Costa Rica Travel and Vacation

Pedasi, Panama received its first inaugural flight from Panama City last month, launching the first foray by a domestic airline into the fast-growing region.
The introductory flight by Aeroperlas Regional marks the first of a twice-weekly run from the country’s capital, shortening the four-hour drive to a 55-minute trip to Panama’s “Tuna Coast”.
Live dance and musical performances marked the event, which was attended by Panama’s Minister of Tourism, Salomon Shamah, and Rolando Pereira, Commercial Manager of Aeroperlas, as well as representatives from various local businesses, who were instrumental in initiating the joint venture.
Mr Shamah announced the government’s intent to penetrate the country’s interior and further explore its rich tourism potential, while emphasizing the need to protect the natural heritage that supplies it.
The flight was received enthusiastically by local investors and residents alike.
“This region had been left off the map of domestic flights long enough,” said Daniel Rudas of Andromeda Ocean Estates, a Panama beachfront gated community in Pedasí.   “We and other investors in the area were determined to persuade the airlines and the Ministry of Tourism that Pedasi, and the entire Azuero Peninsula, has the potential needed to make scheduled flights viable.   In fact, the demand is already there – it just needed to be acknowledged. ”
Andromeda Ocean Estates and several other Pedasi businesses persuaded Mr Shamah to visit the Pedasi area and discover just how much tourism potential was waiting to be tapped.
“Once Mr Shamah set foot in Pedasi, we knew that the flight was going to become a reality.   Pedasi sells itself,” marked Mr Rudasevski.
Soon after their meeting, Aeroperlas executives, Pedasi investors and the Ministry of Tourism (ATP) hammered out a deal to subsidize flights to Pedasi’s existing airstrip.
Set in the southern point of the Azuero Peninsula in Panama’s Los Santos province, Pedasi has gained a reputation in recent years as a cozy escape for Hollywood and international celebrities, many of whom have bought vacation homes in the region.   Charming fishing villages, miles of deserted beaches, waters churning with tuna, marlin, mahi-mahi, sailfish and other prize catches, vibrant festivals and beautiful nature reserves have marked Pedasi’s appeal and lured strong investment into the district.
While Pedasi is a smooth four-hour drive from Panama City on well-maintained highways, the advent of a scheduled flight promises to further open up the region to both tourism and investment.
Both Aeroperlas and the ATP have already begun a forceful marketing campaign promoting the new flights, which will run midday on Mondays and Fridays from Panama City’s Albrook Airport (also known as the Marcos. A. Gelabert Airport), returning the same day.   A third, additional flight on Wednesdays is also potentially in the works.
The 12-seater plying the route is one of many operated by Aeroperlas, which ferries passengers to 13 destinations across Panama.   The addition of Pedasi marks the airline’s first entry into the country’s long-neglected central interior; the majority of flights serviced destinations closer to the capital, and the Costa Rican border.
Aeroperlas is part of the TACA group, which operates domestic flights in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as international flights across the Americas.

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A stop-motion animation I made as part of my foundation diploma. It shows the story of my travels to Costa Rica in 2008, made from individual pieces of paper and photographed from above.

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In their thoughts
ONLINE messages of support for West Cumbria from around the world.

Read more on Whitehaven News

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Image taken on 2006-03-24 13:03:45 by citizenof1world.

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Image taken on 2006-03-24 13:04:34 by citizenof1world.

