This is another long one people, and for that I apologize. But I figure, if you're interested you'll keep reading, if you're not, you can stop. It's that easy :)
Sarah and I took off for Arenal at about 5:00 in the morning a few Fridays ago. We arrived at the bus station on time despite being driven by our taxi driver around San Jose in circles trying to find the correct one. The bus ride took almost 4 hours (it may be a small country, but it takes a long time to get anywhere!). When we got there, we grabbed a map and set out to hunt down our hostel. After many times up and down the road we thought it was on, we finally asked someone where it was. (Costa Rica does not have addresses...finding places and trying to tell a taxi where to go can sometimes become an interesting ordeal). The woman at a run down looking place told us that her hostel was, in fact, the place we were looking for even though it had an entirely different name and looked nothing like the pictures from online. It was weird, and after she showed us to a room (which was dark, hot, and dirty), we decided to go on a search for a different place to stay.
Long story short, we ended up finding a great hostel for the day/night with a guy named Carlos at the front desk that set us up with a fantastic package deal that included lunch, entrance to the Baldi hot springs resort, a tour/hike of the volcano and surrounding areas, and dinner for $50! The hot springs were pretty, but had been turned into a resort with swim up bars, a hotel, and a restaurant. When I think of natural hot springs, I think of family trips when I was little pulling off on the side of the road in the mountains and jumping in the pools surrounded by wildlife and nature. I am not saying one is better than the other, just that is was very different from what I expected when I heard "natural hot springs". There were cocktails available at these ones however, which is always a plus! We started our day at Baldi and had a three course lunch that included a smoothy. The smoothies here are amazing, with all the different types of fresh fruit you could ask for.
This plant is everywhere here! Love this color.
Refrescos con leche...que rico!
One of the springs at Baldi--the hottest one was 152 degrees F. We just put our toes in that one!
After wandering the springs for a bit after lunch, we met up with our group for our hike and tour. Arenal is one of the top 10 most active volcanoes in the world, but unfortunately, we didn't see any eruptions. Apparently only the week before, it had been erupting every 25 minutes or so. Our hike was amazing, and our guide was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna in the area. Many of the plants in the area are known to have various medicinal uses, although I can't for the life of me think of a specific example right now. We saw some howler monkeys jumping around in the trees on our way up the volcano. Man the noise they make is eerie. You should you tube it if you have never heard it. Imagine waking up to dozens of them doing that at the same time at 5:30 in the morning-yikes!
Brief history lesson: Arenal erupted unexpectedly in 1968 when it was though to be extinct. It hadn't erupted in more than 400 years. The "small" boulders that landed were the size of my living room at home. A lot of our hike was on the hardened lava and through the giant boulders from that eruption that killed 87 people and buried 3 villages. Check out this website if you want to know more about Arenal and see past and current pictures of eruptions: http://www.arenal.net/arenal-volcano-1968-eruption.htm
Arenal volcano
Pretty
Goin' up! It was quite the workout
At the top!
It started raining...big shocker.
After our hike, we headed back to Baldi to enjoy soaking in the hot springs. We met some other fun travelers at one of the swim up bars and had a few Mai Tai's :)
Sarah and I relaxing at the bar
We were picked up at our hostel at 7:00 the next morning, taking a minibus ride through the forest to Lake Arenal. There, we jumped in a little dingy of a boat ("quit playing with your dingy!") and took a 10 minute ride across the beautiful lake to where our guide was waiting with our horses and his adorable little dog named Muneca, which means "doll" in Spanish. My horses name was Cacique, a type of rum made here in Costa Rica, and Sarah's was Rocky Balboa. We saddled up and set off on a 3 hour trip along the lake and into the mountains to meet the taxi that would bring us to Monteverde, where we were meeting up with Kelly, Meghan, and Brianna.
