Part 2 of my Costa Rican adventure was a stay at the town of La Fortuna, near Arenal Volcano National Park. Arenal Volcano is a perfectly shaped cinder cone, but you have to be lucky to see it. Of the 4 days we spent staying right by the volcano, there was one day when the clouds disappeared for about 20 minutes and saw the whole volcano. This is a quick sketch at the end of a hike up a lava flow. Volcano Arenal is currently considered to be ‘resting’ between active phases. But in a land as young as Costa Rica, you never know when a volcano will get active again.
Everywhere in Costa Rica, the rain played a big part in my sketches. Mostly it poured so much, I just couldn’t sketch. And even when I thought I could sneak in a quick little sketch, all it took was a quick cloudburst and a thundershower -seemingly out of nowhere- to shape my sketches in ways I didn’t imagine.
Here are a few rain-shaped pieces.
A barnyard where we milked the cows one morning.
My rain-splattered capture of a fruit stand:
And best of all, my pretty ridiculous attempt at trying to sketch a waterfall, while standing under it, in the pouring rain. Yes, that’s me on the left. The image in the center is as far as I ever got with my sketch. The one on the right? That’s what remains of it in my sketchbook now.
I sketched these two guys at a coffee plantation. They were playing checkers using colored bottle caps.
And this is my favorite fruit from Costa Rica: The mamón chino. A threatening looking red, spiny fruit that is Asian in origin.
More sketches from Arenal on my blog here. And part 3, in the Cloud Forests of Monteverde, coming soon.