Costa Rica was fabulous! I'm not sure I liked coming back to the hurried materialistic world we live in. They live a different life down there. They are poor in material means, but abundantly rich in other aspects. The life down there is slower, less hurried and the important things are paid more attention to. The people are kind, humble and wonderful. They have a beautiful country and they take care of it. It was incredible.

Our tour guide knew basically everything there was to know about the country. He spoke fluent English and gave us more information than we thought we would get. The whole country is volcanic, it's directly above two small tectonic plates, one of which is moving underneath the other, hence the mass of volcanoes that stretch the length of the country North to South. There are 112 volcanoes in the country, 6 of which are active, 3 of which are dormant, with the remaining being extinct. There is only one that is currently spewing forth lava. The other active ones have mainly gas eruptions which heat underground water and create volcanic mud pots. As a result there are multiple hot springs and spas throughout the country, mainly on the rainforest side.

We stayed on the western side of Costa Rica at a resort right along the Pacific Coast. As you looked eastward across the country, there was a wall of clouds that looked like an impending storm stopped at the mountains. Those clouds never crossed the mountains. They stayed there creating the rainforest on the other side. The western side is the "arid" side of the country, although I don't think they know the meaning of arid. It was 100% humidity and nothing ever fully dried once it was wet.

Our guide asked us what the weather was like in Utah. We told him it was very dry with little to no humidity. He was astounded. No humidity?! I used to think Utah was green. I can now appreciate that it's a desert and mostly gray-green and brown.

The whole country was so green! You can't see the hills or mountains for the mass of plant life covering them. When we went to the rainforest, I could see the difference though. While there were massive amounts of trees in the arid portion, it was nothing compared to the rainforest. If there hadn't been a trail we were following we couldn't have walked through it without a machete to aid us. Everything grows off everything else. There are vines that hang down from the tops of the trees that have roots growing off of them just searching for ground to dig into.

After having spent an hour or so in Houston with Marissa and her family, we arrived at the resort in Costa Rica around 10 o'clock pm Monday night We'll have to tell you all about Ammon and his ghost that lived upstairs in the restaurant. (We inadvertently took a tour of the underside of the airport as well, but that is another story). We were very blessed. The company that was supposed to pick us up at the airport didn't have us on their calendar, but they happened to have a rep. there to pick up a package. The package didn't come in, but he took us to our hotel. He was so nice. He introduced us to his family. His little girl was especially fun. She had the same name as I did. As it was dark we didn't real see any of the country until the following day.

The resort, as mentioned earlier, was right on the Pacific coast just inside a bay. The land drops off in sheer cliffs (covered in greenery) around the majority of the ocean, but in random dispersion there are portions of beach. They also have preserves around the coastline so the resorts are quite spread out which resulted in a nearly private beach. We spent Tuesday snorkeling in the ocean, swimming and enjoying the sights of the resort. We played in the vines hanging down from the trees, watched White Squirrels chase each other through the trees and took pictures of all the exotic plants. We climbed in a tree at the beach and played with the Hermit crabs. We also were introduced to the Coati wandering around. They would come take food right out of your hand in the outdoor buffet (the birds would swoop in a steal it to if you weren't paying attention). In Spanish it sounds like 'quati.' They are related to raccoons and look similar, but they are brownish-red, have a long snout and a bushy tail that stands completely vertical.

We had our first tour Wed. morning. Our guide came and picked us up and then we waited at the office while the other tour guests arrived from their various hotels. Our driver, Bernardo, who spoke very little english, showed us around a little. He pointed out Coconut palms, full of coconuts and a Starfruit tree growing naturally just outside the office door. He plucked off a ripe starfruit and gave it to us. We kept it and ate it at the airport while waiting to depart for Houston (it's very good, very juicy and very messy). Once everyone arrived we headed out to Arenal Volcano, a distance about 1/3 of the country away (about a 3 hour drive at 80 km/hr or 50 mph).

Along the way our guide, David, pointed out various trees and plants and told us much of the history of the country. Liberia, where we flew in, was opened as an international airport in 2002. In the 7 years since then, that part of the country has developed significantly. It was very rural and if the people wanted to do something other than agriculture, they had to go to San Jose to do so. The country has a population of 4 1/2 million. 3 million of them live in or around San Jose. The tourism that has come as a result of the airport has greatly helped the area around Liberia creating many jobs and new opportunities.

We drove across the flat land up to the mountains and over into the rainforest. At the top of the mountains, there are windmills built all along the ridge. These windmills, the Geothermal plant that uses the volcanic energy and the hydroelectric power from the dam built several years ago provide all the electricity for the country (way to use the natural resources).

