Volcán Tenorio and Rio Celeste

Volcán Tenorio

Last evening, while looking for a new adventure relatively close by, Volcán Tenorio National Park caught my eye.  The guidebooks painted a very pretty picture and I figured it’d be about an hour and a half from home.  But, the best part is that we’d get to try out the 4 x 4 on our new car.  What could be better?

The drive itself really was fun.  We went partially around the northern end of Lake Arenal and turned north towards a small town called Tierras Morenas.  The first dirt road adventure began and was probably about half an hour.  Passing through mainly farmland dotted with a smattering of volcanic rocks, we saw more cows than anything else other than trees.  There were a few caballeros on horseback.  We also ogled several huge windmills in action.  I especially enjoyed using the 4 x 4 on some of the steep rocky stretches, which was a blast.  After another 15 minutes or so back on a major paved road, we arrived at Bijagua, the small town abutting the park.  Another gorgeous stretch of rocky and at times wet and muddy steep dirt road for 9 km took us to the park.  For me it was the first time I’m sure we could not have made it without 4 WD.  

Very large windmills dominate the horizon

Before we actually entered the trail, we were shown to an impressive display of preserved dead animals that’d been found near to the ranger station.  The most interesting to me was the severed head of the deadly fer-de-lance snake.  One of the rangers mentioned that in days of old these snakes actually killed many people.  We were excited and persevered.

Snakes, snakes and tarantulas

We actually hiked 6 km and Sullivan hiked every step of the way.  This was not a straightforward trail, as there was much climbing and descending over rocks, roots and a whole bunch of mud.  It was messy but everyone loved it.  

The highlights included a raging waterfall that was only visible after going down a large number of steep stairs.  We watched one happy white-throated capuchin monkey chowing on a tasty stick.  Erica and Henry spotted a small brown snake slither away from them quickly.  Plenty of birds and butterflies but no other exotic critters were seen.  No mosquitos or other biting or stinging bugs graced us with their presence.  

Going down to enjoy the view was the easy part

Plenty of mud to go around

The feature for which the park is best known, however, is the famous Rio Celeste.  They say that when God finished painting the sky blue, he washed his paintbrushes in the Rio Celeste.  We’d been warned that it might now be quite as blue as normal because of the recent rains but were not disappointed in any way.  According to one source, the bright blue color is a result of sulfur and calcium carbonate mixing.  

Laguna Azul

Underwater grasses dance with the water

There are also several areas of hot spring water bubbling up and adding the smell of sulfur.  Even the mud-slogging back to the car was still fun for our crew.  

Jungle bridges can be fun and exciting

We finished off the day with an ice cream run into a supermercado in Bijagua for the drive home.  Another day of exploration was in the books.  And tomorrow, school begins again.