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By: Jim Scherrer As we all know, Christopher Columbus, while searching for China, first discovered the Americas when he arrived in San Salvador in 1492. On his second voyage, he landed in the Caribbean Islands, and on his last voyage in 1498, he arrived in the area of Venezuela. In 1497, the Italian sailor Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), exploring on behalf of England, landed in Labrador and Newfoundland. Unfortunately, neither of these sailors was very well educated nor inclined to thoroughly document their voyages. In 1499, an educated Italian named Amerigo Vespucci joined a Spanish fleet and sailed to Venezuela. A few years later, the king of Portugal enlisted Vespucci to pilot another voyage to Brazil and by 1508, the voyages that Vespucci participated in were well documented. Although Amerigo Vespucci was a relatively insignificant person and had never led an expedition or discovered anything, his name appeared on much of the documentation and many of the New World land surveys. Using all of the freshly generated documentation, a German cartographer named Martin Waldseemuller prepared the first map of the New World in 1507. With documentation prepared by Amerigo Vespucci as his guide, he merely used the word Americus, the Latinized version of Amerigo, to indicate the New World. Consequently, the entire Western Hemisphere eventually took on the name Americus which later became known as the Americas. It probably should have been called Columbus or Cabot but it could have been even worse; just imagine, The United States of Vespucciville! Before we get too far into this article let’s first define “America”. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising of the North American and South American continents with their associated islands and regions. Today, in the minds of most United States citizens and for that matter, in the minds of people throughout the world, the term “America” refers to the United States of America; however, that term is open to debate. For the sake of this article, we’ll be referring to the United States of America when we use the term “America”. The next term that we must accurately define is “North American”; all too often we think of North Americans as those from the United States and Canada. Again, that’s a misnomer because North America actually encompasses the entire North American continent which includes the US, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands. Therefore, “North Americans” are those residing anywhere in the North American continent. However, for the sake of this article, we’ll be referring only to those from the US and Canada as “North Americans”. Typically, when we think of escaping from America, we’re referring to Americans emigrating from the United States to some other locale. With the current depressing state of the economy, politics, crime rate, standard of living, etc. , there are numerous reasons why US citizens are more interested than ever in retiring abroad (beyond the boundaries of one’s own country). Today’s broad availability of inexpensive international telephone, Internet, satellite TV, transportation, medical care, etc. have essentially eliminated the primary reasons for retiring and remaining in the US. Now, more than ever, with the numerous reasons why one might desire to escape from America, the question is; where in the world would be the most logical retirement destination? Most would agree that it would be somewhere that has a lower cost of living without compromising on the standard of living, someplace that has relatively close proximity to the U. S. , a safe and clean place where English is understood, etc. Other important criteria for retirement include the size of the community of like minded North Americans (US and Canadian citizens), the availability of activities for retirees, of world class medical care, fine dining, telecommunications, etc. Most travel and retirement magazines list a number of wonderful retirement havens in the Americas including Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. Although all espouse fine climates, beautiful scenery, low costs of living, etc, Mexico generally tops the list. Many of these locations are either too far away or lack all of the amenities that North Americans are accustomed to and require whereas certain Mexican retirement havens have all of the required prerequisites for North Americans retiring abroad. After residing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for almost 13 years, we can state emphatically that PV has it all! During the past decade of growth in Puerto Vallarta, the city has more than doubled in size with its infrastructure being completely upgraded to current international standards. Every amenity that one would expect in a city of 350,000 inhabitants can be found in Puerto Vallarta. Regarding Vallarta’s proximity to America, please refer to the North American map. You might be amazed to see that PV is approximately the same distance from Chicago, Minneapolis, and Portland as New York is from Houston, Dallas, and Denver. Relatively speaking, cities such as Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles are virtually next door to PV. Another factoid; Puerto Vallarta is nearer El Paso, Texas than is Texarkana, Texas. For comparison’s sake, let’s consider Maui, Hawaii which lies on the same latitude as Puerto Vallarta and obviously has an ideal winter climate. However, Vallarta’s winter weather is better; during the seven month period of November through May, the average daily temperature in Vallarta is 73°F with virtually no rain whereas Maui’s average temperature is about the same but with more than two inches of rain per month. Needless to say, as great as Maui is, traveling to and from there is quite expensive and time consuming; retiring there could be cost prohibitive. This map puts the whole concept of moving abroad into a totally new prospective. With the many advantages that Vallarta has to offer, including its proximity to the US, it’s quite obvious why approximately 50,000 Americans (those from the US) have escaped from America and now call Vallarta home. The fact is that their new home is still in America (the North American continent) and generally a short 2-3 hour flight away from their family and friends.   In summarizing, now you know how you can escape from America without leaving America. Puerto Vallarta still has all the charm of a Mexican fishing village yet now has all the amenities necessary to make it one of the finest retirement destinations in the world. Just pack up your bags and head south to PV this winter and find out for yourself, but do so with caution; you’ll not want to return home! Jim Scherrer has owned property in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for 26 years and resided there for the past twelve years. The mission of his series of more than 70 articles pertaining to retirement in Puerto Vallarta is to reveal the recent changes that have occurred in Vallarta while dispelling the misconceptions about living conditions in Mexico. For the full series of articles regarding travel to and retirement in Vallarta as well as pertinent Puerto Vallarta links, please visit us at PVREBA.  

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While a zoo definitely has it’s place in animal watching, it doesn’t compare to seeing animals in their own natural habitat. After a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park, this felt especially true for me. A traffic jam caused by young buffalo calves and their mothers crossing the road is an experience not to be missed. It made me wonder about other places that would be conducive to viewing wildlife in a natural setting. From my research I have come up with a list of some of the best places to visit if viewing animals in nature is your objective.

In the United States, national parks are the best place to start. For viewing sea animals, the best places include the Channel Islands off the coast of California. The islands are surrounded by sea lions, seals, gray whales and humpback whales. There are also numerous tide pools that house creatures such as sea urchins and anemones. Another area great for water animals is Glacier Bay in Alaska. Humpback whales and sea lions are in abundance off shore and on land bears and moose are often times available for viewing. For a different spin on water creatures, visit the Florida Everglades, the last remaining everglades on the planet. There you will see crocodiles and alligators co-exists along with turtles, dear, manatees and bobcats. The everglades contain large viewing towers that are devoted especially to wildlife watching or you can be a bit more daring and take a canoe ride in croc-infested waters.

Other national parks that make the list for best wildlife viewing are Denali National Park in Alaska, Glacier National park in Montana, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Denali, Glacier and Rocky Mountain offer animals such as dall sheep, grizzlies, caribou, wolves, mountain goats, elk, dear, bighorn sheep and marmots. Theodore Roosevelt is a less well known park and therefore offers great viewing of bison, wild horses, deer and elk without all the crowds.

Outside of the US, there are more exotic animals available for viewing at places such as Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica, the Komodo Islands in Indonesia, Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo, Polar Bear Observation in Canada, and of course a Kenyan Safari.

The Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica is a brilliant rain forest that contains over 100,000 acres of land and 5,000 acres of marine habitat. The park is home to 116 species of amphibians and reptiles, 139 species of mammals and more than 400 species of birds. There are no roads into the park, only hiking trails. Unless you are an avid hiker and have excellent map-reading skills, a guide is recommended. In addition to the trails, there are also viewing platforms built atop massive ajo trees.

The Komodo Islands in Indonesia house the world’s largest population of Komodo dragons. These animals can grow to be over 300 pounds and up to nine feet in length. These islands are now an Indonesian national park and permits and tour guides are required, but they make the experience much more user-friendly (Komodo dragons aren’t in petting zoos for a reason). In addition to land tours, you can also take a sea kayak around the park and see coral reefs, fish, dolphins, whales and sea turtles.

Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo is one of the last places to see orangutans in their own natural habitat. Through an elaborate network of hiking trails, you can see the orangutans up close, swinging from branch to branch, suckling their young, or building nests to sleep. There are also orangutans in captivity which can be viewed. They are being rehabilitated before being returned to the wild. There are other jungle species as well that can be viewed in the orangutan jungle, including clouded leopards, civets, Malaysian sun bears, deer, numerous species of birds, and butterflies.

Nowhere can you see polar bears so up-close and personal as you can in Churchill, Manitoba. When Hudson Bay freezes, between October and November, this town is overrun with polar bears as they travel their migration path. In early winter, they even stop to dine on the region’s seal population. For more up close views, you can take a tundra buggy (a converted school bus) into the migratory packs for a quick day-trip. For longer exposure, there are tundra lodges that provide all day exposure to the bears in their native environment.

One of the most famous places to view wildlife is Kenya, and what better way to see it than on a safari. Safari’s can take you through the likes of Masai Mara National Park, Amboseli Game Reserve and Mt. Kilimanjaro to view lions, leopards, cheetahs, wildebeests, zebras, flamingos, black rhinos, giraffes and elephants. Safari’s range from less expensive options starting around $500. 00 for an 8 day excursion to very luxurious safaris costing up to $9,000. Either way, you get to see what you like most. . . animals.

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Your new travel guideMarilyn Holstein opens Best of North Fork Resort Maps franchise.
Resort Maps, creator of nearly 100 customized travel maps across the United States, England, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico, recently announced Marilyn Holstein as the owner of the new Resort Map to be published on the North Fork of Long Island.

Read more on dBusinessNews.com

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Travel to Central America – get intrigued! Central America, the less popular than its more famous neighbours offer the most unforgettable holiday experience that you could be raving about for decades. Central America comprises of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and parts of Southern Mexico. It remains a mystery to so many of us, that a visit to these destinations adds a touch of intrigue that makes the journey even more exciting! Although very tiny on the map, Central America is packed with more diversity than any other similar sized area on our planet – in Central America, you have adventures beckoning at every corner and turn! The people are also wonderful and some of the most interesting you’ll ever come across. If you are planning a holiday across Central America, we recommend you not to miss it for anything! Places in Central America Belize: Belize is a popular tourist destination that attracts more than 850,000 tourists every year from all across the world. An intriguing mix offering Central American forests and Caribbean Seas, Belize offers a wide range of activities for a memorable holiday. Costa Rica: Costa Rica is abundant in a wide range of flora and fauna. With more than 27% area of the country protected, Costa Rica offers an unbelievably diverse range of wildlife and natural beauty. The popularity of Costa Rica can be gauged from the fact that more than a million visitors choose it as their holiday destination every year. El Salvador: Although criminal activity is quite high in El Salvador, this Central American country offers an adventurous holiday you’ll never forget. You could learn to surf the biggest waves in Central America, explore black sand beaches and meet people never short of a smile. Other places in Central America like Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua and Honduras are also intriguing in their own way! Central American Cruises The best way to explore Central America is through a cruise. Central American cruises are quite popular amongst tour operators. A wide variety of packages – budget and luxury are offered by these tour operators for Central American cruises. For some memorable cruises to Central America, visit www. travelprojects. com. au

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Experiencing a live volcano was on top of our agenda when my friend Rob and I visited the exotic land of Costa Rica. The plane touched down in the capital city of San Jose, and, after clearing customs, we headed for the car rental to pick up a 4×4 and a map to Mt. Arenal, the nearest active volcano.

After an arduous drive through torrential rain, we finally arrived in a quiet village supposedly at the foot of a fire-belching monster. I say supposedly because it was so foggy, we weren’t even sure a volcano existed. We couldn’t see a tree a block away, let alone a volcanic mountain looming 5,000 feet above us.

Locals claim if you really listen closely, you can hear the beast rumble. We never heard a whimper. By the second misty day and night of no sighting, I suspected the local population had fabricated the story of an erupting volcano in order to attract tourist dollars. A volcano of convenience. No muss, no fuss. Just some imaginary rumbling every so often that only the locals hear from a volcano no one ever sees because of the rain and fog!

Near the end of our second day of waiting out the rain, we were eating a tasty native dinner of red beans and rice at a colorful local dive when the owner of the café strolled over to our table. Without hesitation or invitation, he plopped himself down. Miguel appeared to me exactly as I’ve always imagined don Juan of Carlos Castaneda fame to look. His face was dark and swarthy with a kind but inscrutable expression. Staring straight into our eyes, he declared in halting English, “You want to know volcano, not just look at it. ”

Being a veteran traveler, I have learned to be agreeable in a foreign country and, in general, say “yes” to practically everything spoken to me by the locals. Not realizing the full import of the distinction between the words Miguel had used, I responded amicably, “Yeah, yeah, of course, we’d like to know the volcano. ”

Without another word, Miguel turned over one of our paper place mats and, pulling a broken stub of a pencil from his shirt pocket, began to draw a crooked line. We watched in silence for the next twenty minutes as he guided the pencil over the grease-stained paper in absorbed concentration. What emerged was a detailed map of twists and turns with landmarks indicated by little, kid-like pictures of trees, stone walls and tiny shacks to represent a village.

Finished, Miguel put the pencil back in his pocket, sighed and spoke directly into our souls with piercing, green eyes. “This,” he said, tapping the crude map with its meandering trail, “take you to volcano. To be with volcano. ” With his finger, Miguel softly tapped his chest over his heart, “to feel and know spirit of volcano. ” Then he laughed softly and cautioned us we would be scared because the volcano would definitely erupt when we were there. “But volcano not harm you,” he added hastily. With a wistful look in his face, Miguel shared how he and his friends have picnicked at the edge of the volcano his whole life and the towering inferno had never harmed him. His words only mildly consoled me.

The sound of the cold, drenching rain woke us at dawn. We still couldn’t see or hear the volcano. Since the downpour discouraged us from any other tourist activity, we decided we may as well get soaking wet following Miguel’s map to wherever it led. Maybe the rain would stop once we were out of the village. Fat chance!

We drove up the steep mountainside of what the villagers below insisted was the volcano until the rugged jeep road ended abruptly at a craggy cliff. I was very surprised Miguel’s rough, hand-drawn map actually corresponded to what we found on our journey. His drawing indicated the sheer cliff and the small, hidden opening we found nestled between the rock wall and a weather-beaten wooden fence. We followed our friend’s makeshift chart through the hole, up a circuitous rocky path, over many collapsed lava rock walls and past long-deserted fruit orchards. The trail ended abruptly at an imposing 300-foot wall of solid volcanic lava flow so jagged and sharp we couldn’t climb it.

Fortunately for us, Miguel had anticipated this challenge. At the left edge of the lava flow, his map showed a naturally camouflaged trail through the dense rainforest. Our confidence in both our friend and his diagram strengthened over the past several hours, we plunged into the dark primeval forest. The jungle growth was so thick with vines and roots, the path so muddy and slippery, I felt we’d dropped into a comic scene right out of the Harrison Ford movie “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. ” During one hilarious moment, Rob and I both lost our footing and, clutching each other, slid back down fifty feet of the mudslide trail. Grabbing overhanging vines, Tarzan-style, saved the day—and our necks! Our guardian angels must get a lot of overtime pay!

Undaunted and filled with the rush of adventure, Rob and I helped each other stand up, pull ourselves together and restart the climb. Clawing and scratching our way through the rainforest, we finally reached the top of the lava flow. My first impression was how very windy and cold it was up there for a tropical climate. The pouring rain and dense fog had persisted, obliterating the view of anything more than a foot in front of us. As we inched our way along the top of the volcanic rock, I remembered how Miguel had told us of his many idyllic picnics here with his friends. Not very conducive weather for a picnic on this morning!

Suddenly, a booming roar filled the air, followed by a very powerful rumble that reverberated throughout our bodies. We felt the Earth roll in one undulating wave after another! Although Rob and I had never experienced an eruption before, we instinctively knew this was the volcano showing its might. The ground continued to heave in unnerving spasms. People-size boulders sped past us down the slope. Flying rocks were propelled into nearby trees, the sheer force imbedding the projectiles cleanly into their trunks. We heard and felt nearby avalanches crashing their way down the mountain. We could only see a fraction of the devastation because of the blinding downpour, but our bodies definitely registered the massive rearrangement all around us.

A sharp electric terror shot through every cell of my body. Its message was explicit and commanding, “Leave! Now! You must go now to save your life. ”

I shouted to Rob, “We’re out of here! It’s not safe!” To my astonishment, he shook his head from side to side indicating he didn’t want to go.

“I’m staying. This is too cool!” he yelled over the roar of the wind and falling rock. He was nineteen years old. His sense of novelty and exploration was still stronger than his sense of danger and good judgment. I started to argue. I made zero impression on the brash, young daredevil.

Then another explosion rocked our world. I watched in horror as the heat, ash and force of the blast denuded a huge 200-foot tree in one second, stripping off all its leaves and limbs. If this volcano could do that to a tree, it could do the same to us! I knew with certainty I was supposed to leave posthaste.

Jumping off the top of the lava mound right into the rainforest, I bolted without another thought. I threw myself into the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” express mudslide, riding the flowing water and sludge through the dense jungle growth down the side of the still-quaking mountainside. In what seemed like only a few seconds, I arrived at the bottom of the lava flow. The path was certainly faster and easier going down than climbing up! For a brief moment, I lay soaked to the bone, resting in a mud puddle, my ripped clothes covered with brown muck.

Recovering some of my composure, I became aware for the first time of heat radiating from the lava flow smoldering several feet to my left. I crawled in the direction of the flow until I was within a few inches of the mass. To my surprise, the air felt like I had just opened a 400-degree oven. The surface was so hot, I instinctively jumped back a few feet. When we first arrived earlier in the morning, the extremely cold wind and pelting rain had so neutralized the radiant heat from the lava, we didn’t even notice the temperature.

But the heat was not the only aspect of the lava that the elements had concealed from us. I picked up a small twig and approached the foot of the black mound that had gushed from the top of the mountain. Getting as close as I could to the sulphurous heat, I stuck the branch into the rain-drenched ground about two inches in front of the lava. Within a minute, the lava hill reached the stick and buried it!

Suddenly my whole body reeled with the involuntary shudder of recognition. For the last hour Rob and I had been walking on a live, moving lava flow! And Rob was still up there running around on the molten granite.

Another eruption, three times louder than the first one, filled the air. My ears throbbed from the deafening boom. My feet and body registered avalanche after avalanche of crashing rock careening down the side of the volcano. Descending the rough trail, I ran head over heels in a panic, determined to outrun any rockslides coming my way. After a half-hour of the fastest, long distance race I’ve ever run, I arrived at our jeep safely sheltered under a broad-armed tree. Collapsing into the front seat, I fought to catch my breath.

As my pulse and mind quieted, I was overcome with fear for the safety of my friend still walking around on the moving bed of liquid rock in the midst of periodic violent explosions. I began feeling intensely responsible. I’d left a young kid in my charge on top of an erupting volcano! A nightmarish vision bombarded me. I saw his parents, who had entrusted their son with me, watching local authorities dig through the rubble of the volcano searching for the body of the lost American youth. Feeling so guilty and worried I could neither relax nor rest, I decided I must leave the jeep and hike back up the volcano. I had to find Rob.

No sooner had I opened the door of the jeep than an insistent inner impulse told me to stay put and listen inside for further instructions. When I receive such forceful commands from my inner coach, I usually obey. Quieting myself as much as possible under the circumstances, I endeavored to get in touch with my next best intuitive move. I challenged myself, Was it wrong what I did? Was it selfish and self-absorbed to look after my own safety and leave a young kid behind?

After I felt all the intense emotions stirred up from asking these soul-searching questions, I received a very strong message directly from Spirit. My inner knowing spoke to me emphatically, saying:

“You did the right thing. You followed your intuition. If you recall specifically, your inner coach told you that it was dangerous for you to stay, and that you needed to leave immediately. It said nothing about your friend Rob. Nothing at all. You were right to follow your guidance and leave. In fact, had you stayed, you may very well have endangered your friend’s safety! Had you stayed, you would have been out of alignment with your intuition and, therefore, out of harmony and integrity with yourself. This discordant state has a strong tendency to interfere with another person’s ability to tap into and follow his or her own knowing. Had you stayed, you may have hindered Rob’s ability to hear and heed his inner direction. You took the most helpful, loving and appropriate action by following the letter and spirit of your intuition. You following you own internal urging allowed your friend the space to realize he must rely on his own internal wisdom. ”

Spirit’s message was a fascinating new lesson in intuitive guidance for me. In general, and for its reassurance in my present predicament, I was grateful for this fresh perspective. I never before realized the precision of intuition. I never before understood the independence of one person’s guidance from the inner counsel of another person in a shared situation.

At the exact moment I realized the import of what I was being told by my inner coach, Rob came streaking down the trail toward the jeep. In the fury of the last violent eruption, Rob received his own internal signal to vamoose. Guided by his own inner compass, he immediately took the Mudslide Express through the jungle to safety. I was extremely relieved—and appreciative to Spirit—that my nightmare vision of Rob’s demise was averted. I gave silent thanks for the eternal lessons I learned from our escapade.

Back on solid ground, Rob and I were anxious to leave the mountain rains and clouds. We hopped into the jeep and sped toward the sunny western coast of Costa Rica. Driving down the mountainside, we both lapsed in and out of thankful silence for being alive. Perhaps the next day, the morning’s events would seem a great adventure, but, right then, the very real danger we’d just survived remained very palpable and raw. Our minds, emotions and physical bodies were still remembering and replaying our narrow escape.

Suddenly, Rob and I experienced simultaneous intuitive hits to pull over and get out of the jeep. Leaning against the vehicle, we turned as one toward the top of the mountain we’d just descended. As if waiting for us to stop our downward trek away from the mountain and turn our gaze upward, the clouds parted to reveal the awesome Mt. Arenal volcano for the very first time since our arrival in Costa Rica so many days earlier. The dense mist lifted. We saw exactly where we had been hiking on the lava flow. We pinpointed where the tree line ended and the lava flow began. We’d been standing only a hundred yards from the open mouth of the volcano when it erupted!

The restaurant owner Miguel had promised we would be with, we would feel and we would know the spirit of the volcano. He said the mountain would definitely erupt when we were there. And he’d promised the volcano would not harm us. The rain and his crude map tricked us into going so close to the volcano that we did, indeed, get to know the volcano, not just view it.

Was it the spirit of the volcano that sent Miguel to us? —and turned the skies into a torrential downpour in order to obscure the treacherous nature of our journey so we wouldn’t be scared off? Rob and I agreed, stranger things have happened. One thing was certain. If we’d been able to see where we were going, we would never have walked as close as we did to the mouth of the cauldron.

Now, viewing the majesty of Mt. Arenal, we were humbled and ever so grateful for the experience of having been able to safely feel the mountain’s power and personality. As we were sending out our thankfulness to and admiration of the volcano, the mountain erupted again with an explosion twice as high as the volcano itself. Two miles of elegant ash plume shot up into the dark blue sky. The event was quite dramatic and very humbling.

We knew the volcano was responding to our love and appreciation for its gift to us that day. Then the clouds closed back in and our mighty friend said good-bye, leaving us forever changed and enriched by its friendship.

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