El Volcan Arenal --- ARENAL VOLCANO!

Wow! I just finished a canopy tour near the Arenal Volcano in La Fortuna! It was sooooooooo flippin' awesome. It consisted of ELEVEN different zip-lines... going tree to tree. I'll have pictures and videos up soon to give you a taste. It was so exhilarating.

Yesterday we (Angel, Gina & I) hired a taxi to take us from Nicoya to La Fortuna. It cost us quite a bit, but it was completely worth it to get out of Nicoya for the weekend. The 3-hour ride was very interesting... consisting of several dirt/rock roads and one-lane roads weaving in and out of the mountains. It was a scary drive!

When we were about 20 minutes from our hotel our driver suddenly stopped (in the middle of nowhere) and said in Spanish: "long trip, too little pay." Gina and I got scared, wondering if we had enough money to get us to our hotel or how we would proceed in finding an alternative cab or bus in the middle of nowhere if our driver decided to leave us there.

Gina simply got angry. I flipped out. And for some reason Angel was laughing. Little did I know, it was a joke that our director from school had told our taxi driver to play on us. Angel actually knew about it. I was so angry! More so because I was scared and confused and couldn't properly relay my concerns in his language. Anyway, we made it safely to our hotel and our driver apologized for scaring us; he told us he'd be back for us on Sunday afternoon.

--------

There are actually 7 main Volcanoes in Costa Rica. The one we are at (Arenal Volcano) is the most active volcano in Costa Rica (second most active in the world). I'm actually looking at it right now (we have a view from our hotel room). You can see lava and boulders coming off of it when it gets dark. Here's a link to check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arenal_Volcano

Our hotel here is so nice. I had my first hot shower last night in a week. It was glorious. Stupendous even. aghhh. I will never take hot water, air conditioning, or bug-/scorpion-free accommodations for granted again!

--------

I have class Mon-Fri this week, but we're trying to plan some side trips in the afternoons. We're thinking a hike to a nearby mountain one day; another Latin dance class; maybe a cooking class; and another trip to La Playa Samara (beach) to try kayaking or snorkeling. I'll keep you posted.

Oooh, looks like rain again! Blasted wet season in Costa Rica! I'm off to get my paraguas (umbrella). Ciao!