Costa Rica Day 3 & 4

The waterfall was really huge! The water was so powerful and loud - Tristan was checking out the temp. of the water.
Arenal Waterfall - we were already soaked by the rain by the time we got to the falls. It rained the whole time walking there, while there, and all the way back.

A very funny duck that we saw and liked :)


Day 3 started with a nice stroll through a really great park in San Jose. We then headed to the bus station about an hour before the bus was going to leave. We had a near panick attack when we had to get in the end of a very very long line to buy tickets. We were still far from the window 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave when a bus driver came up to us and asked us if we were going to Fortuna. We said yes and followed him to the bus where he took our money ($3.00) each and we settled into our 5 hour ride. The ride was beautiful - up and down mountains and around lots and lots of curves. The mountainsides were covered in different crops and greenery - everything is green (because it's raining all the time!). We got into La Fortuna which is at the base of Arenal. It was raining really steadily and we went in search of our hotel. We found some good food and info about what to do the next day.

Day 4 we slept in a bit and then headed, through the rain to the waterfall that was about 6km one way. The waterfall is beautiful! The water falls about 70 meters and there was a ton of water! We hiked to the bottom - a 600 meter decent to the bottom. By this time were were completely soaked through our jackets and were slipping on the rocks - but it was worth it and we had a good time. The walk home was just as long and just as wet - and Tristan told me he'd be out of words if I continued making him talk that much :). We cooked some hot food, found dry clothes and then went on a tour bus to the bottom of the volcano in hopes of seeing some lava.... and we did!!!! Unfortunately there were clouds covering the top part of the mountain so we couldn't see the explosions, but we were able to see the bright red lava bounce down the sides of the mountain. It was pretty amazing and we were disappointed we were with a group because we really wanted to stay longer. But at least we got to see it - they told us afterwards that only about 15% of tourists actually see lava because it's usually too cloudy. We're going to try tomorrow night too :).
Tomorrow we're going to get up early and take the bus into the Arenal National Park and do some hiking. Should be a fun Christmas Eve.

I was going to post pictures but the computer isn't letting me so you'll have to check back on the old posts later for pictures. Ok gotta run - there's a fireworks show outside that I"m missing.