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To see lava flowing is an awesome experience!

Mention getting close to volcanoes, and thoughts of you being a prospective Bellevue patient might come to your listener. But this is becoming a familiar experience sought after in Costa Rica. Chief among these experiences is the fireworks of Arenal Volcano.

Since the onset of the decade of the 1990s, Costa Rica has been steadily attracting visitors hoping to get a glimpse of the daily eruptions of Arenal Volcano.

While Arenal hardly disappoints, sit is its nocturnal pyrotechnics that attracts breathtaking oohs and aahs from onlookers. Arenal possesses the classic look of a volcano, if illustrations in books are anything to go by, with its conical shape, with a puff of smoke or fire on top. No one ventures within spewing distance of Arenal but vantage points five miles away offer a good view of the 5,400-foot mountain (that's an estimate these days, not only due to the danger of going near it but also the supposition that the eruptions add height to it).

Costa Rica's volcanoes range from the tranquil to the dramatic

Arenal erupted soon after the Spanish began colonising the country in the early 1500s and remained dormant until 1968 when without warning it spewed violently, killing 78 people in nearby villages. It even formed three new craters. Arenal has had scary eruptions since, one as recent as early last month.

Exclusively exploring volcanoes in Costa Rica can take up an entire vacation. If truth be told, there are some amazing scenes to be experienced. Take for instance Volcan Poas, the closest to Costa Rica's capital of San Jose. At 8,800 feet, Poas is some 1,400 feet higher than the Blue Mountain's highest peak, yet you can drive to the top on some smooth roads with hardly any precipices adjacent to the road.

Poas hasn't erupted in 50 years but fumarolic emissions are continuous. Visitors need not be timorous to go to the volcano's edge. It can be a bright, sunny day but yet the volcano can be shrouded in fog-like clouds. But visitors are encouraged to wait instead of departing and paying the US$6 entrance fee to the protected park another day (it's $2 if you are a Central American or if your Spanish is good enough to convince ticket sellers of such).

The wait can last more than an hour but there's little reason to be overcome by ennui as there are likely to be a cadre of visitors from all over the globe to banter with. Then the fog lifts, albeit teasingly, to reveal only a peak of a teal hue. Cameras start clicking away as no one knows how the fog will behave.

But then it decides to reward patience with one of the most breathtaking volcanic scenes as you look down at a 45 degree angle into the nearly mile-wide crater.

Sulphureous steam emanates from the turquoise-coloured lagoon but with such a quiet disposition that no one stirs until the fog rolls in again as if to say to the onlookers, "that's enough".

Just one hour's drive northwest of San Jose, Poas is probably Costa Rica's most visited volcano (Arenal is seen but not visited). An hour and a half by car east of San Jose is Irazu Volcano, another you can drive to within yards of the craters. On stepping out of your car the scene might look somewhat familiar, if you are into sci-fi movies. Walk on the lunar-like landscape and you might be given to wonder if this is where astronauts and cosmonauts actually land. Then go to the edge of the crater which affords a direct downward look displaying what could be mistaken for a lake of discarded auto anti-freeze.

Irazu is considered to be still active but its stagnant-looking lake of green is far less impressive than the drive to and from the crater. Not a knock on the volcano but a testament to the astounding beauty that affords distant sighting of San Jose and the former capital of Cartago in the Central Valley.

Travellers on the smooth winding road can get up close and personal with farmers and their coffee, potato and vegetable plantations along the roadsides. The soil is very rich here aided by ash spewing from the 11,260-foot summit (the country's highest) in the 1960s.

Irazu had its fair share of rumblings in the early '60s, but the day US President JF Kennedy set foot in the country to promote his regional economic development plan against the backdrop of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, Irazu spat out ash all the way to the capital 45 miles away.

Costa Rica has nine active volcanoes in total but to experience the others requires lots of trekking on foot. Turrialba Volcano, just behind Irazu but an hour's drive from each other's nearest accessible point by road, is for the physically fit. At just over 10,000 feet high, it is the second highest volcano. And it is possible to climb unto the crater's floor especialy if you like flirting with seismic danger. No eruptions here in 130 years might be a comforting thought to the adventurous.

The northwestern most volcano which almost abuts towards the border with Nicaragua is Rincon de la Vieja volcano, which erupted 30 years ago this week. Almost promptly, the government created a national park around the area to protect the region's rich plant and animal life and the many water sources.

(Every volcano is part of a national park in Costa Rica).

Quite a time and energy consuming activity to hike this volcano, which has nine craters prompting most visitors to be satisfied with the moist verdancy that permeates throughout.

Rincon de la Vieja is actually part of the Guanacaste Range System which also includes Orosi Volcano, the first mountain seen on entering Costa Rica from Nicaragua, Tenorio and Miravalles at 6,650 feet is the highest of the range.

Sighting a volcanic mountain in Costa Rica is actually an everyday experience for most Costa Ricans. In fact, Josefinos (residents of the capital) can't avoid the 9,534 feet high Barva Volcano which towers over the city but, thankfully, with nary a menace to society.