Skirting the Base of Arenal Volcano

Monday, Jan. 14, 2013--Cañas to Upala

There was a party on the grounds of the bull ring across the street from my hotel last night.  As the evening progressed, the music got louder and louder.  Why is it that people in most tropical countries do not think that they are having a good time unless everyone else hears the noise of it?  Anyway, it became almost impossible to hear my TV by 22:00.  I stayed up until midnight.  Finally, I put in my earplugs, but they couldn't keep the sound out; they maybe decreased it by 2/3.  I was able to go to sleep, fortunately.  The noise didn't end until 1:00.  There were times I wanted to shoot their speakers or set fire to their tent!!!

Monday is a major travel day here in Costa Rica.  The bus station was overrun with people when I arrived.  Even though it was 50 minutes before my bus was scheduled to leave, there were already about 10 people in line for it.  By the time I made it through the line to buy my ticket, the line for the bus had grown to about 25 people, and it was still 30 minutes before departure.  When we finally did leave, the bus was jam-packed with every seat and every space for standing in the aisle taken.

The area around Cañas, Liberia, and Playas del Coco is very dry.  But as the bus left today, we gradually climbed.  The air became cooler and the area became greener.  We were headed directly toward Arenal Volcano which we had seen from both Cañas and Liberia.  It's an active volcano.  Eventually, our bus was curving around the northwestern edge of the volcano as we headed toward Upala.  I could see the peak.  There was a white puff above the top.  I don't know if that was smoke from the volcano itself or if it was a cloud hovering there.  There was no sign of lava flow.

I really had no idea what to expect between Cañas and Upala and around Upala.  My guidebook (a chapter from a book dealing with all of Central America and the Yucatan) ignored this area.  It's obvious that there are interesting places to visit.  I saw one turnoff near Bijagua (an interesting looking town not even shown on the map in my guidebook) to Tenorio National Park and Rio Celeste.  Researching this area later made me realize it would be a much better place for visiting around Arenal than La Fortuna which I decided would be too commercial for me.  If we had known about it last week, Wes and I probably would have gone there for 2 days; it's only an hour out of Cañas by bus.  It sounds like just the kind of place I like--remote, few tourists, and providing great experiences.

Upala itself was a surprise when I arrived, too.  It's a bigger town than I expected with what seems like lots more bus traffic to the surrounding area than either Cañas or Liberia had.  The people are friendly.  And the town is green.  There is a beautiful river flowing right through it, although the water is too fast and too deep for swimming.  

I had researched hotels (of which there are few mentioned on the Internet) and had decided to try to find Cabinas Maleku (first three images in the link) when I arrived.  I walked from the bus to the central plaza to ask a local person knowing that cab drivers and others near the station would want to offer me a ride instead of directions.  The woman on the bench turned around and pointed.  It was on the opposite side of the plaza!!

The place is a pleasant surprise in several ways.  It is clean and nice with hot water shower, air conditioning, wifi, and flat-panel TV, and it costs only $24 per night!  It's what we would have called a motel court in the 1950s or early 1960s. The same people operate a small restaurant next door where I ate a dinner of rice, beef tips in gravy, sliced tomatoes, and plantain chips for only $4.

With the facilities and food so nice and cheap, I may stay here another night.  I've started reading a novel which I can continue in the heat of the day, and I can go walking in the countryside by following one of the roads out of town in the morning or late afternoon.