We had probably driven 5 minutes towards the park when we looked at the mountains where the park is and noticed that they seemed to be getting some rain out there. And we hadn't brought with us any rain gear or umbrellas or anything. So, we decided it'd be worth it to turn around and go back to the hotel to get that stuff, since we hadn't gone that far yet.
It was good that we turned around because besides picking up our rain stuff, we also packed some granola bars and extra drinks to go with the water we had already packed. Once back on the road, and as we got closer to the park, it looked like maybe we wouldn't get to hike at all because the sky really looked dark in that direction. But we got to the park, and even though the sky looked really threatening and it was thundering, it wasn't raining yet so we set out on the trail anyway. The first part of the trail goes through some really thick forest so it was really dark in there with the weather the way it was. We were worried it was going to start pouring and that would have been rough because it was necessary to stay focused on this trail due to all the tree roots and rocks that had to be climbed around and over. There was lots of thunder, too, which made us think - any minute now the rain is going to start. But we hiked the entire 3 kilometers without so much as a single drop. It was unbelievable how lucky we were.
We found this interesting looking fruit in the forest.
There were fumaroles that you could walk to on some parts of the trail.
Standing here, my back felt a little warm.....
Making my way back up...
Made it. When we were at these fumaroles, we had done about half of the trail and it wasn't thundering as much anymore and the sky was a lot brighter.
Towards the end of the trail, it is out in the open, and we could look over to where we had been. That smoke is close to the fumaroles we had been standing by.
This is what the trail looks like after you get out of the thick forest.
When we left this park, the sky was still heavy with clouds and we could still hear thunder every now and then. We also saw about 6 Toucans in a tree by the parking lot which is always exciting.
Driving back down the road, we could tell that it had rained there. The roads and dirt along the side were actually very drenched so the storms that we heard were just a little further down from where we hiked. It was nice driving where there had been rain and the birds were obviously liking it, too because there were lots of them flying all over the place. We spent quite a bit of time along the side of the road at one point trying to identify some parrots in the trees. It was quite difficult, although we had great views of them. We identified them as Orange Fronted Parakeets.
There was thunder and lightning all the way down to Liberia with rain falling every now and then. We felt bad for Fernando and hoped it wasn't raining in the park because yesterday he was lamenting that it looked like it was going to start raining soon. Well, he was right. Rain is good, it cools things down, but it also makes it harder for them out in the field.
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