Costa Rica: Arenal Volcano
90% of people who come to the Arenal Volcano never get to see it – it’s constantly shrouded in thick low clouds. I didn’t get to see it in my first trip here in 2007, and most people I know never saw it either. We spent three days around and not once did the cloud let up. But – drumroll! – as we were leaving the area, the skies opened up and the Arenal Volcano came out in all its perfectly-coned-shaped glory. Arenal rises to 1,633 m (5,358 ft) and is an active stratovolcano that was dormant until 1968 when it violently erupted with lava flows destroying one of the villages on its slope. Arenal’s eruption continued intermittently from 1968 to 2010, making it the tenth longest duration volcanic eruption on Earth. The volcano is dormant now.
