We are staying at the Nido del Colibri (Hummingbird Nest) in El Castillo which must be the nicest B&B in Costa Rica. The two guest rooms look out on the Volcan Arenal, one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. The property teems with birds including the brightly colored Montezuma oropendola and chestnut-mantled toucan.
The volcano sat dormant for a thousand years until it blew up in 1968 and destroyed several villages. It has been erupting pretty consistently ever since, sometimes spectacularly. The lava flows recently switched from the north side to the southwest making El Castillo, not La Fortuna, the best vista. That assumes, of course, that you can see the mountain. It was visible all afternoon but as darkness came so did the clouds. I keep checking for breaks in the cloud cover so we can see the lava. Maybe I will shift my vigil to the hot tub.
Around 3:30 AM when I got up to pee the sky was filled with stars and lava was running down the sides of Arenal. It wasn’t a major eruption but we could hear the rumblings and see flashes from the cone. To add to the show several meteors flashed through the sky. All in all it was pretty exciting.
We learned today that Sir Edmund Hilary died. He and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first men to summit Mt. Everest. We can't help but wonder if this morning's display was Arenal's salute to the great mountaineer.
