Freefallin´ in Fortuna

Hola de La Fortuna, CR!


Yesterday we went horseback riding on the side of Volcan Arenal and hiked down to a HUGE waterfall. Of course we swam in it! I was nearly right under the fall - at least 300 feet high. Fun stuff.



Later that day, we went to Tilajari w- a group of friends for a hike and guided trip in the rainforest. We saw the famous poison-dart frogs and, from a distance, HOWLER MONKEYS!! :) :) The plants there were as big as trailers!

Today we went to a Spanish church, then this afternoon we found a really cool place the locals go to - a ¨waterhole¨, they called it: a couple of 20-25 feet tall falls and a similarly high jump-off rock, which I did a few times by swinging out on a long swing-rope before letting go to my 25 ft freefall. :) fun + water = happy mike...
More later... Tranquilo in CR.

A bit more of La Fortuna & Monteverde

La Fortuna & Monteverde...

• Painting the church gates in La Fortuna with our new friend Heron. Receiving breakfast and two luinches from sweet church ladies while getting oil paint seemingly everywhere.
  


• The new found diversion, chase the iguana.
  (photo coming soon...)


• Jeep – Boat – Jeep. (Taxi) A.k.a. 1. Meet people for a nice ride. 2. Cross a beautiful lake in a boat. 3. Bump along the uphill roads while choking on clouds of diesel fumes...spend the next day in recovery.
  


• Sea bass in avocado sauce at the beautiful Morphos restaurant in Monteverde.
  


• The canopy tour with Selvatura. (be sure to enjoy your very own tour by watching the clip in a previous blog entry)
  

Snoozin' in San Jose! - Stay #1

Hey everyone, we made it safely to Costa Rica! Becca's dream of getting me here has come true! It's hard to believe we finished teaching Tuesday and jumped on our plane Wednesday. Whew... It was nice to wake up late AND realize I'm in CR! Pura vida, as the ticas say.


Although the flight into San Jose showed us cloudy skies and foggy terrain, it cleared enough for us to see how green the city is, and we saw mountains from the airport. It was nice to see what the city is like from our 30+ minute shuttle to our first stay: http://www.thecostaricavacation.com/ (owners of famous http://www.costaricabackpackers.com/). So far San Jose reminds me of a smaller Houston (lots of crazy traffic, crazier drivers, and not as many street cleaners...). Still, we drove past several cool places we've read about in the "Rough Guide to Costa Rica" - like the Theatre Nacional, where we plan to see an opera or the National Symphony later this month.

We'll probably go to the Centre Square today, where I'm sure Becca will encourage me to attempt conversing w/ the locals. She says my Spanish is really improving (thank you Michel Thomas' Spanish Learning prg). It's fun, actually... I'll log many miles in the tennis shoes I crammed into my hiking backpack today and tomorrow before we travel to La Fortuna and Monteverde, so I'll sign off for now. (Oh, and let's cheer for all luggage getting here with us!)

More fun to come!
Love,

Mike & Becca