Volcano Arenal

Obviously from the title, we went to Volcano Arenal this weekend! And it was AWESOME!! We stayed at the nicest hostel that Costa Rica boasts. It had like a little hammock area, a nice pool, restaurant, and the rooms had A/C! Too bad no one else on this trip appreciated A/C, or that would have been awesome. We went to hot springs heated by the lava of the volcano, called the Baldi Springs. They had a ton of different springs all at different temperatures. The hottest was 109 degrees, and the lowest wasn't really too cold but it was still great.

At Baldi, they had these slides that went into a less hot swimming pool. There were 3 slides: slow, fast, and very fast. Being the little daredevil I am, I immediately jump into the very fast. Oh. My. Gosh. So it seems there's probably no regulations on safety in Costa Rica. It was one of the scariest/coolest moments of my young adult slide history.

After the Baldi, we went on a hike around the volcano in the rain forest. It was legit! I saw spider monkeys! And we swung on a vine in the rain forest, just like George. When the hike was almost over, we reached this awesome view of the volcano where we heard the tragic story of how this part of Costa Rica found out they had a volcano right by them. A whole village died in the volcano's first blast in 1968. It was a pretty intense story.After the hike, they took us to try to view the volcano spew out lava rocks at night, but unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy so we couldn't see. Instead, we skipped rocks and wandered around the area.

They took us back to the Baldi to eat a dinner buffet before going back to the hostel. It was insane crowded. AND every time we tried to sit down they freaked out because we were sitting in the wrong place. Joe Nixon stated, "This is stupid" as he chomps down on some lettuce. We also met another American there, though less pleased to be in good ol' CR. She was a little upset she was having rice and beans again.

Today we drove back with our amazing driver whose name I can't say. But he was the sweetest little man in the world with Jesus pictures all over his van, cool cat.

I just took a 3 hour nap, and ate a soggy Quiznos sandwich. It was marvelous.

Pray for: my teaching this week, patience with BVS, and being intentional with spending time with the Lord.

PS - I've been here for a month today, no kidding.

Pura Vida!