THE GALLIVANTING GEEZER: Adventures on the way to Mt. Arenal

Off to Mount Arenal

First, let me say that I’m sorry that I have not posted in a while. I’ve had some computer problems that I’ll get into in a moment.

In any event, our plan was to drive from Turrialba to a hotel with a great view of Mt. Arenal.

Of course, we had to drive through San José to get to the east side of Mt. Arenal. But hey, this would be a piece of cake since we would be doing it in the daylight and since we were now veterans at traversing San José. Right?---WRONG!

We got into San José after a leisurely drive from Turrialba and were within about 5 miles of the airport when our piece of junk car suddenly had a flat tire. We were on a very busy main street and there was almost nowhere to pull over and get out of the traffic flow. Suddenly, a man appeared and motioned us to pull into the parking lot of a restaurant which, without thinking, we did. Of course, the tire changing tools were buried under our bags such that all the bags had to be unloaded before the tire could be changed. Two overly helpful guys helped move the bags and otherwise created general chaos. Finally, I got the tire changed and we decided to go directly to the car rental agency and get a different car.

After some discussion, the car rental agency agreed to give us another car so we unloaded all our bags to transfer them to the new car. HORRORS OF HORRORS! My computer bag was not there! It had been stolen during the confusion of changing the tire.

To make matters worse, I had read about this kind of scam before. It usually happens when refueling the car. The gas station guy will put a small puncture in one of your tires and you get a flat within a mile or less of the gas station after which some “good Samaritans” volunteer to help you change the tire and then, in all the confusion, steal whatever looks valuable to them. I had guarded against that by remaining outside the car every time it was refueled so the there was no chance for the attendants to commit mischief. Of course, we had a flat while driving so it did not occur to me that we would get scammed.

Upon reflection, I think that someone, somehow managed to puncture the tire at a traffic signal and the thieves were waiting for us rubes.

Note to self: People write about these scams because they happen. Pay attention!

Oh well, a brand new laptop gone but we won’t let that minor detail ruin the trip. On to Mount Arenal.

Mt. Arenal

Mt. Arenal is one of Central America’s most active volcanos and erupts almost continuously. Of course, we had read that Arenal was in a quiet phase at the moment. But not to fret, at least we would see it.

We arrived at the Montańa del Fuego hotel just in time to see the clouds completely close in on Mount Arenal as a light rain began. We were a little road weary and a lot frustrated but a couple of bottles of beer in the restaurant cured the blues some.

Later, after dark, we ventured out to eat dinner and heavy rain had started falling. We decided to drive up to the other end of the resort to the restaurant rather than walk in the rain. We parked the car, went in and had a very expensive poor quality meal. Very disappointing! Outside the restaurant, the rain had subsided and-guess what? Our day was capped off by a big new dent in the passenger door. A perfect ending to a not very good day.

The hotel Montańa del Fuego is interesting. It consists of a series of casitas like the ones pictured below. All the casitas have a view of Mt. Arenal. Definitely a destination resort that I stumbled upon completely by accident.

After a fretful night’s sleep, the morning dawned with the rain finally having passed but with heavy cloud cover. Still no sighting of Mt. Arenal! Finally, while I was getting ready to go to breakfast, the clouds broke for a minute and Mary Lou managed to snap a picture of almost all the mountain. Of course, I missed it because I was in the shower! Nothing new here.

Figure 1: No Mount Arenal here!