a Spaniard from Aragon; a Brazilian couple from Paraná).

Advice: use bug spray instead of merely bringing it; bring a copy of the passport; don't run out of battery power for the camera...

But overall, it was a good day!

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