The scenery of the ride was breathtaking. It was just Sarah, me, our guide, and Muneca, so we were able to do a lot of trotting and running with our horses, splashing through crystal clear streams and rivers and meandering through the mountains and valleys. A rather large snake greeted us on the trail, which gave me a bit of a start, but according to our guide, it was a good snake because it wasn't dangerous to us, but it eats the poisonous snakes that are dangerous. Regardless, he was big, and scary, and certainly wasn't afraid of the horses. I'm just glad I was 5 feet of the ground when we encountered him! Anyways, I was in heaven for 3 hours, and could have ridden horses all day, but it came to an end and we jumped in a taxi that took us on windy, uphill, bumpy roads the rest of the way to Monteverde.
Me and Cacique...lookin' good in the helmet, I know!
Lake Arenal and the volcano in the background
The "good guy" snake
Monteverde is know for the "Cloud Forest" because it is elevated so high into the mountains. It was the first time since I have been here that I had to layer up to stay warm! We met up the other girls at our hostel, and went to have dinner. Afterwards, we went to the store, picked up a couple of bottles of wine, chocolate, and a few candles, and the five of us had a romantic little night chatting away by candle light at the hostel :)
The following morning, Brianna, Sarah, and I decided to brave the weather (it rarely stops raining in Monteverde) and go zip lining. We were so glad that we did, because it was absolutely amazing. There were 11 lines and one Tarzan swing. Although I have been sky diving a few times, I was super nervous! These platforms were hundreds of feet in the air, and we are swinging through the trees from one to the other! It was incredibly exhilarating and we had a blast. I was the first in the group to go on the Tarzan swing, which Sarah got a video of as they were getting me ready to go. Although I was freaking out, I didn't cry, which is generally my response when I am scared of something! The guides had been messing with us all morning, and they told me to go at the count of three....they pushed me off the platform at one. I screamed a little bit.
The last zip line was the fastest, highest, and longest, and we had the opportunity to do it in "superman". There is a picture below, but it is hard to see clearly. Pretty much instead of sitting in the harness, they switched it so you were hooked up by your back and your legs. I couldn't see far because of the clouds and rain, but was able to see the ground hundreds of feet down below and a bit of the valley I was going over. Words can't even describe how beautiful and tranquil that last zip line was.
Estamos listas!
Covered in mud from the lines
Superman line
Brianna, Sarah, and me with our guides...man did they enjoy messing with us. They were constantly jumping out from behind trees and pushing us off platforms. We all know how easily I am startled!
We made is safely back to the hostel, cold, wet, and filthy :)
Meghan, Brianna, Kelly, and I decided to go on one more adventure after zip lining on Sunday before we had to catch the bus home. We went to the butterfly garden and had an awesome tour. Like I wasn't in heaven surrounded by mariposas! There was also a lot to be learned about the native insects and bugs here in Costa Rica. They are some wicked looking creatures! Check out the Hercules beetle below. He can carry up to 850 times his own weight! There were beetles of all sorts, one of which the guide dared us to eat....so I did. It was called an asthma beetle, but it was just a little guy! He tasted like pepper and I got a free postcard out of the deal. You can buy these asthma beetles at the market. You put one in a glass of milk the first day, two on the second, three on the third, and so on for 70 days. Yes, the last day you have 70 live, little black beetles floating around in your drink, but apparently your asthma will be cured. There were three different butterfly rooms, each with butterflies from various elevations throughout Costa Rica. They were flying all over! Some of their flight patterns were a little erratic because they had been drinking fermented fruit all day, gettin' drunk :)
Hercules beetle...he was the size of my hand
Pre beetle eating...doesn´t look too bad, right?
Post beetle eating...
Me and Maria the Praying Mantis--she's hard to see, but
she's on my pointer finger, halfway down
The bottom of the wings of an Owl butterfly...they flash them like this to scare away predators
Another way the Owl can put it's wings to try to scare away predators--a snake head.
A bird isn´t going to try to eat a snake!
My favorite Costa Rica mariposa!!
(Yes, I am aware that I have put up pictures of this guy before)
The weekend was wonderful, exciting, and brief. We get to travel all over, but it's hard because we can only stay in the places for a few days at a time...we have to get back to Tres Rios to teach! Needless to say, there are a lot of activities, drinks, (and beach time depending on where we are) to get in in a short amount of time on these trips!
Take care everyone! Miss you all....I will be home in 4 weeks!
