Jeep Boat Jeep!

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As soon as the bank opened Dan walked over and quite easily got his card back, the woman had a stack of cards the ATM had eaten. We were so happy that he got his card back quickly. We however were not able to leave as planned since we had to wait for the bank to open so we had a relaxing day of reading and doing stuff on the internet. We booked the "Jeep Boat Jeep" tour for the following day.



That night we walked around looking for a restaurant and saw one in the upstairs of a building, we walked up and discovered we went up the wrong stairs and were in a hostel . We were about to leave when we spotted Marta & Steve, a couple that we had met in Guatemala and traveled to Honduras with. I was so surprised and excited to see them! We chatted for a bit and then decided Dan & I would go find dinner and come back to hang out after. We had such a lovely night telling stories and catching up. What chance it was to see them. Had the ATM not eaten Dan's card we would not have even been in town that day and had we not walked up the wrong set of stairs we would have never known they were there!



The next morning a passenger van picked us up to take us to our boat, the drive was maybe two or three hours. Beautiful of course, in the mountains with spectacular green fields and plants, healthy livestock and brightly colored birds. This van was the "jeep" portion, ha ha. We then waited at the edge of Lake Arenal for our boat. It was a lovely place as well, really I don't think we saw anything ugly in Costa Rica. The boat ride provided more beautiful views as well. We chatted with a couple people from Australia about getting jobs there after South America. The guy had worked in the mines and told us about his experience which sounded extremely intense. He basically moved heavy bags all day, a few days in, his hands started going numb at night. He did it for 7 months though! Great wages to be had and he put on a lot of muscle. I definitely couldn't hack it!



A passenger van picked us up on the other end of the lake and took us the our hostel in La Fortuna, it was a short drive. One of the reasons we booked jeep boat jeep is that it was much quicker to get to La Fortuna that way. We would have eaten up an entire day if we had went by bus. Our hostel was nice and the workers very friendly. We ate across the street and invited one of the workers to join us. Had a little political talk and discovered that he too was a Ron Paul fan. He was Puerto Rican but lived in New York for a good chunk of his life. It was nice to have a conversation with someone we could relate to.



After lunch we walked around town, went to a park and a church and checked things out. It wasn't a big town but I liked it better than Santa Elena already, not so touristy or expensive.



Next our guide picked us up in a very new nice van, this was part of the package we bought. We were headed to Arenal the volcano. On the way the driver pulled off the road and they hurried us out of the van, there was a sloth in a tree! It was so beautiful and the first one we saw during the day so we had such a good view. It was also a 3 toed sloth aka the smiling sloth which was a different type than we had previously seen. It was so cute and mosssy! I was quite happy to see it and it was such a surprise =) After we got back in the van the driver was telling us that the other couple we were picking up was British so we would be able to speak English with them. Paul & Kirsty were doing this to but had left the day before so we hadn't expected to see them but as it turned out, they were the British couple! Such a nice surprise again!



Our guide was fantastic, he educated us about all kinds of plants and birds as well as the history of the volcano. There was a plant that when you touched it, it closed up, it was really cool! He also told us about a plant that would take away a headache if you put it on your head, very interesting stuff!



Arenal had a massive eruption in 1968 that destroyed the town at the base. The people actually didn't know that it was a volcano and the crazy thing is that a Spaniard had come to visit in the 50s and hiked the mountain; when he got to the top he could see that it was a volcano and he warned the people in the town but they thought he was crazy and ran him out of town. Sadly if they would have listened to them they could have moved and survived. I guess it's easy to see after the fact but it still amazes me that in the 60s they didn't now it was a volcano! That doesn't seem like long enough ago to not know such a thing.



The eruption blasted out massive rocks which are black and spread all over, one of the rocks hit an unknown gas pocket and there is now a huge crater in that place which I stood in. It was amazing to see the rocks that were blasted out. There have been many eruptions since then but none as massive, the last eruption was in 2010. Since the volcano is active we could only hike at the base. Apparently a year or so ago a Canadian woman and her daughter came to visit and illegally hired a guide to take them up the volcano. They were burned fairly badly by gas seeping out. Again it seems crazy, why would you try something so stupid!? I mean you could nearly die or get badly hurt on any number of simple things in Latin America, they are NOT overly cautious. If they are actually telling you something is dangerous it must be quite dangerous!



The views were breathtaking, you could see the lake and fields and mountains and the sun was setting. It was perfect! Our guide also told us that Wil Smith recently filmed a movie at the volcano. I think by now it should be out in a few months. He and his friends got to sit and watch part of the filming. He was quite proud to have been able to see such a thing =)



After the hike we were dropped off at Baldi Hot Springs which is a hotel with I believe 25 hot spring pools. It was amazing! Pools with different temperatures, waterfalls, steam rooms and 3 massive slides. One slide in particular launches you unbelievably fast. Every time someone went down I laughed hysterically, they shot out the bottom on the top of the water, it looked like they were getting a colonic, ha ha! Dan & Paul loved that slide and I loved watching them go down.



There was an amazing buffet included in our package, so much food! There were also bars in some of the pools, you could sit on a stool in the water and have a drink. Dan & I shared one because they were ridiculously expensive. I don't know what the rooms are like but what we saw was really nice. We really did splurge with this package =)

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