Diaz cuatro

So we spent to rest of our night in Monteverde with our new friends Kathyrn and Andrew and a cute little restaurant in a shack. It was the best cosado yet and yes I am obsessed with this cosado!!! We went out to a lounge later that night with some younger gents that help run the place and tours where we were staying at Everett and Erick. Tow of the coolest peeps I have met. Erick is from Cali and traveled for a year and then moved to Costa Rica. He has been here for 3 years now and runs the tour companies in Monteverde for the family. Everett grew up here and his paretns owned the place we stayed at. So the lounge was pretty dull at first...Then Gabriene and Erick took over the mike. It turned into our own little dance club and we had a blast! Everett taught me how to salsa and we all spent a good bit of time doing the salsa.

This morning we took the boat to La Fortuna and Erick came with us to go see his mamasita in La Fortuna. Everett was supposed to join us but I think his tico girlfriend got a little jealous. But anyways guys this view in the boat.....absolutely amazing..... Words cant describe the view....If you have a chance look up Rio Chiquita and you will get an idea of our ride. The volcan was visible to whole time. I went and stayed on the front of the boat the whole time and got a front row seat to the best view.......... So today we went on our search for the natural hot springs only ticos go too. They don´t want tourist to know about it because the fancy ones cost $$$!!! The big bucks mis amigos. So we found it and guys....it was amazing. We climbed down to a river and it looked like any river you´d see in the USA. Expect the minute you put your foot in it, it was hot. It was the coolest thing ever. We went when three new peeps we met on the boat Seabass,Chad and Mike. Ya that was homeboys nickname. Anyways it was amazing. There was a point where two streams met...one luke warm and one hot. If you got in just the right spot you could half and half it. We all spent about two hours there and then went to get some food and tried some coconut milk for Tresciento colones. about 4o cents. It wasn´t too bad. I wouldn´t drink it everyday, but it was quite the resfreshing beverage. Anyways we are off to find this local tico place called the bridge with our amigos from the boat and try and see some lava flowing from the Volcan. Then we´re gonna go to another $$$ hotsprings that Erick got us into for free. And after that sleep!Tommorow we are waking up early to take a taxi to the ranger station and do some hiking. Then Erick is gonna try and get us a kayak tour for cheap. He has been awesome and we owe him big time.

I will update later because I have to get ready for tonight!
love you all!

lisa

Day 3 cont....

Okay I know I already titled todays....but anyone who knows me knows I have a problemo with writing too much detail and making letters into novels! But today definitely deserves an extra blog! If you´re inpatient just hop to the second paragraph for the good stuff! So we were waiting for a bus to get to the base of San Luis waterfall. But we got bored so we decided to see how far it was on foot? Well turned out to be to far, but there was ¨The Towers¨the highest point in Monteverde. And it was only 30 minute hike out of town and then a 2 hour hike round trip. One of the guys at the desk mentioned Reservo... ? Can´t rememer the full name but it was a research center that offered day hikes for $$$ or you could just go up and see a humming bird reserve for free. They said it wasn´t too far from the Towers so we thought....hey why not? Well we left a 9 am and passed the Towers around 9:30 am.... Then we passed a small, and unmarked waterfall trail. It took about 40 minutes and it was a cute waterfall. Saw some leaf cutting ants going to town with the leaves, and saw some kind of costa rican racoon. Can´t remember the name. So we headed back to the main road uphill to the ¨Reservo¨along the way some dogs started to follows....thing is they never left us. It was adorable and we have tons of pictures of these little guys. They stuck with us the whole darn day! Well after 2 or so hour of hiking and tons of signs saying this way to the Reservo....we gave up. Turn after turn and we couldn´t find it and it was already 11:30 so we decided humming birds weren´t really more important than the Towers so we headed back. Quite a work out...or so we thought.

So we headed to the Towers. Finally got there with the pups in tow. Started hiking up and of course it started to rain....light rain. Neither of us were dressed for rain but we figured a light rain? How bad could it be? So we continued on up a steep steep loose rocky hill. The rain started to pick up, but our pups stuck with us. Suddenly the monsoon started...and didn´t stop. My Chacos were covered in an inch thick layer of mud and even when I tried to clean it off it came right back. I could barely take one step forward without sliding two steps back. So I vered off to a ledge with trees and proceeded to scrape off the mud. Then the ran got worse..suddenly the road we had just hiked up was turning into a small river/mud slide. The pups and us were completely soaked and streams were still flowing down my hair no matter where I stood. Neither of our packs were water proof so we stood there for awhile debating if we should wait togo back down to avoid getting stuck in the mini river. We decided to go for it and of course immediately began to slide without control. Luckily there was one side that was slightly covered my trees, but of course was pure mud up to my ankles. I have never been so wet and muddy ever!! We all finally made it to the bottom after lots of laughs and close spills. And had another 35 minute walk from the road to town. Of course it was raining the hardest now. We got shelter ever so often to try and work off the shivers and dry off . Which was impossible but we needed a break after an hour of being soaked and soaked and soaked. We finally made it back to town with our doggy friends in tow still. We later found out they usually stick with girls and go hiking with them and when theycome back to town they go they part ways. It was cute everyone or car that came near us they chased away. Our little protectors!
So tonight we went and ate at this little 3 table restaurant off the beaten path and had the best casados yet! On the way back we found a small shed with jewelry and wood art. The mans daughter made all the jewerly and I got a gorgeous bracelet made out of....watermelon seeds! ITt is so cute.

