A trip to Arenal Volcano (by Sophie)

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During my school break in October our family traveled to La Fortuna, a town near the Arenal Volcano.

To get there, we took a bus from Monteverde down to the edge of Lake Arenal, and then took a boat across the lake. From there we got our first views of the Arenal Volcano! How impressive!

The Arenal Volcano is a young volcano, meaning it is less than 7,500 years old. It was most recently active from 1968 to 2010.

We went for a hike at the National Park at the foot of the volcano. It is illegal to hike to the top of the volcano because of dangerous gases and venemous snakes!

We hiked out to the viewing point where you can see magma (an old lava flow from an eruption in 1992). From here you can also look down and see Lake Arenal.

On our hike up to the lava flow, we saw a lot of cool animals and plants, including these bugs that my dad took pictures of.

We heard a really strange sounding bird call, and it turned out to be a Montezuma Oropendola which we sadly didn’t get a photo of. But then, we spotted a couple toucans in the trees! Another hiker (a retired nature guide) told us they were yellow-breasted toucans, the largest species in Costa Rica.

We also saw many different flowers and berries, often quite small and hidden pops of color along the trail!

If you ever come to Costa Rica, don’t miss seeing Lake Arenal and the Volcano! We highly recommend a trip to the National Park, and maybe you’ll have better luck than we did seeing the peak of the volcano emerge from the clouds!

Comments

4 responses to “A trip to Arenal Volcano (by Sophie)”

October 27, 2025

M.E. Cohane

Thank you, Sophie, for this description! I love armchair travel, and your paragraphs with pictures and videos helped me imagine being there. It’s magical to think of discovering the little pops of color that are the wildflowers, and to see toucans, not in a cage, but in the forest. Thank you! Write more!

—M.E. from Mount Toby

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October 29, 2025

Carol Letson

Sophie,
What a lovely report on your trip to Arenal. We are so glad you were able to go and see it for yourself. Just getting to the base of the volcano takes so much effort – it isn’t easy.
I look forward to reading any future reports you post.

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October 29, 2025

Gretchen Plotkin

We were so fortunate to see the top of Arenal for a couple of hours when we visited in 2017 . We also visited the National Park. Thank you for renewing our memories and for the lovely pictures of nature.
Gretchen

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November 10, 2025

pat

We loved your report sophie.About your trip to arenal.what did you learn have you been there? How long have you been doing this report? Do you like arenal and volcanos? Or do you not. Did you choose it or did you want somthing else like reefs for example

bye Luna

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