Happy Fourth!!

Hi everyone!! So I hope that the holiday over the weekend treated everyone well!! This weekend our group went to La Fortuna for some outdoor adventures. La Fortuna is the home of the active volcano Arenal.

All six of us plus Bob set out at 6:30 am Saturday morning. We took a tour bus to a small town an hour west of San Jose to go rappelling (yup, over the side of a small cliff, down a water fall), and have lunch before we made our way to La Fortuna, another 3 hours west. I was pretty nervous about this activity, but I didn’t want to miss out on the action. Surprising, my first trip down the waterfall was pretty awesome. I felt pretty secure with the two guides at the top of the waterfall, and then another spotter at the bottom. These guys get paid to keep people safe on various adventure activities in Costa Rica, so I was trusting them completely. After the first time down, the adrenaline was pumping so I decided to try it again… the second time was not as smooth as the first… Half way down the waterfall the guide at the bottom stopped my rope from lowering anymore and I was stuck with water rushing over me. Now, I had no idea I would react like this, but I had a panic attack. I know his intention was not to harm me, he was just playing, but this was the most terrifying sensation I’ve ever had. I started hyperventilating and trying to hold back the tears, but I couldn’t. The experience totally threw off my equilibrium, and I felt embarrassed that I had no control over my reactions, and it took a good 10 minutes for me to come out of to be able to breathe normal. SCARY!!! I hope I never have another panic attack like that again.

The rest of the day was kind of off for me, but luckily we didn’t have anymore adrenaline thrilling activities planned. We had a nice lunch, hopped on the bus to La Fortuna, and when we arrived there we made our way over to the hot springs. The hot springs were not exactly what I was imagining, but relaxing nonetheless. I expected something a little but more rustic and authentic to nature, but of course the hot springs have been turned into a tourist attraction and has a resort built around the springs, with various restaurants/outdoor bars attached to multiple, large hot tubs. We were there for a few hours and then headed out for a late dinner and then back to our hotel for the night.

The hotel we stayed at was surprising a lot nicer than what I was expecting. There were three girls to a room, with A/C (a rarity down here), and a down comforter… I was in Heaven!! Our Hotel had an amazing view of the volcano and we were even lucky enough to have a clear night and day so we could actually see it (that doesn’t happen very often either)!! Sunday morning we had a delicious, traditional Costa Rican breakfast, of fruit, eggs, frejoles, arroz, and plantains (black beans, rice, and fried bananas). After breakfast we went kayaking in a nearby lake (it was man made lake, and having the luxury of growing up in N.Michigan it wasn't quite the same, but it worked). Luckily, no traumatic incidences, and after kayaking/swimming we went on a bridge tour of the forest canopy. This was about a 2-hour hike through various levels of the rain forest- we walked across a few suspended bridges over deep trenches, and a few smaller bridges. It was a cool way to walk through the forest. We didn’t see any monkeys or other animal wild life, but I did enjoy the scenery and the exercise. It was defiantly like walking through a scene of Jurassic Park.

From there we hopped back on our tour bus and headed back to San Jose. It was a good weekend for us to all be together and bond with our professor and each other. I think we were all ready to head back though.

This coming weekend I’m happy that we have decided to all spend the weekend in San Jose. It’s a lot to travel EVERY weekend, and San Jose has plenty to explore. This might be the weekend I take a day to sit down town and people watch.

Last night we went back to the bar that Kirby and I ventured to last Monday. They were supposed to have a reggae band, but again no luck with the reggae band. The band this week was pretty good though, 5 of the girls went and we had fun dancing. I think Monday will become our regular night to go out dancing.

This week I’m going to try a pilates class and baile class at the gym. The classes are only 2 dollars each- sooo much cheaper than in the States. The baile class is the same one I did last week and it was a blast! I’ll let you all know how the pilates goes!!

Sorry for such a long post!!! I hope everyone has a good week!! I’m missing you all!!

-A

I'll post more pictures soon... my internet was being sooo slow today!!

Where we stopped to have lunch and rappel.

The Waterfall!!!

My first trip down :)

I was pretty proud of myself...

The larges ox cart in the world- a tourist attraction we stopped

at on our way to La Fortuna.

The sidewalk by the ox cart- I LOVED the colors!

Another attraction on our way to La Fortuna...

A random sculpture garden