Arenal and La Fortuna

Gee mom from up here you can almost see the house.
Mid morning we loaded the tank bag and headed for Puentarenas, stopped at La Nacion newspaper and put an ad in the classifieds and then headed North. In about an hour the CA1 gives you an option of turning East or West. A left takes you to the Nochia peninsula and a right takes you to Arenal and the highlands to view the volcano.
The peninsula is more enjoyable if you have a few days and we thought the cooler temperatures of the mountains would be pleasant so we took a right. Previously we had travelled upland and were greeted by rain and wet conditions. On that rip we learned that it is very rare to see the volcano because its referred to as a rain forest it is low visibility most of the time, best season is Sept Oct for clear Sky's. We expected to get wet this time.
Our initial climb we were buffeted by some strong winds, at first these were unnerving for Terry, with elevation gain the winds diminished and the ride turned pleasant with clear sky's and great visibility, what a treat.
The entire ride up to Tameril and on to Arenal was striking vistas and 70 degree temps. We could soon see the volcano and it stayed in sight for the rest of the day. The volcano is about 1600 meters and has a slow eruption continuing, with molten lava cascading down its slopes regularly.It's not like the Mona Loa river like flows, more in the manner of red glowing A A rock tumbling down the mountain side.
A stop at the Macadamia restaurant for a snack gave us a terrific vista of Lake Arenal, and a leg stretch rest stop. When we continued we crossed paths with Capuchin Monkeys, Terry took pictures pictures as we rolled by on the Moto, neither of us thought we wanted one of these little guys crawling up our legs while we rode by.
On our first trip we went around counter clockwise, this trip we went clockwise and had the vistas to our right with no traffic to obstruct them, there was no traffic problem its just nicer egress and access to our lane.
En route to La Fortuna are several hot springs that we explored and enjoyed last year, this year was about the motorcycle ride.
When we arrived at La Fortuna it was about an hour before sunset,with 180 miles on the clock, lodging was our biggest priority and we easily found a 25 dollar room, ground floor that had a courtyard and locking post for the bike right in front of the room. At this price you get no AC but the bathroom was clean and shower worked great. The vents had no screens and were open to the air, all noises travelled through the courtyard, we had no trouble with bugs and experienced very little noise disturbance.
The roast chicken dinner across the street often comes up in conversations with gringos as one of their favorites. The locals often priced items lower if the payment was in cash and in dollars. I found the tour guide business occupied by people a little to anxious to take advantage of tourists, a reputable established business could be a lot cheaper than a street vendor, be careful of exchange rates and different prices for cash, charge card, or US dollars. Like I said before "Its hard to recognise when you make the transition from tourist to prey".
The next morning we were going to travel back to Jaco, fuel was not going to be a problem and I like the lower center of gravity that a half full tank affords. We had a great time going to San Ramon and got lost repeatedly, had to ask directions several times. About 5 miles from San Ramon I switched to reserve, lots of fuel to spare.
From San Ramon we went towards San Jose for 5 K and took the exit for Palmares. A little serendipitous it opened up a back route to Atenas and connected to Orotina, which is the back yard to our digs. This was about the ride and it was super, adventurous, lovely vistas, good food and drink, cheap comfortable lodging.