Cerro Chato is the long dormant twin of Volcano Arenal, last active three and a half thousand years ago and now heavily wooded with a crater lake.
Started early, and within ten minutes we had seen an anteater shuffle past, a toucan fly by, and an (albeit dead) snake.
Strode past flat pastureland, probably the remains of a caldera lake, and started climbing a steep path well signposted to Cerro Chato. The rain came down as we passed cloud base and we donned our recently acquired rain ponchos.
The track up the mountain became steeper but tree roots bound the weathered ash well and we made good if slow progress to the top.
At the crater's edge we stopped to admire the view, but instead of a lake all we could see was cloud.
We started a very muddy descent into the crater, but once over the lip the track steepened and became the dry bed of a former waterfall. At this point we decided to turn back because the risk to life and limb outweighed the likely benefits of descending further.
We ate our lunch in the rain back at the crater's edge, but the cloud did not lift so we slowly descended the mountain back to a welcome warm shower at the hotel. Altogether we were walking/climbing for about five and a half hours.
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