It’s day 9 of our 15-day adventure to Costa Rica. I must say so far the first part was pretty much the most fun. We started our vacation by realizing the Ronn’s passport was under his DBA name and not this birth name…. I realized that the day before we were leaving and then ALL of us realized that we were leaving on MONDAY morning at 12:40 a.m. NOT Monday! Sounds crazy, well we thought we were leaving on Monday and then realized it was Sunday nite forgetting that the day changes after midnite! Boy what a start. We landed in San Jose (that was an adventure within itself!). At first they were not going to let Ronn in Costa Rica as they said he had no return ticket back. That was not true and thanks the powers that be I had the itinerary to prove he did. So we got passed that. We then too a taxi to the bus stop in downtown San Jose to purchase a bus ticket to Monteverdi (that cost us a whole $5.00 bucks each). The bus did not leave until 2:30 p.m. and it was about 10:00 a.m. so we decided to talk a walk down beautiful San Jose. Well much to my surprise the part that we were walking down was a little shabby and much like being on skid row. But once we found the center of town it was pretty nice. We found a little place to have a bit to eat and a beer. We then ventured back to where our bus was to take off.
At first the thought that we saved so much money taking the local bus up to Monteverde was the bargain of the century… how cheap! But as the bus headed outside of San Jose the roads became more rural and a lot rougher! Along with way the bus driver would stop every now and then a pick up someone that was selling food or drinks then let them off a few stops down. As we got more into the country part of the trip the stops were less and the roads narrower. Then it got dark and pretty intense as the winding road to Monteverde barely enough room for the big bus let alone the cars coming from opposite direction to pass. Well 6 hours later came rolling into town. When the bus stopped and let us off and local was there offering $10.00 a nite hotel stays! We were all tired and at first the idea sounded good but then our heads where placed back on us and we decided to check it out first. It was a Hostel and actually VERY nice! The name of this place is “The Tucan” and for $10.00 each we got a huge room with 4 beds and the restroom right next to it. After putting our stuff in the room we went to eat dinner at a very nice joint called “The Tree House” where the is an actual tree growing out of the place! The food was very nice and inexpensive. Soon we were settled for the nite and happy to lay our heads down on a nice soft bed.
The next morning we took a walk (which is not far as the town is pretty small) and decided to spend one more nite so we can take the canopy walk which was $25.00 each (that included the ride up to the site). I wished we had done the zip line but next time. The canopy walk was very nice and the sites were so amazing. If you do this you will get wet and it will rain so come prepared! 
We soon headed back to our bargain hostel were we met some really fun people. I don’t remember all their names but Ziggy (nice German girl) and Mark E. Russell (nice British chap) I do remember. Ziggy and her girl friend (both in their early 20’s) were finishing up a school project, which they were traveling for 6 months through South America. Mark had just sold his home and decided to see the world with his earnings…. A brave man and I tip my hat off to him. There was a young man from Israel who also was traveling through Costa Rica. We all shared a beer or two and since I had my wonderful laptop I showed the German girls some HEDWIG from you tube… I don’t know if they got it but I tried to explain it to them the best I could.
So day three and we are off to our next venture…. The Arenal Volcano. The guys at the Tucan gave us a package deal for that part of the trip. For $89.00 you got the jeep-boat-jeep deal! Which is a ride to the lake, a boat trip across the lake and then a jeep ride to La Fortuna (the jeep is actually a shuttle van) and to top it off this included the hotel for the nite AND a day at the hot springs and a volcano hike!!!! This took about 3 hours.
When we got to the hotel Cabina Las Palmas, we were amazed that the hotel was actually new had a nice big room with a private bathroom. Our host at the hotel was also our tour guide for the rest of the day. He gave us the option of going at 1:00 p.m. to the hot springs then at 3:00 they would pick us up and take us to the volcano walk and then back to the springs… OR leave at 3:00 to the volcano then to the springs where we would stay for about 4 hours and that included dinner! Well of course we choose the latter. 
We met some really nice couple at the Cabinas Las Palmas, Henning and Marthe, two Bulgarians backpacking it through Costa Rica for the Holiday. We had a most enjoyable time with them as they were on our same tour for this part of our trip. The volcano hike was great. It was very humid and wet but still very nice. We hiked down to a waterfall. Along with way our tour guide explained many things about the nature here and what kinda wild life was in this part of the rain forest. He also showed us craters where the past eruptions had thrown large parts of earth to the ground thus leaving its mark forever in the ground below.
As we finished are hike to the waterfall we stopped at the volcano observatory to rest and kicked back to view the Arenal volcano itself hoping to see some lava flow (as it is still active) but nothing… less the moon rising was beautiful. We then headed to the springs for a long evening of some good food and lots of soaking in hot water!Once inside the springs we found there was all kinds of unusual pools to try and even some pretty crazy sides. I went down the 2nd scariest, it was a long twisted tunnel of pouring water that shoots you out on the other end like a flying rocket! I then thought that since that was not so hard to try the not so hard one (which was just a slide without the enclosure) that was a mistake! I was doing fine until the last drop…. It spit you out into the water but what I was not aware of was the force of the entry into the water, I had my arms spread and because of that it when I hit the water, it felt like my arms were being torn off!!!!!! It still hurts this being the 9th day!
More soon I am tired and ready to hit the hay!
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