days 13, 14, and 15: la fortuna & arenal

SATURDAY
headed out a little after 8 on our 3 hour journey to la fortuna. drove 25 miles to lake arenal, which took an hour and a half because the roads here are horrible. then we took a boat across for 45 minute which was pretty cool, had a great view of the volcano. after that we had a 15 minute taxi ride to our hotel which consisted of only 4 rooms. the 4 of us occupied half of the hotel ha. got situated and walked around the town for a while before our hike. at 3 we were picked up by our guide to tour the volcano. i forget his name but he has lived in the town all his life and knew a lot of people who were killed when arenal erupted in 1968. he took us on a two hour hike up to the viewing location while he told us stories and the history of the town and whatnot. it rained for part of the hike which we thought was a good sign because the day had been pretty cloudy and we were hoping it would clear up the sky so we could see the laval flowing. unfortunately it didn't and when we got to the lookout station it was still too cloudy to see much, but we could hear the lava flowing. after the hike we headed to the baldi hot springs which was a series 12 hot tubs ranging from 95 degrees to 152 degrees. this was probably the best part of the weekend because we could just relax for 2 hours. since it was a huge tourist spot they were able to charge ridiculous prices for food and drinks but i guess that's to be expected. my friend mike bet that i couldn't stand under a 130 degree waterfall for 20 seconds so of course i did but it really wasn't that bad. two of the guys i was with tried to get in the hottest pool but i wasn't about to test that out. after the hot springs we hung out with some local teenagers and they let us borrow their bikes for a while.


SUNDAY
woke up around 7:45 for our white water rafting tour and headed to rio toro. we had scheduled a 2.5 hour trip down class 4 rapids and it was an awesome time. our raft was just 3 guys and our guide. down one of the trickier rapids i flew out of the raft but somehow my left foot managed to remain stuck in the trap that's suppose to keep you from moving around in the boat. so there i was, halfway out of the raft with my leg trapped and twisted in all sorts of weird positions. i thought i was going to drown (not really) but i ended up getting free and jumping on another raft. it actually ended up being pretty painful and my knee is swollen but i should be able to walk it off in a few days. on the way back to our hotel we stopped for lunch and got to meet the other groups who rafted that day. we met people from canada, norway, and australia who were on a 35 day trip throughout central america with a company called gap tours. they were really cool until mike made fun of canadian pop music while avril lavigne was on the radio. after lunch we layed around the hotel, watched the world cup, and read because it was raining pretty hard outside.

SUNDAY NIGHT
ran back into the gang we met rafting at a pub down the street from our hotel. we put aside our differences in music and talked for a while when we decided it would be a good idea to introduce them to the great american sport of flip cup. they were loving it and we ended up taking over the place and drawing a rather large crowd. it ended in dramatic fashion when we stole the victory in the fifth round, 3-2 winning the best of 5 series. throughout the night we met a ton of random people from all over the world. that is one of the main things i've enjoyed about my time here, getting to know people from all different walks of life. to end the festivities, our canadian friend andre decided to cover our tab and paid over $65 (which is really expensive in costa rica). incredible weekend, just hope i'm not too behind in my classes.