Adventuras de la fin de semana

What a weekend! I now have a collection of admission braceletes on my left wrist from all the places we went. For $200, that was a NICE weekend.

Friday we started off going hiking at a waterfall park. We saw monkeys, birds, snakes, butterflies, and frogs in huge walk-through cages. I even got a picture of a poisonous red tree frog! Then we did a lot of walking down to the waterfalls. Beautiful -- and wet!

From there we went to our hotel: a really nice lodge in the middle of the rainforest. Falling asleep to the sound of frogs was relaxing. Waking up to the sound of howler monkies was exciting.

Saturday had an exercise of a beginning. We went rafting down a river full of rapids! For an hour it was non-stop rapids and we got soaked. Then we all stopped for a snack of fresh pineapple and watermelon. Delicioso! The last hour was more relaxing. Just drifting along the current and admiring God's creation. We saw an otter swimming near the bank and an iguana chillin' in a tree.

After lunch at the hotel, we piled into the bus and went to La Fortuna to our next hotel. Each room was its own little casa! In Fortuna we had a big typical costa rican meal and went to Arenal Volcano, which had just recently erupted on Tuesday. Since it was dark, from the viewpoint we were standing at, we could see the red lava still pouring down the volcano in thin streams! Unfortunately we were too far away to get any good pictures.

After that, we were all supposed to go to a Bar Discoteca, which is like a nice club where you dance swing and salsa. But I didn't go because I and a lot of the other people were tires. So me and a lot of the other girls just hung out in one little casa and talked while having more girly vodka drinks with OJ, diet coke, and fresca. But Kathryn Hanson and I went to bed at 11:45 because we were so exhausted.

Sunday I found myself singing worship songs while walking around my room and packing. I miss going to church. Maybe next week if we're not doing another excursion I can go to church with mi familia tica.

Sunday morning we hiked closer to the volcano, but it wasn't very fun since it was hot and we were all sore from rafting. Hiking was like The Jungle Book combined with Swiss Family Robinson when we were hiking in the trees, through. And I got great pictures of the volcano with red smoke coming out of it after another small eruption!

After a quick lunch in the town, we finally got to relax. We visited the Valdi Hot Springs. They're natural hot springs that have been cleaned up and built around into about 26 spa-like pools. My muscles definitely loosened up in the steamy water.

That concludes my weekend! Now back to studying and hopefully not running out of money.

I won't be able to put pictures up until I get home because I did not bring my camera connector with me. Lo siento!

¨There is no one like our God. Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.¨- Chris Tomlin