Two words to describe the weekend would be entertaining and hectic. From Friday to Sunday I was exploring Costa Rica's natural wonders with my AIFS group. It was a jammed packed weekend full of several different places. In total we went to four different places, the Hot Springs in La Fortuna, La Fortuna waterfall, Arenal Volcano and Monteverde Cloud Forest. We literally didn't stop this weekend--I don't think I had a moment to think during the whole weekend.
On Friday afternoon after Spanish, we started our four hour long bus ride to the town of La Fortuna, which holds Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna waterfall and the Hot Springs. My first huge mistake of the trip was to not prepare myself with motion sickness medicine. The trip was miserable, especially the last two hours which was a trek up the mountain, on a small curvy road. It takes the cake for worst car ride to date in my 19 years of existence.
We got to the hotel around 5pm Friday night, let me say this, in Costa Rica they hold different standards for hotels than in the United States. We looked around the room and found hairs in the bed, a wet shower and no complimentary shampoo or conditioner, among other things. Luckily we were only there for one night and most of the time we spent in the room was spent sleeping.
That night we went to the Hot Springs. I expected to be closer to the volcano in a remote location with little hot-tub sized hot springs. The springs was the complete opposite of my expectations. Instead it was similar to a resort/water park. First it wasn't too close to the volcano because it's still active, the whole area was decorated nicely--I could tell it was geared towards tourists, especially Europeans and Americans. Each "pool" had different water temperatures, some were cool and a few were steaming hot--hotter than a hot tub. They also had a few water slides and multiple swim-up bars. We only spent two hours in the actual springs hanging out before we had to go to dinner. It was fun but not as relaxing as I had hoped. At the very least I was able to meet some other people in the program I hadn't known before.
I had a 6:30am wake up call the next morning to be able to make it to the 7am breakfast at the hotel. The thing about the trip that made it so exhausting was the fact that we were going, going, going all day long and then had to get up really early in the morning--at school I'm definitely not used to getting up at 6:30 for class every day.
We left by bus to La Fortuna waterfall after breakfast. The trek down to the waterfall was a workout and a little nerve wracking, since the steps were rocky and wet. After our hike down to the waterfall, we were greeted by an amazing natural wonder. La Fortuna was one of my favorite sights during the weekend excursion. I opted out of swimming in the water nearby to stay dry, but during that time I managed to get some great pictures of the waterfall.
After the waterfall we grabbed lunch at a nearby restaurant and then were given time to walk around the town before we got back on the bus. At lunch I ordered "una hamburguesa especial," which translates to a special hamburger. Lesson learned from this dining experience: I don't like Costa Rica's attempts at hamburgers...I feel like Costa Rica should leave it to the United States--the experts. Their hamburger patties are small with a huge bun, sweet ketchup, loads of mayo and ham. During the free time after lunch I went shopping at the souvenir shops and bought some motion sickness pills the town's pharmacy. My resident directer said that the trip up the mountain to Monteverde is "hellish," so motion sickness pills were a must. It was basically an extremly bumpy, narrow and curvy dirt road.
We left the town of La Fortuna behind and headed to a lake to take a boat ride across the lake. The lake was gorgeous and was surrounded by so much green. Surrounding the lake were hills of trees, plants and green grass. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of Ireland, I took so many pictures but none of them do it justice. Something so pretty can only be fully understood by a person when they are actually there.
When we arrived at the other side of the lake we took a small conversion van up the mountain. The road was bumpy, but thankgoodness I had my motion sickness pills--it made the ride enjoyable. Riding up the mountain was my other favorite memory of the trip. The view was absolutly georgous, and the people in the van were great. Our driver was playing Juanes (he's a really popular singer in the Spanish world) and would stop so we could take pictures. There was one point when we were even in the clouds. It got really cold and you couldn't see much past a few feet in front of you. What's crazy to think about is that people actually lived in the mountains. I wish I would have been able to talk to them, because I want to know how they get their clothes, how often they leave their home etc. During the ride up I tried to look for stores, but only a few grocery stores is what I found.
When we got to Monteverde a bunch of us went to dinner at a local restaurant and then later went out to a bar recommended to us by a tico. It was a lot of fun going out with everyone. The only song I recognized during the night was a song by Pitbull, other than that it was all techno and salsa music. Regardless it was a good time, living the tico lifestyle, and dancing to their kind of music.
The next morning was also an early one, we had to be at breakfast at 6:30am. After breakfast we drove to the cloud forest to go zip lining. Zip lining was awesome! There were 11 or 12 different lines and a Tarzan swing. The last two lines were by far my favorite because we were above the trees and the view was amazing. On the last line I was pushed around by the wind and I went backwards on the line for over half the line--that was a bit scary.
Overall this weekend was great, even though it was so busy. During the trip I really started to think about how unnecessary a lot of my things are. I was thinking of how it's very practical and easy to live out of a suitcase--even though before coming to Costa Rica I found it impossible. If I limited what I bought to only the necessary, I would be able to take trips to beautiful places, like Costa Rica and learn about other cultures and see wonderful things. In the end those things will give me memories, not all of my clothes I have in my closet. Being in Costa Rica has made me think a lot about life and how I can lead a better one.
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