We stopped abruptly on the side of the road and all piled out. There were Howler Monkeys in the trees on the side of the road! We took pictures and looked through the telescope David had. Bernardo, meanwhile, waved the cars on past and they all waved and smiled at each other as they passed by.

We reached Arenal Volcano and stopped at a lookout point to get pictures, once with Arenal Lake in front and then later with just the volcano. Since the volcano is right in the middle of the rainforest, it is rare to see the whole thing and even more difficult to see the lava in the daylight. We saw about 3/4 of the volcano, but it was very quiet so we didn't see any lava. We did take a hike through the rainforest near the base of the volcano. It was amazing! I've wanted to go to the rainforest since I was a little girl, so for me it was a dream come true.

It was thick and moist with all sorts of bugs and critters. There were leaf cutter ants that had created trails right through the thick underbrush hurrying along with pieces of leaves 10 times their size. They cut the leaves and make a compost pile in their ant hill out of which grows mushrooms. The ants then eat the mushrooms. Interesting isn't it? The bark of the trees were green because of all the moss growing up the sides and even the trail was covered in green. We saw the Yacana bird, which walks on water or the green algae that grows on top the water and has a maroon back and a vibrant yellow beak. In the trees there were Howler monkeys and a couple Spider monkeys that even stayed still long enough to get pictures of them (we were told it's very rare to find a Spider monkey resting). There tons of mosquitos, but there was a couple with us that I guess tasted better than anyone else. They got eaten alive even after using bug spray. I only got one bite!

Following the rain forest our guide dropped us off at one of the hot springs resorts. On the way we stopped in the middle of the road again. There was a 3-toed sloth up in the tree! We were able to get some pictures, though not very good ones. Sloths are supposed to be very slow languid creatures. Well, the one we saw was the fastest moving sloth our guide had ever seen. We were barely able to get a picture or two before it disappeared into the leaves and the pictures we did get mostly look like a ball of fur surrounded by leaves.

The hot springs were fabulous. They had multiple pools full of water in varying temperatures. There was one with waterslides. We spent the majority of the time in that one, which was fine by me. It was the perfect temperature. So we enjoyed the water and slides while the clouds dumped the afternoon showers on us.

There were botanical gardens at the hot springs that we walked through as well. There were so many foreign plants. We saw all sorts of palms and blossoming trees. There were even ones that looked like the fronds on that spitting dinosaur in Jurassic Park. We made dinosaur faces in front of them.

Just as an FYI, there are dinosaurs in Costa Rica, or at least the appearance of them. When we first landed there were these creatures running around out on the tarmac. It was dark and difficult to see them clearly, but they had long legs, a tail and what looked like a snout. . . When we had gotten off the plane we were able to get a better look. They were little birds, but their shape was identical to the little green Compys in the movie. Also, at the resort the first day I was looking over the ocean and there was this massive bird. It had pointed wings, a long dangerous looking bill and I could see the feet tucked back behind. If I didn't know any better I would have told anyone it was a Teradactyl. It was a pelican, but the silohette . . .

We spent Thursday at the resort swimming and enjoying the ocean. Ryan went on a long snorkel tour and later we went Sea Kayaking. We found a beach not far from our resort that we found some shells on and a big fat yellow fish in the shallows. On the way back to the resort in the kayak the wind had picked up so the waves were breaking over the kayak as we paddled. I thought we were going in the drink for sure. It scared me quite a bit, especially since my arms were getting more and more tired and we didn't seem to making any headway. I was afraid we were going to get smashed into the rocks. We managed to stay upright in the waves and made it safely back to shore although we both had very sore arms.

Preceeding dinner we went down to the beach again. It was completely deserted. The colors from the sunset reflected on the sand where the surf was gliding in and out. The silohettes of the cliffs and hanging vines were visible on either side of the bay and inbetween the cliffs the colors of the sun slowly sank into the sea. It was gorgeous. So we walked along our private beach hand-in-hand leaving our footprints in the black sand and watched the sun set over the ocean. It was perfect.

We ate at the one of the restaurants that require reservations Thursday night, The Oriental. They served us an appetizer that we learned was fresh Marlin. It was actually quite good, a little bit like Tuna. They had these sets of silverware that were about 12 inches long. It made it a little difficult to eat, but very enjoyable. There weren't any other people in that part of the restaurant either, so it was like private dining.

Friday morning we headed off on our Adventure Tour. There supposed to be two other couples going with us, but they both cancelled at the last moment so we had a private tour all day and, funny enough, we had the same guides as on the other tour. They gave us an option of going down class 2 and 3 rapids in an inner tube or going horseback riding to a waterfall in the rainforest followed by a spa treatment. Ryan wanted to do the tubing a little more than riding horses, but the tubing idea about scared me to death, so we went with the horses.

