My Weekend!

So this past weekend we went to Arenal, which is a volcano! Everyone kept telling us that if we were lucky, the weather would be perfect and we could see it. So well all crossed our fingers! We were supposed to leave the school at 6 am so Kayla and I decided to leave the house at 5:20. Well I decided to watch Justin Bieber videos the night before so I didn't go to bed or set my alarm until about 1 am. It turns out that I set my my alarm for 5:25...five minutes after we were supposed to leave! Thank goodness I had pretty much everything packed! We hurried out the door and sped walk to our bus stop. Of course the bus would be running late on the very day we needed it so we had to take a cab. We arrived at the school and then jumped on the charter bus to pick up the Heredia kids on our way.

The drive, for some reason, seemed to go super slow and we were all starving! At about 8 we stopped at a little town for a photo-op. All of us had our mind on food so we were not too excited. But it turned out to be pretty neat! There were bushes that had been trimmed into animals and other things. There was also a beautiful catholic church that we were able to peek inside. We got back on the bus and stopped around 8:30 to an old family restaurant for breakfast. The restaurant seemed to be on Tico time, so it felt like forever until we got our food. After breakfast we were back on the road. The road to Arenal was literally through mountains so the ride was definitely not as smooth as the interstate! After what seemed like forever, we stopped to climb down to a waterfall. Now when I say climb, I mean climb! The steps down to it were very similar to Fall Creek Falls, although not quite as maintained and longer! The entire walk down, all I could think of was the climb back up! The waterfall was exactly the same as the one at Fall Creek Falls but you were allowed to climb on the rocks and swim in the water. The water was freezing! I refused to swim but I did decide to walk/crawl down the rocks in the river off of the waterfall pool and into a calm pool...okay so that was probably the worst possible description! I hope you followed it! But walking/crawling down the river on the rocks was super hard! I don't know how I didn't hurt something! The calm pool was beautiful but still freezing! After that came the dreaded climb back up....I hate hoped it would go away! And it would start to downpour as soon as the trek began...although that might have been a blessing, it did cool me off! It was probably the next to most miserable (the most miserable will come later) time in my entire life! After I finally made it to the top, I changed clothes (yes I am my mother's daughter because I thought to bring a change of clothes, because I knew I would be in my wet bathing suit, and a grocery bag for my tennis shoes!) and we headed to lunch. Kayla and I ate at a restaurant with our friend Ross who decided he'd order the "Tamarindo drink". It was some fruit drink with water but it looked like clear mucus with suspended mini eyeballs! We laughed so hard! But it actually didn't taste too bad...although I didn't get an "eyeball". After lunch we loaded onto the bus for the short ride to the resort. When we got there we were all amazed at how close we were to the volcano! It was huge and, at that time, covered by clouds. As soon as we got to our rooms, we changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the pool. There were a couple of slides but we only went down one. Then it was off to the hot springs! They were, as the name suggests, really hot! After being in there for 30 minutes it began to storm. We waited and waited for the hotel people to tell us to get out of the pool but we never did. We stayed in for a while, until one of the girls decided to tell us the story of how her friend got struck by lightning! At that time it began to downpour while we were walking back up to our room. And it was, of course, uphill! But we laughed about it because as soon as we got up to our rooms it basically stopped! Later we went to dinner and came back and took a nap because at midnight we were supposed to be able to see the lava from the volcano. At midnight we woke up and sat with a couple of other people in the group in the road in front of the volcano. We just brought the chairs from our front porch and put them in the middle of the road of the resort. After about thirty minutes the volcano had an eruption! It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! It's active but it's safe because it goes off like Old Faithful...although not quite as faithful. It goes off every hour or two instead of waiting 50 years and completely exploding! Since that eruption was so fun we decided we'd wait on another one...well 2:30 came around and nothing! So we went to bed and decided to wake up and watch the sunrise. The first drawback to that idea was that the sun rises at 5 am here...yep it was super early! It was really pretty though! The second drawback was that I had to be ready to go for canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) at 7:30 and have already eaten breakfast. So I just stayed up...on about 4 hours sleep.

We rode there in a nice air conditioned van, but when we were halfway there we had to switch to Toyota pickup trucks and sit in the bed that had been converted into seats. When we got there we were geared up and ready to go! After some VERY brief instructions, we were sent down 170ft (that is approximate because I can't remember exactly) cliff that was next to a waterfall! It literally went straight down! It was a little nerve-wracking because I was controlling my speed with my right hand and I had to push off of the rocks with my feet. It took me a little bit to get used to! After that one was over, I was still extremely nervous and not very confident in my repelling skills! But there was no turning back! The next two were my favorite and I repelled through a waterfall! But after about the first and second repel, I began to hurt where the harness wrapped under my butt! I tried to loosen it a little but it just wouldn't let up! But because I am known as a "wus", I decided to try to forget about it...which didn't work. After the five repels, it was time to go back. And although I knew back meant up, I had tried to push it to the back of my mind. It turns out "up" meant exactly what I did the day before....climb five hundred bazillion stairs!!! I was bitter at life because I was already sore, incredibly hot and thirsty, and to top it all off...my butt hurt! But thank the good Lord I made it...barely! We hopped back on the Toyotas and then onto the lovely air conditioned buses to go back to the resort.

By the time we got back, all we had time to do was shower and pack our things. We ate lunch at the resort and then hopped back onto the charter bus headed towards "home". As it turns out, the bus driver decided to take another route home. This route was somehow more windy and backroady (I know I just made that up) than the route that had gotten us there. And in Costa Rica, speed limits mean nothing so Lord only knows how fast he was going! Of course it did not help that we were in the back of the bus. Finally, after some motion sickness and Dramamine, we made it home! And, as always, it was raining! As soon as I walked in the door, I fell down on my bed and fell asleep. After a short nap, I woke up and went downstairs because I assumed it was dinner time. Well I made it to the couch and fell asleep again! When I woke up again I was not very hungry and super tired so I ate about three bites and went to bed. I even turned down dessert...that shows you how tired I was! It was only 7:30 so I got about 12 hours of sleep last night!

Although this weekend wore me out, it was so much fun!