Someone recently described me as having a spiritual connection to Arenal volcano. I’ve never thought of myself as a spiritual person. But either way, she draws me in.
She has so many personalities. Sometimes she looks like a monk with a ring of white hair as the clouds gather round. Sometimes, when the sun sets, that halo glows bright. Occasionally, the sun is at just the right angle to sends her shadow up to the clouds. Which I suspect is against the laws of physics.
More often than not, she is surrounded by cloud. On a rainy day, it is difficult to believe there is a volcano there at all. On sunny days, wisps of cloud gather round the peak as the day progresses. Other times, the clouds can part and set up the most dramatic sunset.
She doesn’t quite loom over the town, but being only 5 miles away, she is an intrinsic part of the character of La Fortuna.
Living only 5 miles from an active volcano should be terrifying. Yet somehow it seems impossible that she would erupt.
But she did erupt. For 42 years. And not in the annals of time. Until 2010. That’s pretty recent in volcanology terms.
She puffs out smoke (well steam actually) from fumaroles at the summit. As if reminding us mere mortals that she’s not done yet. No sign of her actually erupting any time soon, although others in the country are. But wise to have an evacuation plan, a bag packed.
Living in a tourist town is expensive and I should move a little further out of town. But villages only a few more miles away feel inadequate. Most people would say those villages have amazing volcano views. But when you’ve lived as close as I have, where you can see the gulleys of old lava flows cutting through the trees, those villages feel far away. I want to feel like I can touch her.
Plenty of tourists come to La Fortuna but Ticos do not see the draw. Even in a town that is heavily dependent on tourism and is jam packed with AirBnBs, the locals have a habit of building their houses to face away from the volcano. They don’t seem to realise that if they rotated their building plans by 90 degrees, that they could charge a hefty premium.
The name La Fortuna is said to have been given to the town after the 1968 eruption. Two villages were wiped out but El Burio escaped. Good fortune indeed. Turns out that’s a myth. But I like the story anyway. I have good fortune to live here. To gaze in awe at her wonders.
I think of her as Pele. Which is the name of the Hawai’ian goddess of fire and volcanoes. I’m not sure the Costa Ricans have an equivalent. So Pele she is.
Perhaps I am spiritual after all.
