19/08/04- 22/08/04 La Fortuna

After a relatively straight forward bus journey we arrived to a horde of very excitable touts all wanting to find us accommodation and suitable tours. After negotiating our way out of that we managed to find a very lovely hotel (with a usable swimming pool) that I got a bargain on. We then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and trying to find the volcano.

The following morning we had a wonder around and once the weather cleared realised that the volcano was just at the end of the street all the time, and a mighty big one it was too. So we took a trip up to see it and on route had a walk through some more rainforest which was really very pleasant. We even managed to get a few gimpses of lava flowing and tumbling down, all from a very safe distance.

The following day we took a bike ride to see a waterfall, the ride was awful and the dip in the river at the bottom of the waterfall was much needed. After that we headed off to the thermal baths. Providing the perfect preparation for the next days bus journey ( an estimated 8 hours for a distance of 25 kilometres as the crow flies).

See that lava flow?

and feel the love

Seriously, on that picture of the volcano at night you can vaguely make out some red on the left. Easiest way to see the lava flow is to right click on the image and select Copy, press the Start button, go to Programs then Accessories and select Paint. Select Edit and Paste. Press the pencil icon on the left and choose red ink- best one would be that on the bottom row, third from the left. Draw line about from bottom of cloud cover on the left, about 5mm from the side of the volcano following its contour. Now sit back and marvel at nature.

NB The instructions above will only apply to Microsoft OS's- Mac etc. users will have to follow their operator's manual or scrunch up their eyes really hard.

Also, that rather nasty T Shirt I am wearing is going in the bin as it bleeds.

And Relax