After our adventure on the hanging bridges, we had lunch and headed over to the Arenal Volcano National Park. The Arenal Volcano is an active volcano. After about 400 years of inactivity, there was a major eruption in 1968 that buried 3 villages (about 5 sq. miles) and killed 87 people. It had minor eruptions almost daily until July of 2010. Scientists say it's still alive, just sleeping. (more information and cool pics of some of the activity since 1968 here http://www.arenal.net/arenal-volcano.htm)
The road into the national park is unpaved and very rocky. It was just over 2 kilometers in, but felt like more. Maeve and Liam wanted to go to the Sky Tram which was in the same area, but it was another 5 kilometers down the unpaved road. It's essetially an expensive ride up for nicer views. We stopped and I asked about prices. It was $44 per person (a small discount for kids) to ride the tram, $77 if you wanted to zipline down.....hiking in the park ($22 for all of us) and the shorter drive certainly looked like the better choice.
The trail was nice and shaded. Maeve continued to snap some of her beautiful pictures of paths (check them out on her page). We hiked to an area where you can see lava rock and enjoy some gorgeous views. We didn't stay long or hike too far....about 4 kilometers and the kids were tired from the bridges hike. I was just so happy that it didn't rain while we were there and that we got to enjoy another beautiful day.
Lake Arenal in the background
Hiking along the lovely path
Another great view of the lake and surrounding landscape
