Costa Rica - the rich coast

When Costa Rica was first discovered, the Spaniards found an abundance of wealth here. In fact so much so that they over loaded some of their ships with gold and they sank with the weight. There is not much sparkly stuff left here now but what they do have is an abundance of wildlife. 25% of Costa Rica is national park and they are committed to maintaining it. Costa Rica is also unusal and unique in Latin America in that it is very stable politically. They have not had an army here since the 40´s. This is all making Costa Rica a very popular destination with nature lovers and with Americans who consider it close enough to be worth the effort (plus alot of locals can speak English - not that pesky Spanish). My first impression of Costa Rica was rain. It is the middle of the rainy season and boy can it rain. None of the other countries we have visited have had much in the way of rain - but here we are getting very wet.
Our first stop was the shores of Lake Arenal in which we could see Arenal Volcano in the distance. This is the third most active volcano in the world behind Mount Etna and one in Hawaaii. The volcano first errupted in the 60´s much to the surprise of the locals, who believed it was just a mountain. It killed 87 people and has been errupting on average twice a year since then. We were allowed to climb to the outskirts of an old lava flow but for safety reasons could not get any further. What was really impressive was when night fell and we could watch the red hot lava tumbling down the side of the volcano. That was spectacular. The lava can´t half move at a fast rate. I also indulged in a bit of luxary here, visiting a 5 star hotel to make use of their hot springs. These are a number of natural pools heated up to 45 degrees by the underground magma chambers. The pools were so relaxing, they even had waterfalls within them so your back and shoulders could get massaged whilst you just sat in the warm / hot water.
After all this luxary we moved on to San Jose (Yes I know the way to San Jose). Here I took a trip to the RainForest Arial Tram ride. Tram lines have been built above the rain forest canopy (up to 40 metres high) and you sit in a gondola as you move slowly amongst the tree tops. This adventure is not for those who don´t like heights and I must admit my heart was racing a couple of times as we just hung there, suspended, looking down. The views were out of this world though and you do get a completely different perspective on things. As well as all the flora and fauna I saw a sloth asleep in a tree (what else would it be doing) and toucans feeding and fighting. This rainforest was on the Carribbean coast of the country, we then moved across to the Pacific coast and another national park. Unfortunately the rain at this point was so torrential it was impossible to get into the park or to see anything. We did have a couple of adventures trying to get the truck over very tiny rickety bridges. Think Indiana Jones and hanging suspension bridges - those bridges were of more stable design then the ones we had to cross with a 40 tonne truck. We had an impressive 5cm to spare on both sides - luckily our driver is good. Onwards to Panama where they might have discovered the art of both road and bridge building!