Arenal and Monteverde

WOWWW.... Seriously one of the coolest weekends of my life!... Ok so I guess I will start on Friday. We left San Jose for the town of Fortuna where the Arenal Volcano and many other landmarks are located. When we got to the hotel, which was more like a motel, we all changed into our bathing suits and headed off to the Hot Springs at teh base of the volcano. This place had 12 different temperature hot springs, but the first thing we saw was the slide. We all ran up the stairs and expected the normal medium paced slide that you go down once and get bored with. But we were totally wrong. This slid was the fastest, most dangerous water slide I have ever been on, and we all decieded it probably wouldn't have even been allowed in the U.S. It only has two turns but you whip down the second one so fast that you almost reach the edge of the slide and you definitely feel like you are going to go flying right off the side. Then after this second turn you rocket down to the bottom and your whole body slides on top of the water at the end because you are going so fast. it was so fun to watch people come down the slide because their bodies would fly in every direction haha. I got airborn coming around the second turn and flew for a few feet above the water at the end, and it was amazing! Pretty much everyone had brusies after their first time down but we all loved it and proceeded to g down at least 5 more times! So after we got done with that, a few of us decided to try the hottest spring that they had at this place. When we first stuck our feet in we all thought we would never be able to get in. It took us all a while and a bunch of the guys got all the way in after a few minutes, and I followed behind, inching my way lower and lower into this burning water. Eventually I got all the way in, and Paul and I were the first out of the whole group to dunk our heads under! We are the only ones with pictures to prove it too haha. We had no idea how hot it really was, so when we checked we were all pumped to see that it was 152 degrees!!! By the end of the night we all got in, which completely trumps last years group, in which only one girl was able to get in this hot spring. We were all so excited and we spent the rest of the night drinking at the bars in the hot springs, despite how rediculously expensive the drinks were... $6 bucks for a beer!

The next day we went horseback riding from the stables to the waterfall at Arenal. I had never ridden a horse before so I was pretty nervous and didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be so much fun. We rode for about half an hour through fields and creeks, all with stunning views of the volcano and the surrounding mountains. Plus, we got to actually gallop and go fast on the horses which was hilarious and so much fun. The guides didn't have any restrictions for us so we could go as fast or slow as we wanted, depending on what the horse was willing to do. Apparently I had the mean horse because it actually attempted to bite Heidi, Heidi's horse, and Nolan! And I of course had no idea how to control this huge animal so it was quite an adventure for me. Horseback riding was definitely a new experience that I really loved. We rode the horses all the way to the waterfall where we had to go down what seemed like 500 steps that were actually just rocks. It was scary going down because if you made one wrong step you could have easily rolled down the cliff that was 2 feet to the left of the steps. Eventually we made it down and the views of the waterfall were stunning. We all swam in the crystal clear waters, which were decently cold especially compared to the hot springs the night before, and climbed along the rocks behind the waterfall. I have never seen anything so gorgeous and we all had a blast. After returning to the hotel to change, we headed off to the lava fields on the other side of the volcano. To get there we had to walk through a forest that had paths that were carved in it by eruptions from the volcano many years ago. We could even hear the popping of the volcano, which sounded exactly like popcorn. Once we got to the lava field we had to climb rocks and we were able to see stunning views of the lake from the tops of some of the large black rocks. It was unlike anywhere I had ever been before and it was cool to be somewhere that hot lava had run through only 30 years ago. We went back to the hotel right after and came back to a power outage in the town! Luckily we all had flashlights and we drank and played cards by flashlight and candlelight. AND, we got to see the volcano spitting up orange lava! It was so cool and apparently it is rarely visible because of the clouds that normally engulf the top of the volcano.

The next morning we took what is called the "jeep boat jeep" route from the town of La Fortuna to Monteverde way up in the mountains of Costa Rica. However, it was more like van boat van, as jeeps would have been way too expensive. We took a very slow boat across the lake and got to take in the scenery (unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures). We then took old vans on the worst, oldest roads I have ever seen for about two hours! We travelled up the mountains and I could have sworn the vans weren't going to make it up some of the steep slopes. We were driving on rock roads with millions of potholes but it was fun because the drivers were crazy... they would whip around turns and our wheels would skid and everything. I felt like I was in a car chase through the mountains. The veiws from up top were again gorgeous, and we could see the volcano, the lake, small farms in the valleys, and everything you could possibly imagine seeing from the top of these mountains. Eventually we got the our hotel in Monteverde, which was set up more like a summer camp with bunk beds and everything. The Monteverde Reserve is in a cloud forest high up in the mountains where there is 100% humidity. It rained the whole time we were there and absolutely noghting dried, not even my hands in the bathroom under the hand dryer. We ate lunch and got ready to go ziplining through the rainforest!! AHHH! this was honestly one of the most exciting and thrilling things I have ever done, even in the pouring rain. The guides strapped us in, gave us a few instructions, and we were off. They clipped us in at the first station and we slid down to the next. There were a total of 13 ziplines, the next longer than the other. At the end of one of the middle ziplines, I did a free fall from about three stories up!! They attached me to a rope and I screamed on the way down, and they stop you by tightening the rope. It was the first free fall I've ever experienced and it made me so excited to go bungee jumping! Right after the free fall was the TARZAN SWING! We had to climb about 50 stairs to the top of this metal structure wher the guides strapped us to a rope that was attached to a huge tree limb above the canopy. As soon as they opened the gate they literally pushed you off and you fell for a story or two and then swung just like Tarzan low to the ground and then up above the canopy. It was amazing!! We still had a few more ziplines to go and the last two were definitely the best. They were both 2400 meters long and flew above the canopy. Th clouds were so low that you felt like you were sliding into an abyss, as you could see only whiteness in front of you and the green of trees below you. Ziplining through the rainforest is something that I will never forget, and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Later that night we had a night tour of the cloud forest in the pouring rain. This was very exciting, and we saw a number of different kinds of bugs, trees, and insects. We saw bats, one which almost hit Steve in the face, and a tarantula!! This thing was huge and had orange stripes, and I have never seen a scarier spider. We had to turn our flashlights off at one point and we discovered exaclty what pitch black really is.. I could not see and inch in front of my eyes. That night we played Mafia in the hotel haha, and we discovered so many different kinds of bugs in our bathroom, enough to make me not even shower that night. The next morning we did a morning walk through the rainforest where we saw plenty of birds and another gorgeous waterfall. Many of the groups saw the famous quetzal, a green and blue bird native to Costa Rica, which thousands of people come searching to see every year. It rained again all day and we were all pretty eager to get out of there. The drive back was long in our huge tour bus and I took a bunch of pictures. That was the end of our amazing weekend, and despite the rain, we all had a blast!