Arenal

Something I have gotten used to in Costa Rica is hearing a lot of crazy animal sounds at night. In both of my host homes there have been geckos-- and who knew, but those little things make some crazy noises! I have gotten pretty used to sleeping with geckos screeching at my window, what seems like all of the 900 different species of birds chirping, bugs buzzing everywhere, roosters crowing at all intervals of the early morning beginning around 3am, and plenty of neighborhood dogs barking up a storm. But last night, I had a different encounter, there was a cow at my window! Yes, a real live cow and I have no idea where it come from. We become quite good friends because he mooed at about 15 minute intervals starting at 4am... he was a real chatty guy! I guess you never know what to expect here in Costa Rica, but you can't make this stuff up! After that interesting experience, our group headed off to La Fortuna for the night. I hiked up the mountain with my overnight backpack (and now that I know I somehow made it up in

Wind turbines on the road to Arenal

 10 minutes, it seems just a little bit easier) and hopped into the van for the 4 hour ride back down and out of Monteverde. I am always amazed at how bumpy the dirt roads are and how awesome our bus driver is!
Once we arrived in La Fortuna, we explored around town for a little bit, got lunch, then went on the coolest hike. Our tour guide, Javier explained that the park we were going to had opened a new trail that he hadn't been on and we are always up for an adventure, so we decided to check it out. It was the coolest hike I've ever been on in my life! It was a steep trail, but we had the most amazing view of Arenal and right as we got to the peak of the trail, the clouds cleared up

Arenal peeking out from behind the clouds

and we could see the top of the volcano. It was so awesome! I think volcanoes are pretty much the coolest thing ever, but they are something I never even really think about much in the states. It's so interesting to be able to take how different the terrain of Costa Rica is from North Carolina. I know we don't have anything like Arenal back home! After the hike, we arrived at our hotel for the night. It was raining when we first got here, but it's starting to clear up a bit now so we are going to go check out the pool and hot springs before dinner. You can see Arenal from our room, but it is still blocked by clouds. Hopefully it will be clear in the morning!