The best lessons are learnt by doing!!

On our way up to the hike up Arenal volcano our guides were very informative on the bus. one of the things they tought us that stuck with me was the pressure craters. these massive craters in the earth and now in a protected area (Arenal National Park) were formed when the volcano erupted and catapolted out pieces of molten hot rock. the rock would come barreling down to the earth and because it was so hot it tould hit the ground and explode leaving now debreee of itself only the craters in the ground to tell their story.


 i have absolutely no clue why i remember this piece of information more than everything else but i find it very fascinating.

 even while on the arenal hike we learned so many things about the way Arenal erupted for example how it started erupting not out of the top but out of the side because that was the weakest point of the mountain. there were also 3 more holes where the lava erupted from. altogether known as craters A,B,C,D.

 theres also this type of tree that grows in the rainforest at the base of arenal and it looks just like a giraffe because in the competition for light amongst the trees this one has found a way to set itself apart and adapt so that it can recieve light. it swerves almost horizontally and then back vertically, held up by shoots, so that it can reach the light through the dense forest.

 when we finally got to our destination we got a beautiful view of Arenal lake which is a man made lake.


 as informative as this hike was it was AWESOME and at the time i didn't even realize how much information we were uncovering (but not nearly enough) because i have never really learned like this before. and what i mean by that is being outside and actually exploring the subject and experiencing it first hand and on our terms! the view was absolutely fantastic, our guide was awesome, the critters were wicked cool, and the knowledge was just a bonus. when i came home and showed my mom all of the pictures i could actually give detail on each picture and give her a mini lesson on what each of the pictures meant. i felt so smart.