Costa Rica Adventures!

Yesterday, we hiked through a rainforesty little park place around the Arenal volcano. Apparently it is one of the top 5 most active volcanoes in the world. It was so green, so tropical, and so natural-feeling! No cars, no smog, no noise. Only the sounds of bugs, monkeys, and birds. So amazing. After our hike, we went to a volcano viewing area and waited for it to get dark. Once it was dark enough, we watched streams of lava flow down the side of the volcano. Very cool. After our indescribable little nature excursion, we went to Baldi hot springs.

I know I will get more crap for this, but it was pretty much a hot spring resort. We got to eat at a really good buffet (covered by the $45 we payed for the day's transportation and activities) and then went into the water. There are supposed to be 20-something pools of water with different temperatures. We didn't really feel like relaxing yet so we went straight to the waterslides. Yes, they even had waterslides. The slide we went on like 10 billion times was illegal by U.S. standards but it was SO FUN. The turns were so sharp that when Yoontae went down I could hear him jump from one side of the slide to the other and make loud crashing noises from hitting the sides. There's also a drop at the end that was really steep and I would always exit the slide a different way (one time I came out on my belly, I'm not sure how that even happened). After going down the slide too many times, we just relaxed in various pools of water. The Baldi hot springs are filtered so they don't smell like sulfur or chlorine, and it still feels heavenly. After the hot springs, we went back to our cheap cabina and found a huge dead cockroach that is still there because we are too disgusted to move it. Then we slept.

Today, we woke up at 6:35 AM. This was late, since we had to be at the adventure tour office by 7 AM. Yoontae didn't brush his teeth (I did, though). We made it to the office on time, got in the van, and went into a less populated area closer to the volcano. We got some rock-climbing harnesses and helmets, then followed our 2 guides and a dog named Chinga down a path. Lucky for us, nobody else booked for today so we got our very own private tour. We started following a river and rappelling down walls, hanging off of rope down hundreds of feet, and climbing/swimming down the river. The dog, Chinga, also rapelled down in our guide's bag and swam down the river too. Coolest dog ever.

We ended up at a big, secluded waterfall that we stood under to shower, then climbed back up a small path back to our starting point where we showered, changed to dry clothes, then ate a hot breakfast of beans, rice, and eggs. We went back to the adventure tour office where we got in another van that took us down to the river. Once at the river, they unloaded the raft and we got in along with 4 other people and 1 guide. For the next couple of hours, we steered through the rapids, swam down for a little bit during our break, and had an amazing time. Everything looked like the set of Jurassic Park. We even saw a few sloths and toucans along the way. At the end of our river rapid adventure, we changed and drove to a secluded little building and ate beans, rice, chicken, yuca, and salad. I ate twice as much as Yoontae and about 5 times as much as the white people we sat next to (not even exaggerating).

Our traveling has turned into an awesome adventure vacation. We're really living it up in Costa Rica, and it's so amazing here. The wildlife is beyond beautiful, I've never seen anything like it. I don't see how anyone can come here and not fall in love with nature. The people are really friendly since tourism provides 85% of the population with jobs, and activities are fairly cheap. Food isn't quite at Brazil's level, but it's still pretty bomb. The people are all very laid back and seem content here. Our hiking guide was even telling us, "Costa Ricans know that you only live once, so we are happy people." I think we can learn a lot from this awesome place. Top vacation suggestion as of yet: Costa Rica.