Arenal Volcano
Arenal volcano located to 10º ' 43 North latitude and 84º ' west longitude (1,633 meters) is a cone.The volcano ground is without a doubt one of the greater tourist poles than they have been maintained by last the 25 years. It’s also Costa Rica’s most active volcano and a must-see on any tourist’s itinerary. On 29 July 1968, it was awakened from its long sleep by a fateful earthquake. The massive explosion that resulted wiped out the villages of Tabacón and Pueblo Nuevo, whose entire populations perished. The blast was felt as far away as Boulder, Colorado.
It is regarded as one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Its lava flows and eruptions have been constant, and on virtually any day you can see smoking cinder blocks tumbling down the steep slope from the horseshoe-shaped crater that opens to the west—or at night, watch a fiery cascade of lava spewing from the 140-meter-deep crater. Some days the volcano blows several times in an hour, spewing house-size rocks, sulfur dioxide and chloride gases, and red-hot lava. The volcano’s active vent is on the western side, and the normal easterly wind blows most of the effluvia westward. Explosions and eruptions, however, occur on all sides.
MINAE’s Comisión Nacional de Emergencías recently set up four “safety zones” around the volcano and is now regulating commercial development. It’s a highly arbitrary zoning, however, and any cataclysmic eruption would devastate the entire area.
The four most important types of vegetation in the park are the perennial wet and very wet forests that cover about 47% of the area. There's also cloud forest and riverine woodlands, where several endemic species can be found, like the brunelia costaricensis and the epiphytic pineapple.Thirty-five species of fish, 135 species of reptiles that include tortoises, snakes and lizards, and 131 known species of mammals can be found here. An amazing 53% of the species that make up the national bird population are also found here making this park and the surrounding area a birdwatcher’s paradise.