Once we got to the horses they were urging us to hurry and get on them. I was busy plastering my skin with sunscreen so I wasn't a tomato for a week. When they were telling us to hurry up I told them to wait so I didn't fry. They all laughed at me. Here are all these beautiful brown skinned people shaking their heads and laughing at me and my white skin. It was good natured laughing though so I didn't mind.

We rode through the rainforest on the most docile horses I've ever been on. They responded immediately to every command. That was great. I'm not a fan of ornery horses. The saddles were different though; they didn't have a saddle horn. That took a little getting used to.

We rode horses for an hour or so through a hummingbird filled meadow and rainforest and then hiked down to the waterfall. There were two other guides with us for the horses that didn't speak much English, but were very kind. We had to hop across some rocks on the river to get to the waterfall. There was a guide on either side of me holding each arm so I wouldn't fall in the water. Ryan was on his own. :)

The waterfall was probably about 20 feet high and spilled into a deep crystal clear pool of water. The pool was at least 12 feet deep and we could see all the way to the bottom! So, we went swimming in the pool. The water felt so good! It was so clean! It was cold, but not really cold. It wasn't like swimming in the Uinta's or in the slot canyons in Zion's, but it wasn't the hot springs either. Funny enough Ryan was colder than I was. I figure it's because he has thicker skin so I just went numb faster than he did.

We rode the horses to this spa/hot springs in the forest by one of the volcanoes. We were the only ones there too. They told us you're supposed to sit in a sauna for 10 minutes to open your pores, then go paint yourself with volcanic mud, let it dry, shower off and then soak in some hot pools. Easy enough and sounded fun. We went to the sauna- roasted- and then went to the mud. One of the workers climbed down a hole and filled a bucket with boiling mud (like the mud pots in Yellowstone) and dumped it in a cistern/bowl thing and handed us each a paint brush. So, we painted our skin with volcanic mud. Ryan got into it a little more than I did. He was covered from head to toe in thick layers of volcanic mud. I look white in those pictures too even though I'm covered in mud; his mud is thicker. We were taking pictures and lost track of time so we had to rush to shower off the mud.

The 'rush' part didn't work out too well. They had 3 outdoor showers to use. Two were broken and the third only let out a trickle of water. I'm sure it was comical to see these two mud-encrusted Americans trying to clean off the mud under a drizzling faucet. Our driver was laughing pretty hard. We got it off as best we could then went down to a hot pool, hopping the whole way since we were barefoot on a lava rock path. The pool was nearly boiling. Thankfully I had gotten most of my mud off so I used the working shower next to the pool. Ryan was not so fortunate. He had to get in the pool to wash up. Good thing he has thicker skin. ;)

We headed back to where we got the horses. Once there we headed for the zipline! The workers helped us into the gear (It took about 6 different people to get me all strapped in. I think it's because they had to readjust all the straps because I'm so thin and tall). They gave a brief lesson on how to control our balance and we were off. I was petrified at first. My heart beat was going like a hummingbird's!

There were a series of ziplines interspersed with a rapel, rock climbs and a couple tarzan swings. On the second zipline one of the workers jumped on the line in front of me and then waved for me to come saying, "vamanos." So, I went. I guess I went faster than he did. He didn't have a chance to get off the line before I was there. I slammed right into him. Bam! Thankfully, it was a soft hit, mostly because he was made up of more than bone.

After that it wasn't so scary anymore. Then it was just fun. We zipped across a 60 foot deep canyon with a river in the bottom, then rapelled down in and climbed back out. Ryan did the rapel up-side-down and a couple ziplines. I did the last zipline upsidedown, though sadly we have no pictures to document it. I had the camera at that point. The Tarzan swings were awesome too. I swung back and forth across the canyon. Very fun. We have lots of pictures. When we go back to Costa Rica, ziplining is definitely on the agenda. It was one of our favorite activities. We wanted to go back and do it again.

That night we ate at The Italian out on the balcony under the stars (the stars are different there too. You can't really see the Big Dipper or the North Star, but Orion's Belt is very prominant. I saw tons of shooting stars while we were there too, maybe because you can see them better because there aren't so many lights blocking the sky). Our food was really yummy, though Ryan's appetizer was interesting. It was some kind of beef, but we couldn't really tell what it looked like because it was so dark out and the latern at our tabel didn't give much light either. We took a picture of it though and looking at it later, it looks completely raw. We ate it though. We'll just hope neither of us came home with any friends in our tummy's.

We wore shorts, t-shirts and flip flops. It snowed the night we came home. I could go to Costa Rica again. I loved it.