This post will mainly consist of my original diary writings.

Diary, 1st of February 2017: San Jose, Heading to Terminal 7-10 to catch the bus to La Fortuna. Bus driving takes ages but it is cheap. Starting 8.40 am, arriving 2.15 pm, which is like 5,5 hours. We lost about an hour in traffic jams. Easy Peasy $ 4,40, though. The countryside in the mountains is very beautiful, if not outstandingly delicious. Small farms everywhere. Arrived in La Fortuna. Got some local lunch and bought some fruits for the upcoming days. Took the bus to the Heliconias Nature Lodge, Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. The tree house we got was amazing. Mind-blowing.

 

Diary, 3rd of February 2017: Extreme Volcano Hiking. Parque National Volcán Areal. Hiking Cerro Chato. There is a lake in the crater. It started raining and became slippery. Lots of mud. Nice hike through the cloud jungle though. Our guide was named Pedro. I asked my question: “To hike, to bike, to watch the birds, to spent the one day off a week with my family, to get to know different cultures and people.” – wow!

On our way to the Volcano we saw a sloth [German: Faultier]. The guide said, we were very lucky, they show up very rarely, normally hiding well in the trees:

Let’s roll more pictures of that trip…

Approaching the tropical cloud forrest area – amazing to be in such a place I knew just from TV:

The ground was washed by the rain:

Some sunlight through the clouds – the scenery and colours changed immediately:

At the top of the volcano one could take a bath in the crater:

We made our way out of the forest again:

Soaking energy from the sun – wild reptile, no doubt:

Our tour guide Pedro loved to look for the birds:

A wild hike tour 🙂

We continued to some hot rivers – heated by the volcano:

#axelgoeswild: