Day 7: 5/25/15
After 6 nights at the UGA campus in San Luis, it’s time to move on to
other places around the country. We
arise early to pack and eat breakfast, then a van comes to take us on the first
leg of our 5 hour journey today. We
travel up over the mountain again toward the Caribbean side and are dropped off
on the shores of Lake Arenal. Here, we take a boat taxi across the lake for
about 40 minutes to the Lake Arenal Dam,
which produces about 45% of all the electricity in Costa Rica. It was a beautiful ride, and much faster than
if we drove all the way around the lake.
It started to rain just when we got there, so we were glad to see our
second bus awaiting our arrival. We
loaded all our luggage and then had a 45 minute drive to Rancho Margot, which
I’d just like to call paradise. It’s
minutes from the shores of Lake Arenal and Arenal Volcano National Park. We
couldn’t see the volcano today due to the rain and fog, but hopefully we’ll get
a glimpse tomorrow or the next day. This
place is a sustainable farm and ecotourism spot. They are 85% sustainable,
which is almost unheard of. For example,
they produce almost all of their own food from the garden, the cows (milk),
pigs and chicken (meat), as well as their own soap for laundry, kitchen, and
bath. They also have a crazy compost system not only fertilizes the garden and
creates methane gas (similar to the biodigester at UGA), but also heats water
from the heat coming off the compost for the natural pool. Whoa! We went on a two hour farm tour that
showed us everything they do to be sustainable. I would love to create some of the same
systems at my own place one day. Several of the students, some locals, and I
played a game of soccer in the pouring down rain (brought back some memories
from my younger days) and then hopped in the natural pool to relax before
dinner. After eating solely rice and beans for a week, we were all thrilled to
see pizza, pasta, and just a varied buffet here at Rancho Margot. There were
smiles all around tonight!
Day 8: 5/26/15
Woke up to pouring down rain again, but that didn’t stop us from
participating in a morning yoga class offered free of charge to all guests here
at the ranch. It was lovely getting to
start the day listening to the rain and getting stretched out and ready for the
day. We then ate breakfast and prepared
for our kayaking excursion on Lake Arenal.
It stopped raining and cleared up just as we were putting our kayaks on
the water. About half of the students
hadn’t paddled a kayak before so we paired them up on the tandem kayaks with
the more experienced students. After a quick lesson on how to paddle and basic
water precautions (safety first!), we were on our way to learn more about the
volcano in the distance. Our guides filled us in on the last time that Arenal
erupted (back in 1968) when almost a hundred people died. Living in Georgia, I really don’t think about
active volcanos all that often, but some areas of the world, active volcanos
are a way of life. In the forty years
since the last eruption, the vegetation has almost all come back in full force.
Nature sure is neat. We jumped in for a
quick dip and then raced back to shore (it was almost lunch time and this group
loves to eat!). The rain moved in after
lunch, but that did not stop us from taking a muddy hike up the view from
Mirador point. It was straight up a
muddy hill but the students were troopers about it, especially considering the
rain really picked up when we were at the top and all the way back down to
Rancho Margot. I call these character-building sessions. After dinner, we were treated to a lecture by
a guest volcanologist who monitors the volcanoes here in Costa Rica. There are
five active volcanoes, one that they are watching pretty closely. Let’s hope
nothing happens while we’re here!
Day 9: 5/27/15
Yoga two mornings in a row is something I could get used to! What a
great way to start the day, especially one that involves 8 hours of
travel. The morning had us checking out
of Rancho Margot (I certainly will miss this place) and then heading a quick 20
minutes down to the way to Arenal Volcanic National Park where our guest
volcanologist would lead a hike and talk for us in the park. We had only been able to catch very limited
glimpses of Arenal, but she finally showed her good side when we got to the
lava flow overlook. This flow was from
1992 and it was crazy to see how it looks 20+ years later. I would have liked to spend more time
exploring, but we had to get on the road. Although we only had around 200 miles
to drive, it would take a looonnnggg time. I was happy to see that we had
mostly paved roads for this leg of the journey, whereas most of our previous
legs were gravel. We stopped several
times along the way for snacks and stretching, and finally made it to Puerto
Viejo on the Caribbean coast around 8:15 pm (we left at 11:30 am!). I cannot wait to see what it looks like in the
morning, we are basically right on the beach! 
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