When things aren´t going as planned…

Sit at an Internet Cafe!

– $1/hour. Waiting for my 1:30 Interbus to take me to the Pacific Coast, about 4 or 5 hours away. Today has been fairly stressful, as we missed the first Interbus , public transportation bus, and we were extremely indecisive about renting a car. Luckily, I had a hearty breakfast to keep me going. Me and my food.

Stayed at Roca Virgen last night because Mr Lava lava man (yes, two lavas) was booked at his hostel. We got a stinky room that smelled like cat or dog pee — so that sucked. I guess that´s what we get for $5, right? We paid another $20 to see Volcan Arenal explode, and fortunately, I worked my camera´s manual settings, so at 6:30pm (complete darkness) — I was able to capture some photos of spewing lava! Granted, all this in torrential rain. If we weren´t wet enough, we went to Baldi, which is a huge, touristy, overpriced, hot spring with 10 different thermals(?)

I was skeptical at first, but it was so relaxing, and well needed. The scenery was beautiful as well. They had a half dry-half wet bar, en entire bar in the water, saunas, huge jacuzzi-like-pools with a cold pool in the center to cool off. After about 30 minutes though, I felt like I was going to pass out. They had these huge waterfalls which if you stood under, it felt like an intense massage! After that and the jacuzzi, my body was completely relaxed, and a bit jelly like. Again, torrential rain, as we walked from pool to pool…but this time it felt nice and refreshing.

Met a couple of people from California at the hostel we are staying at. One of them is apparently, on the same flight back with me! I´m sure we will share our travels…

I wanted to do a jeep-boat-jeep to Monteverde today; however, I don´t think I´ll have enough time at the beach. I think I was a bit ambitious in choosing where I wanted to go, ´cause 10 days doesn´t seem to be enough time to do everything. Oh well.

The days go by quickly, yet today is slow. Maybe that´s a good thing?

The plan is to get to Playa Grande tonight, see the turtles and do a hike, then go surfing tomorrow.

If we have to rent a car, we will, but I would prefer not to just because their driving over here is as crazy as China. Lines are just guides — they don´t necessarily follow them. They also do a California Roll, where they don´t completely stop at “Alto.” Furthermore, it´s $55 a day + gas expenses. I think I´ve spent way too much here already… and I´m just half-way through! Ahh!

Yesterday, we took the bus to Fortuna, which literally took awhile. Started at 8:40, arrived at 1pm. Walked all around the city, pretty dull, boring, and touristy with souvenir shops, left and right, then at 5:30 we went up to the Volcano. I didn´t even figure that Volcanos were predictable… Apparently at 6:30, it did. OKay, so that was kind of out of order, and to go even futher back…

On Wednesday, I went White Water Rafting on one of the top 10 rivers in the world, Rio Pacuare. We hit up class IV rapids, 18 miles — and had an amazingly fun time, or at least my raft did!

There were 6 rafts, and we were the first to go down, “paving the way,” or whatever you want to call it. We walked down about a mile on a steep grade, to be greeted with our helmet, life jacket, and oar. We were prompted to get in our raft, almost immediately, and began going! We didn´t really have any prep except for on the river, which really got my adrenaline going… and hearing that one raft turned over the day before, made me a bit skeptical. They said it was because people stopped paddling when they got scared. I made sure that I didn´t stop, for anything… Our guide was professional, experienced, and made sure we had fun. But most importantly, he made sure that we were soaking wet!

Some of the rapids we went down sideways, which was a recipe for disaster, but our group definitely worked together and none of us fell out…well, only when we wanted to swim. We had a yummy lunch, on the top of our boat, with tons of watermelon and pineapple on the side. I swear, one thing I will miss here is their fruit. There´s nothing to compare it to…quite simply, amazing!

After lunch, or 2 and a half hours, it began to rain, hard. We continued rafting till the end and everyone conked out on the bus. Unfortunately, we encountered traffic like I´ve never seen anywhere…not even China. Since they have very few main roads, the one main road was clogged like a toilet. Didn´t get back till 7pm, which was just brutal after a few hours in teh bus.
Anywho, the day was awesome and I slept well!

I´ve been practicing my Spanish, wherever I have to, but since I´m traveling with a fluent speaker, it doesn´t seem to be a survival thing anymore. Good and bad I suppose.

I really should have just ventured off, completely on my own, but maybe that´s for another time.

This whole place feels like a miniature Hawaii, just more lush and dirty.

Those are my rambling thoughts for now.

Peace.