Classroom Costa Rica

I have always been fascinated with volcanoes and going to Costa Rica allowed me to actually see one. I learned a lot about Arenal when I was in Costa Rica, even though I didn’t see it except from extremely far away. Everywhere we went there was always something to do with Arenal. The experience I had in Costa Rica was like experiencing the adventure without seeing it. The feeling was like going to Arenal without going to it. Everyone I met there had something to say about it. That’s when I learned you don’t need to see something to experience it. I do wish that I could have seen it in person. That would have rocked. But even though I didn’t, I still learned a lot, a lot more than I would have just sitting at a computer and reading about it.

I learned some really cool things about volcanoes them selves from reading books. One thing would be that all volcanoes exist in the ring of fire. The ring of fire is a chain of volcanoes around the world. When I read that, I thought to myself. It’s probably really cool to be able to live near part of the ring of fire. Arenal is not the only Volcano in Costa Rica. There are actually ten other volcanoes in Costa Rica, two of which are active. Arenal is the most active though. It’s one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world. In the year of 1968 Arenal had its most disastrous eruption. It blew off the entire west side of the volcano, destroying two towns at the base of the volcano.
Just by talking with tourists and Costa Ricans I learned that Arenal is a huge volcano and a bigger tourist attraction than most things in Costa Rica. A woman that I interviewed said “You can feel the rumbling of the volcano during the night, it shakes everything and it is always erupting.” Most of the people I interviewed in Costa Rica remembered the terrible incident in 1968. Even the couple I spent my home stay with remembered that incident; they said it was the most horrible eruption that had ever happened in Costa Rica.
There were many other things I could have studied in Costa Rica but I really enjoyed studying Arenal even if I didn’t get to see it up close. One of the most important things I learned was that you don’t need to see something to experience the adventure.

- Colby

Comments RSS