Sorry for not posting pictures, but we don´t have the usb plug! I will post when I get back!

love you all...Pura Vida,
Lisa

Dia Tres

So the zip like was incredible. There was one exactly 1 km long. Honestly if any of you come to Costra Rica you have to do the zipline. I have never seen such a beautiful few of things. At one point we were ziplining through the clouds and all you saw was white passing your face at high speeds. And if you looked down you´d see the trees, the valley below....it was breath taking. Unfortanetly little ol Lisa doesnt weigh too much and on a really cloudy one I got stuck so they had to come out and get me. Well...one of the guides who was still on the platform I had just taken off on didn´t know I had stopped midway. He figured I had finished. So out of the clouds comes a guy flying at 80 mph and has maybe 5 seconds to hit his break to avoid a collison. Of course he nailed me head on! Luckily it didn´t hurt too bad but we both were screaming. It was quite a rush. He was scared of me the rest of the zipline tour. Anyways they give you the option to hang upside down if you want. So i waited until the last one. AKA the 1 km. The guide goes with you so you don´t have to worry about breaking and you just hang upside down and don´t have to worry about anything, but the view. I didn´t realize it but he filmed it with Gabrienes camera so once I get back to the states I will post it. It was incredible!!!

Last night we went out to Tres Amigos and got some beers with some locals we met and it was a blast! Got to practice my spanish. It´s crazy because everyone has facebook so it´s pretty easy to keep in touch with everyone.

So today we are going to go for a hike. Up to a waterfall and then to the highest point in Monteverde. Tommorow morning we leave for La Fortuna to visit Volcan Arenal. All the books make it sound like it´s super expensive, have to have a tour guy, and pay $$$ for hot springs...we almost decided not to go, but after not being able to believe the Ticos don`t have a backpackers version.....I did researching online I discovered there´s a ranger station where you can pay 6 bucks and hike a good bit of the volcano area. There´s a bridge at night where you can see it as it´s active and there´s hotel that closed down that had natural river hot springs that is not owned so anyone can go to it. So tommorow we are off to the volcano!

Once again I love you all and I am having a blast!!

Day 2

Hey guys. We arrived in Monteverde my bus. Took about 4 hours. Not to bad! I slept a lot because honestly I felt quite nauseas (never even thought about bring medicine for that!) but I still made the time to look at the beautiful views along the way. Tons of mountains and hillsides covered in lush green. We are staying at Camino Verde and got a nice place for $4! Not bad eh? Well I will update later. Just about to head out for a canopy tour so I will get back to you all later. Just wanted to make sure all the worry warts new i made it here safely ; ) love ya mom!

Just wanted to let you all know I am ok! We are currently still in San Jose. We missed the bus but we are staying right next to the station in a very safe hotel. The front desk guy Josue is amazing and has been so helpful. He is from Limon and moved here to go to college. He has written in my journal tons of phrases to help us get around. We will leave for Volcan Arena or Monteverde in the morning around 630 am. Sorry if the characters are off but the keys are a lot different! I will keep you posted on tommorow where we end up going, but as for now we had dinner at a little shop downstairs and pollo con salsa and it was amazing!!! We will be staying up here hanging out with some cool peeps we met a married couple Rebecca and Ryan. They are from Canada have been traveling all over south america and central america for 9 months. I am so jealous! What an aamzing gift to travel with your love. They have a blog too www.rrsadventures.blogspot.com Anyways we are not gonna venture out in San Jose because it´s not exactly the safest.

Anyways love you all and I will update you all later!

Adios!!!

Hello!!!!! I am headed for Costa Rica Saturday morning. I am going backpacking with my good friend Gabriene.


I am so excited to go with her and couldn't ask for a better travel buddy!!! In an effort to keep my internet time down, as well as keep my loved ones posted...I am going to try and post updates here! Keyword try!! This is a very exciting time for me. I have a lot of growing to do and this trip is going to be a big starting point. I remember what a humbling and eye opening experience my last trip was. It was such an awesome feeling to realize how much more is out in this world. As well as how humbling it was to be the minority and have to adapt to a different culture. I have lost a lot of that and am ready to get it back! I am sure most of you know I had to cut my last trip short. But I am a much wiser and stronger person this time.


But just in case anything does happen ..................... I love you all and I couldn't ask for a better life!!!