Whew! We've been busy!

Hello everyone!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post -- we've been busy! It feels like we've been here for a week already. I have some sad news to report... I forgot the USB cord for my camera at home, so I'm not able to post photos. I'll try to figure something out when we begin taking classes at the Spanish school tomorrow. I have some awesome pictures and really want to you!

We arrived more or less on time on Friday and took a four hour bus ride to our hotel near the Monteverde Nature Reserve. That was honestly the scariest bus ride of my life. We went up, down, and around a bunch of mountains. For about half the trip, we were on a road that was cut into the side of the mountains. It was just barely large enough for two vehicles to pass one another. On one side was a wall of rock and on the other side was a huge drop down the mountain. No guardrails.

The first night we went on a walking tour to see the nocturnal animals. I saw several birds (mostly endangered or rare ones that, of course, I can't remember the names of), a sloth and its baby, a tarantula, and a few other animals and insects.

On Saturday morning just before breakfast, we enjoyed the company of about eight monkeys. Apparently they stop by the hotel every morning for some bananas! They were charming for a while, but then they got tired of our camera flashes and weren't quite so friendly anymore. One was carrying a baby on its back.

Yesterday, after another long drive through the mountains, we ended up near Volcano Arenal. We took a boat across a huge lake and would have had a great view of Arenal, but it was covered in clouds. The same is true today, so I won't have the pleasure of seeing its peak (and potentially watching it erupt). Boo. Then we visited some natural hot springs. Dave- imagine the Guatemala hot springs combined together with an amusement park -- that's what it was like. They had water slides! I went down both and did not like them. The "slow" slide went so fast I could hardly breathe. Afterward, we relaxed in some of the pools. At several points it starting raining really hard, which was an interesting sensation. Part of my body was hot from the springs and part was cold from the rain. It was refreshing.

This morning we hiked to a large waterfall and swam in the pools around it. That water was COLD! It was gorgeous, though, and worth the 300+ stairs that it took to get down to it. Now we're getting ready to head to Nicoya and meet our host families. It will be nice to actually get to unpack a little since we'll be staying for a week (except for one overnight in Nosarita).

Sorry I don't have time to write more or show you photos! I'm having lots of fun!