(Baldi Hot Springs photo courtesy Steve Kettman।)Every day around 3pm, visitors to oft cloudy La Fortuna make a decision: to tour or not to tour.
Almost every operator in town operates a “Lava Tour,” a nighttime exploration to constantly erupting sand giant.
Fellow Abercam guest Steve and I went in for one of these after dark adventures on a night where the skies appeared to be clearing.
Our guide was William, a survivor of the 1968 Arenal eruption, current resident of nearby Zeta Trece, and one of the few people who has (illegally) scaled the volcano.
Unlike other volcanoes where lava is molten, Arenal disgorges red hot rocks.
On our drive to the lookout points, William shared a laminated scrapbook with us. He told us about how Arenal shot huge boulders the size of busses into the air and how the hot rocks came crashing down. They made a whistling sound as they flew, he noted, and then split apart on impact leaving huge craters in the ground.
In many places he pointed out trees or vegetation that had sprung up in the craters. One unexplained phenomenon was how some trees shot up directly in the center of the depressions.
William took us to a private lookout point just ahead of the Arenal Observatory just over a hanging bridge and through a rainforest path thick with citronella and bromeliads.
When we reached the site, the skies cleared rather quickly. Our eyes adjusted and we could make out the moonlit shape of the volcano quite easily. We listened closely for the pop of the rocks shooting out from the chamber.
After a half-hour, we got a few veiny sputterings. Content with this surprise, we agreed to get on with the next part of the tour and William agreed to pull over the car at public vantage points along the way back in case there were any surprises.
Our good timing would find us at the last public vantage point at the precise moment the largest fountain of the night tumbled down. The cone belched with a flicker and two distinct paths of glowing orange rock trickled down the right side, breaking apart and sputtering into blackness like fireworks.
We continued on to the Baldi Hot Springs, one of several locations fed by the naturally heated water drawn from volcanic tables.
In an hour and a half we hardly covered 2/3 of the sprawling Baldi property which featured over 13 pools with temperatures ranging from 88 degrees to 152 degrees Fahrenheit. This last, hottest pool you can really only dip your feet in.
One tented pool featured cement chaise lounges lifting out of the water. My favorite was a jaccuzi featuring three man-made waterfalls and a bifurcated path with cold pools set inside.
A couple pools featured swim up bars. One of the bars had a mezzanine level and two giant screen televisions featuring the night soccer match of the Costa Rican national team.
I tired out the giant uncovered water slide. It was more like a ski-jump actually. I sat in the appropriate position and shot down the ramp with such tremor and velocity it made me feel my body would split apart.
We weren’t particularly excited about the ten dollar towel deposit fee or the five dollar locker service charge (who doesn’t want a towel and a locker?) Also, the overworked staff, at 9:40 pm, was over anxious to hustle us out before the 10pm close.
The waters, however, were uniformly relaxing.
