More fun stuff!

The last two days have been really busy!

Monday

Rapelling

This morning, we went rapelling (falling with harness) down some waterfalls with the same tour guide company as the volcano tour. This was a lot of fun. There were a few different waterfalls and we hiked through the rainforest from one to another. At the end, we had some really good homemade food they made for us.


Rope swing

While we were on the ride back from rapelling, we spotted a place where some locals were swinging from a rope into a pool of water at the end of a small waterfall. When we got back, we booked our ride to Monteverde (where I am now) and then walked over to the rope swing. There were some other tourists there (who had a local as a private guide who showed them the spot). It was one of the most fun things that I have every done! Also, it was totally free. You just had to walk over.

Jeep-Taxi-Jeep

Once we got back from the rope swing, we started took the Jeep-Taxi-Jeep thing to Monteverde. It was a van ride and then a boat ride and then another van ride. It was through the same tour company (the roads from La Fortuna to Monteverde were incredibly dicey). We are in Monteverde now and I better go because I'm not suposed to be on the internet very long (to give others a turn).

Note: the connection here is incredibly slow. If you e-mailed me I will get back to you in a day or two. Also, the connection is not good enough to upload a whole photo so I will do that when I next get a chance.

Sunday

Bus

After flying in Satuday, we woke up and took one of the public buses from San José to La Fortuna, where the Arenal Volcano is. It was about a four and half hour ride and we slept a lot of the way (it left at 6:15am). The roads were really sketch and all but a few of us on the bus were locals (no inglés). It was a pretty cool experience.

Volcano Tour

Our bus got in aroundWe bummed around La Fortuna for a little while and then signed up for a volcano tour. We could see the volcano pretty clearly early in the day (before noon) but by the time our tour left, it was raining. We took a walk through the rainforest and then they drove to the side where you can sometimes see lava. We didn't however, since it was too cloudy. No big deal; it was a lot of fun.

Hot springs

One of the cool parts about Arenal being an active volcano is the natural hot springs that it creates. They are pretty much natural hot tubs! Our volcano tour took us to them for a couple of hours and we just hung out there.