After our brief stint and Spanish refresher in San Jose, we headed out to the beautiful town of La Fortuna, right at the base of the mighty Volcan Arenal. Here we made like vikings, plunging from relaxing hot springs into cold water and back again at the beautiful Hotel Kokoro. Shayne got an impromptu Ocarina lesson from a peddler that came through during dinner, and now can be heard far and wide playing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple on the Ocarina.
Today was an epic day! We began the morning with a hike to a pristine 180-ft. waterfall where we went swimming, followed up by a delicious lunch at a cafe on the hillside. We faced any fear of heights we could possibly have head-on by zipping high above the canopy of the forest at a ridiculously high speed. We all agree - there is nothing quite like feeling the breeze on your face as you fly above the trees with a view of a volcano and the largest lake in Costa Rica -it is something we´ll remember for a long time. After our zipline adventure, we headed out to the EcoZoo, where we learned about the snakes, butterflies, and spiders of Costa Rica. We let Spaghetti Snakes crawl up and down our arms (some of us more calmly than others) and watched in horror/excitement/awe as a Golden Orb Weaver Spider (the ones whose webs are used to make Kevlar bulletproof vests) caught and ate a cricket. Finally we headed to the EcoTermales Hot Springs to soak and relax before finally coming back to the hotel to eat Casados (a Costa Rican dish), have our first Group, and hit the hay.
