So here's a quick review of the last few weekdays last week. Wednesday: normal day. Went to Mey Bein and had a blast (as usual). Thursday: the four hour class ended up not happening. When Ben and I were walking home from class, we saw Hope, Joey, and Kelsey playing kickball with some little kids, so we joined them. We played kickball, basketball, and drew chalk pictures with these three little boys. They were absolutely adorable. One of them, Andres, had a crush on Kelsey. We taught him how to outline people's bodies and make chalk people, so he made Kelsey. Beside her picture he wrote "Kelsey, la mujer de las sonrisas" (The woman of the smiles). It was so cute! Thursday night after dance class we all went to Castro's, which is a Latin dance club. I mostly danced with people from class, but did dance with one other person. He creeped me out a little bit, though, and I escaped as soon as the set was done. It was a lot of fun, though!
Friday: I went to pick up my parents at the airport. There was a HUGE traffic jam, and I didn't think I would make it in time! I asked the cab driver how long until we got to the airport, and he said an hour and a half! I definitely could not wait that long, because we had to leave from the airport straight to Monteverde and Arenal. I asked the cab driver if there was a faster way, so he swung out into the bus only lane for like 10 minutes! My hearts was pounding because I thought we were going to get in big trouble, but there was no problems and we arrived at the airport in good time : ) I waited outside for about 15 minutes and then my family came!!! It was so great to see them again. I didn't realize how homesick I was until they came. We took a bus ride to our hotel at Arenal, which took 2 hours instead of the usual 3 because our bus driver drove SO fast. Faster than normal Costa Rican bus drivers, which is staying a lot.
The hotel we stayed at was absolutely gorgeous. The nicest hotel of my life. It was a cabin type thing with an outdoor jacuzzi tub, an outdoor shower, a huge bathroom with beautiful granite vanities, an indoor shower with 2 showerheads, nice teak floors, and a deck with a hammock. It was great. We also had a great view of Arenal, which was actually clear enough for us to see on Friday! Friday night we just ate at the hotel restaurant and relaxed. Maggie and I went in the jacuzzi and then tried to watch Eat Pray Love but the DVD kept freezing.
Saturday: We walked around the little town of La Fortuna, which was about a ten minute cab ride from our hotel. We looked in all the little tourist shops and bought some things, but they sell basically the same things in San Jose for MUCH cheaper, so we waited on most of the things my family wanted to buy. We ate in a little restaurant in the town, and I had some delicious spicy "volcano" rice. Then we went back to the hotel and got ready for our tour of Arenal, which left at 2 that afternoon. We drove to Arenal then hiked to this look out point, where we learned a little more about the volcano (it actually has multiple craters, and the biggest eruption actually was from a crater in the side of the volcano instead of the top). Then we started a hike to the edge of the where the lava flowed when Arenal erupted in 68 (the biggest eruption). It was a long hike, but was pretty cool to see. At the top was a great view of Arenal lake, which was actually man-made in like 1975. After the hike we went to Baldi hot springs, which was the same hot springs that I went to the last time I was at Arenal. It was fun, though. I went on all the slides at least one more time with my sister, and went on 2 of them with my mom. She didn't want to go on the one that dropped a few feet, though. Other than that we just relaxed in the warm water for a few hours. We met our guide at the front at around 7:15 to go to dinner with this nice Canadian couple that was with us. When our guide dropped us off, he said he would be back at 8:15 to pick us up. We didn't think it would be a problem considering we pre-ordered all of our food (before the hot springs, so at like 5:15). At 8:05 we received our salads. When our guide came back at 8:15 I told him that we had just received our salads. He was not happy and went to talk to the staff. They seemed more concerned with clearing empty tables than with helping us, and even though the restaurant was full there shouldn't have been a problem considering we told the cook what we wanted 2 hours before. They were also very bad about bringing stuff out together - my dad was finished with his food before anyone else got theirs. Well, we ended up finishing our meal at around 9:15 and then heading back to the hotel. I felt bad for the guides, whose day started at 7 that morning and wouldn't get home until after 10.
Sunday: We got up, got ready, then ate breakfast before we realized we still had around an hour before our ride came, so we sat in the lobby and relaxed (it was a long walk back to our cabin, and it was raining so no one wanted to go back). We were a little worried because we were supposed to be ziplining, but it was pouring outside. But when the bus came we all loaded in and drove up the mountain to the SkyTram. We (Maggie, Mom, and I) got on all of our ziplining gear, which included a nice rain jacket, then we road in the SkyTram, which was a mix between a ferris wheel and a ski lift (it was a ski lift but the sitting area was like a ferris wheel). At the top we waited for a while then got instructions about body position. It was a lot different than the first time I had gone ziplining! These lines were a lot longer, so we had to go really fast to make sure we didn't get stuck. We had to curl our legs up and lean back for ultimate speed. The first line was the highest, and it had an absolutely gorgeous view!! We could see the lake over the trees in the canyon that we were flying across. My mom was a little nervous, and after the first line I asked her how it was. She told me that halfway through she thought, "What the hell am I doing? What did they convince me to do?" It was too late to turn back, and she did great with all the other lines. The last one was really long, and we got going up to 45 mph! Faster than a speeding bullet....
We met my dad down at the bottom (he had gone for a hike instead of ziplining) and loaded back into the van to return to our hotel. We got back around 2 p.m. and had lunch, then spent the afternoon relaxing and playing card games. We went into town for a typical Costa Rican dinner and some ice cream. We also stopped at a shop where a man made bracelets. They were really neat, and he made one specially for me in 20 minutes with the colors I chose. Back at the hotel, I went in the jacuzzi again (with my mom this time) and we all chilled outside on the porch. Then Maggie and I tried to watch The DaVinci Code, but once again the DVD kept freezing so I just turned it off and we went to bed.
Monday: We had a relaxed morning of packing, then were picked up (a little late) to be taken to a little airport by Arenal. My parents had a flight to Quepos and I had one about two hours later to San Jose. The airport was literally an old cow barn and only had three walls. There was no security whatsoever, and we could tell the airport doubled as a nightclub (there were huge speakers, disco balls, and a massive bar). The runway didn't have lights and there was no building to store planes. All these things made us a little nervous. I gave my family hugs and told them not to die before they boarded a 16 passenger plane (or something like that) and took off! I was praying really hard, and they made it as far as I could see. I waited for a few hours then got in my own tiny plane for the 20 minute ride to San Jose. I caught a taxi/van thing back home and did some homework for the rest of the afternoon (fun fun).
I fell asleep at like 8:30 because I had such a hard time sleeping in the hotel. I set my alarm for 9, but didn't wake up until 9:35. I changed and went down to check my messages, because I was supposed to go to a club with my friends (El Observatorio) to watch some salsa dancers. I realized I was late and basically ran to the school, but they had left. I caught my own taxi there, and luckily found them despite the fog of smoke and the crazy lights. We stayed for about an hour watching the crazy good dancers, then walked the 10 blocks or so back to the school, where Kelsey and I shared a taxi back to our houses (so we wouldn't walk alone). Joey walked Bethany home, and Hope lives right next to the school, so we all got home safely : )
Pura Vida!
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