Arenal Volcano
— a near-perfect cone, sleeping now.
Not only on a wall.
“The near-perfect cone above La Fortuna, in the north-central highlands of Costa Rica. Arenal woke in July 1968 with a violent flank eruption and stayed restless for forty-two years; since 2010 it has been quiet, the steam plume gone, the rainforest closing back in. The crater still steams faintly on cool mornings.
Arenal Volcano, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Arenal rises to 1,670 metres above the Alajuela Province lowlands of north-central Costa Rica, roughly 90 kilometres northwest of San José. The stratovolcano stood quiet for some four centuries until 29 July 1968, when a major flank eruption killed 87 people in the village of Tabacón and opened a sustained eruptive cycle. That cycle ended in 2010, and Arenal entered a resting phase that continues today. The peak is protected within Arenal Volcano National Park, established in 1991, and looks west across the artificial reservoir of Lake Arenal toward the Tilarán range.
The mountain sits in the country's wet northern slope, where Caribbean trade winds meet the cordillera and drop rain. Annual precipitation around Arenal averages between 3,500 and 5,000 millimetres, and the cloud deck routinely caps the cone by mid-morning. The hot springs at Tabacón and along the Río Arenal, fed by groundwater warmed at depth by the still-cooling magma chamber, emerge between 35°C and 40°C and run through the year. The forest at the base is true premontane rainforest, loud with cicadas and howler monkeys, particularly toward dusk.
The trailhead at Arenal Volcano National Park sits about fifteen minutes by road from La Fortuna, which functions as the basecamp town for the region. The park's main loop, the Las Coladas trail across the 1992 lava flow, is roughly three kilometres and is open from 8:00 to 16:00 daily for a modest international entry fee. Climbing the upper cone is prohibited; the closest visitors come is the western flank of the 1968 crater field. Hot springs and hanging bridges fill out most itineraries from town.