Day 2

Man, did our day ever get started on the right foot when we woke up to free continental breakfast. Not only was it free, but it was one of the best breakfasts I have had in quite a while. Haley and I both had our custom made omelets, some beans and rice (yeah, I know, for breakfast, right?), and we even went on a whim and got this greenish, potato looking thing that had corn mixed in with it. The green stuff turned out to be incredible…only we have no idea what in the world it was.

Then at 8:00am, it was on our first bus ride. We had to first take a taxi, however, to get to the bus station. Apparently, stop signs are not mandatory and our driver did not consider a single one. I'm talking not even slowing down, even when there was a bus speeding down to the intersection (I think the bus came to within inches of our rear bumper). Then we got to go on an awesome bus ride that lasted all of 5 hours. Apparently this was one of the slower travel days, which has me a bit worried. It was crowded, uncomfortable, and smelly. We had fairly decent seats for the first couple hours of the journey. Then we learned that when you stop to use the restroom, or simply stretch your legs, have someone save your seat. We had to stand for the remaining couple hours, which really sucked at we were winding through mountain roads. Not to mention that it got really hot once you crammed an extra 20-30 people on that bus.

Then we arrived in La Fortuna. Talk about tourist town. There are more Americans here than Ticos (Costa Ricans). We spent the afternoon planning tomorrow, to include rappelling down waterfalls (yeah, like 60 meter waterfalls, which I think is like 150 feet?). Cost us a small fortune, but hopefully it should be worth it. Believe it or not, that was Haley's idea.

Then tonight, we headed up to see the volcano and go to the Baldi hot springs. As you can see in the photo gallery, we couldn't see much of the volcano because we are in the middle of a cloud forest. If we wake up really early, we may get a chance tomorrow, but that would involve waking up really early…so we'll see. The hot springs were really nice, as you can see in the pictures. I couldn't believe that one of them was 152 degrees, and there was no disclaimer. I think you would get some serious burns if you were to jump in there. Luckily we dipped our feet in first (they are still red and tender).

Anyway, we are having a great time and think that the group will be awesome. It was nice to be joined by some other guys. You can see their pictures and nationalities if you look though the photo album link on the right side (under la fortuna day 1).