In a prior post, SMS73 indicated that lava could be seen from the west/south-west side of the volcano late in March 07. We are leaving in a week and are SO excited. We are staying on the north side of the volcano - has anyone returned recently and observed the lava from the north??? Crossing my fingers....

Thanks!

The site arenal.net shows relatively current lava flows. It also maps most of the hotels so you can see if you will be have a lava view from your hotel. We were in Arenal at the end of march staying at Arenal Springs which is supposed to have a good lava view. Unfortunately, during our 2-night stay, the volcano remained clouded over at night. We did get to see the peak of the volcano in the late afternoon one day while we were at Baldi springs. Even though I put in a 'lava call' (hotel wakes you up to watch lava if an eruption occurs at night and it is visible) I got up several times during the night in the hopes of seeing something. Just be prepared that eruptions do not necessarily occur every day nor is the peak always visible.

Thanks for the info. I've been using arenal.net for my CR planning - it has great information. Unfortunately, the map appears to not have been updated with the recent change in volcano activity. I just heard from a traveler on another discussion board that the lava has switched directions. Trying to determine whether others have experienced the same observation. Anyone else have information on the flow within the last week?

As I said in my previous posting, we left Arenal on Thursday, March 29, and the volcano was erupting toward the southwest. It's true that the summit is often covered with clouds. When it was clear, you couldn't tell from the northeast that Arenal was erupting at all. During the day, from Lost Iguana to the west, the only thing you could see were what looked like clouds or smoke rising from the southern slope. Only at night was the running red visible from there. But from the southwest, the eruption was visible day and night. While you're there, the eruption may not be visible due to clouds, and its direction may change again. Two of the three days we were there, clouds rolled in around 4:30 and didn't lift until after midnight.

We were in Arenal March 10 - 13, 2007. Unfortunately this time it rained all day, every day but one night when we were having dinner at El Novillo - we could see the lava and it was beautiful!