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Published: February 25th 2008
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Shannon, Anthony and Sindy
My host sister, flat mate and Sindys nephew Buenas tardes amigos!
OK, so I am back from an amazing weekend in La Fortuna. La Fortuna is about 5 hours away from San Jose, well 5 hours on a bus that stops at every stop to load in people until its full! And I mean full! Some of those poor people stood next to the driver for like 3 hours or something! Honestly! And there is my *Germanness* coming out again, thinking, what about the insurance? what would actually happen if we had an accident? Anyway! Had an early start again. leaving the house at 5am to get to the bus stop and a seat obviously. Luckily I was able to fall asleep right away, although its not surprising as I had just 3 hours sleep that night, about 5 the night before and 4.5 the night before that.. Socialising is all going well as you can tell! So we got to La Fortuna after a long bus drive and just one break so first thing was to find the hostel and the toilet for 9 of us... The hostel was quite nice, again simple but we had our own kitchen and bathroom. Next step was to get the
whole group to agree on an activity, difficult task... But luckily all of us wanted to go up to Volcano Arenal. The Volcano is still active, which is great for all the millions of tourist, like us, to see some lava at night. But because its so unpredictable 2 people died in 2000 trying to get close to measure activities and being hit by rocks. Apparently the lava is still moving by 3 to 12 metres a day!! So anyway after negotiating for about an hour with our tour guide, we *hiked* (it was more walking with some obsticles..) up to the Volcano still in the daylight passing a nice and quiet rain forest. It took us an hour to walk up to the highest point people are allowed now after the incident in 2000 and then, without any explanation we just had to wait. Then it started to rain and we were NOT prepared... It was quite a warm rain, but the wind was cold and we were there for about 2 hours... Anyway. Saw some lava when it got dark, but it was not amazing. No pictures either, sorry! Had to walk back in the dark, down some
really nasty rocky paths, couldnt see anything, well, we all had torches, but still. We got to see some fireflies though and being paranoid, even grass in pants made people jump, run and take their clothes off... It was NOT me!!! Although we did go and take a plunge in a naturally hot river to warm up again. That was sooooo nice and definitely one of my highlights so far!!! It was like a jacuzzi but better! Something like 40 degrees. Nice!!!!
For dinner we had lovely spaghetti and Gin and water... Yeah, bought the wrong bottle and they dont have tonic here anyway... Well, early start again on Sunday as some of us had planned to go horse back riding. So, there we are on our horses trotting along some hills. Mine was called Tequila by the way... The horses didnt really want to canter or gallop but we still had fun and the view was just so beautiful. We rode to the top of some hill, got off the horses. had a stunning view down the rain forest and then actually walked down some rather dangerous steps and a long rather unsafe bridge to get to the most
beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. Even along the way, the trees and plants and flower. I have never seen so many different shades of green and the height of the trees up to the sky, pale blue with some sun lighting the flowers on the earth. Honestly, there is no way I can describe the pure nature that hit me when we walked down to this massice waterfall. After the noise in San Jose with all the cars, busses, people which just left a constant hum in my ears this was so relaxing (and exhausting cause of the steps). Just some birds and the waterfall. Well, I took some pictures, but I dont know if they can actually portray what it was like.. The water from the waterfall was actually quite cold as you can imagine, but it was just so worth it to kind of fall in... The hike, yes this time it was a hike. was just a bit too much. but had to be done. On our way back we actually go to gallop which was nice. I always forget how much I actually like horse back riding until I go again on holiday...
Anyway, not
much happened after that... Bus ride back home with some weirdo bus driver that only stopped for 5 minutes to let 20 people go pee.. and then stopped again without saying anything for one lady to get a coffee.. WTF?? Well, got home save and sound, forgot all my Spanish as the only thing I had to say in Spanish that weekend was *Alto 'stop and vamos, vamos on the horse.. Well, soon I will be fluent... 😉 Oh and I am being picked on for having a british accent! I dont think I have but, well, US citizens dont have a clue anyway... (No offense, I mean this in the sweetest way possible)
Thats all for now! Forgot the questions, but to sum it up, I am HAVING A FAB TIME!!!!
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