Finally Out of the City!

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It was absolutely refreshing to get out of San Jose. It was just such a run down, culture lacking dangerous city. We woke up in the morning after sleeping with glasses on, flashlights in hand, and bags blocking our doors, basically ready to fight til the death if the need was to arise. We checked out of our hostel and made our way to the bus station, where a fight broke out between two crazy women, luckily it was broken up by bus station police (guys in wifebeaters with batons). We ended up waiting for our bus for quite a while, but we were finally on our way to La Fortuna. The bus ride took about 5 hours, which included a nice little stop thanks to a rock slide. As soon as we got off the bus in La Fortuna, we were bombarded by many tourist seeking, money hungry locals trying to get us to buy things or stay at their hotels. We began to walk towards our hostel, carrying our HUMUNGOUS backpacks and day packs. When we got to our place, we felt like we were back at summer camp. Wooden bunk beds, mossy smell, and a really friendly gringo named Pete. He helped us find way cheaper tours, we're talking $60 cheaper for our horse ride to Monteverde. After we settled in, we went for a walk to grab some food and check out the town. We ended up eating at a pretty decent place where we scarfed down our Casados (poor mans meal of rice, beans, plaintains, salad, and your choice meat) which is basically all I have been eating here because its cheap, filling, vegetarian, and absolutely delicious. After our meal we headed back to Gringo Pete's to be picked up for our Arenal Volcano tour. The tour was absolutely breathtaking. Being in the presence of such a large and active piece of nature makes you feel so insignificant, but in a great way. We got an amazing guide who spoke english very clearly and was just absolutely in love with nature. We walked up the lower part of the volcano and saw some Dormineros, which are plants that shut their leaves if they are touched by anything so they don't get eaten. Many locals make tea out of the leaves of this plant because it puts you to sleep quickly and you sleep really well. Sadly I can't bring any back to the states because it's also a hallucinogen. Darn! Well after we saw those, we hiked up the dry lava flow of 1992, which was pretty difficult because its a ton of loose lava rocks on top of each other. We then took a break and waited for the show. Sadly we only saw minimal lava action, that is, until we left the park. When we were driving away the giant decided to have a final show and there was tons of lava. We couldn't get any footage of it because we were far away, but it was beautiful. Mother nature is just beautiful. This trip is seriously opening my eyes to everything that is around me.

After our wonderful tour, we got dropped off at the Baldi Hot Springs. What a place!! Hot mineral water pouring out of waterfalls into massive pools with a swim-up bar in the middle. It was so relaxing and refreshing. It was fanastic way to end our day.

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