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All our luggage and camera gear is packed in the van by 8 a.m. and we are on our way to our first destination, soon to become a real life adventure. We are on a photography tour so everyone is talking cameras and pictures. This is the first day, we are getting to know one another, and the level of excitement in the van is high looking forward to the tour.

We are on our way to Arenal, an active volcano in Costa Rica, but there are a few stops along the way. First, we stop in Sarchi, famous for its tropical furniture, where magnificent, brightly decorated ox carts are made in an eighty plus year old water powered factory. From there, we drive to the little mountain town of Zarcero where the focal point is the old wooden church with its much-photographed double row of topiaries leading to its entrance. You can fill your camera’s memory card just at these two places with the colours and patterns in Sarchi and the fantastic shapes of the topiaries in Zarcero.

The roads in Costa Rica are famous, not only for the magnificent land which they traverse but for their condition. Our driver, Luis, knows that we will encounter many potholes so he is cautious and as a result we are passed by most everything on two or four wheels. Many drivers here, from the ubiquitous taxistas to truck drivers, think they are Formula One drivers. Indeed, reportedly there is a bus driver whose passengers frequently find religion on his overland route.

After Sarchi and Zarcero we stop for lunch in La Fortuna and are now just a few miles from the lodge in Arenal. Upon leaving the main highway for the lodge we find ourselves traveling in, out, and around potholes. The rainy season ended about the beginning of December so many roads are still in very poor condition. Our road is unique because it was built out of crushed lava.

Rounding a curve we see a clearing beside a tropical river and there is the perfect cone shape of Arenal Volcano! Those who have never seen a volcano are stunned at the sight.

The top of the cone is shrouded with little fluffy white clouds against a blue sky. It is picture perfect and we quickly stop and everyone piles out of the van attaching cameras to tripods, some of us wading into the river to capture an image from a different perspective and others shooting from the riverbanks.

Arenal is highly monitored and quite predictable so even being this close the volcano holds little risk of a sudden, catastrophic eruption, though small eruptions are very common. The base of the volcano is 1 km from the lodge and the cone is 2 km away, which gives the guests at this lodge many opportunities to experience the volcanic activity.

Getting settled in while we are unpacking mighty Arenal speaks! It roars as smoke and gas billow hundreds of feet into the sky and we hear the rocks tumbling down the slopes. The Mantled Howler monkeys are extremely vocal following the eruption, however, we do not know if this is in protest of the roar or if they are just responding to its call.

We all sit in the lodge dining room enjoying our dinner as the volcano erupts again. I had told everyone that there are photo opportunities in Costa Rica but no one imagined anything like this could happen, certainly not while you are eating dinner. And this was only the first day of the photo tour!

The next two nights are without much sleep since we find comfortable chairs in the common area of the lodge just outside our rooms and we mount our cameras on tripods attaching cable releases. Since I had already been to Arenal many times I had chosen to use an 80-200mm lens set at 80mm and an aperture of f8, the camera shutter set at “B” for time exposure.

With the activity of the small flare-ups at the cone and the lava flowing down the opposite side I think a time exposure of more than twenty minutes will produce an ugly yellow blob of light, so if there had been no eruptions after this length of time I will close the shutter and start another exposure. Using a cable release makes these exposures very easy and Arenal puts on quite a display while we are there.

Arenal is the first adventure in Costa Rica for my photo group. With another eight days of photography everybody is looking forward to the next destination that is going to be just as exciting.

Canadian Frank Scott lives in sunny Costa Rica where he is a professional Costa Rica Photographer offering unique photography tours. Some of his work can be seen in Costa Rica Vacations, a very popular travel guide to this unique country.