The last of the Costa Rica photos!

Huge spider in the girl's bathroom at a hostel.





Here's a crab we apparently slept with- I found him nestled
snugly in our pillows on the second morning at a hostel. The
crab was more freaked out by me than I was by it! We caught it
in a cup and let it go.



Can you spot the lizzard?

Zebra underneath, turquoise on top.  Cool bug.

Almost done with Costa Rica Photos

There were butterflies EVERYWHERE.

Monkeys all over me and their poop! Oh how gross it was,
and I'm pretty sure it was intentional!



Todd checking out the surf

Here's a smiling three-toed-sloth sleeping in the trees :)

More Costa Rica Stuff...

A beautiful flower

Todd surfing the waves. He was really brave paddling
 for the enourmous waves! I stuck to more moderate sized ones.
  OK fine I surfed the baby waves!

Shell hunting

Todd the scare crow aka karate kid

One of many incredible sunsets.

The Bungee Jump!

We arrived at our much anticipated destination, only to find a rusty old rickety bridge. Some 280 feet over a gushing river. In the driving rain. I held it in pretty well, but my brain was screaming:  AAAAAAA!



Here I am taking the plunge! I was nervous as heck walking out on the platform, but it felt pretty cool jumping off and sailing through the air! Until the whiplash, that is.



By the time they raised me back up to the platform (still hanging by my ankles) I was pretty anxious to upright myself to let the blood drain out of my face.

Todd swinging by his ankles:



Todd had so much pressure in his head from the jump that the capillaries around his eyes burst! This shows how harsh that whiplash really was.



And later we rode horses through the jungle to some waterfalls. The ride was pretty jolting (no running allowed, only walking or trotting) but the falls were beautiful! We swam in one.







Cute little frog. We whities may or may not die if we touched one of these critters!
Some are poisonous.

We visited La Fortuna, which has the most amazing views of Arenal Volcano. (But the town doesn't have much else to offer in my opinion.) The Volcano had just erupted so powerfully the day before that the surrounding parks were evacuated. We were lucky to catch it on a cloud-free day, which made for great photos!

Notice the Smoke billowing out of the top.

Leaf cutter ants making their way to their queen.

We saw the lava flow at night. With binoculars we watched
20 - 30 foot wide boulders tearing down the mountain,
 bouncing sometimes hundreds of feet at a time, and exploding
 into orange lava every time they hit the mountain. AMAZING!

Todd catching a very tall waterfall.

Flower in the courtyard of our fancy hotel.

Zip lines

We did the zip-lines and suspended bridges in Monte Verde. These are serious zip-lines: you fly up to 40 mph through and above the cloudy rain forest. What views you get sailing over the canopy of trees! These guys don't mess around with their zip lines- some are a kilometer long! Here's a video of someone disappearing into the mist of the jungle:



An employee fixing something on the suspended
bridge. He was hanging by his waist over a couple
hundred feet of jungle!



That little speck of red is someone zooming down
 the zipline.

Coffee berries. Each November these are ripe enough to harvest.
The skin is removed, leaving a bean that is roasted and sold all
 over the world, but mostly to America.

Monte Verde Cloud Forest

The Monte Verde Cloud Forest is particularly enchanting at night. The clouds create an orange glow; it's as if you're walking around half awake in some kind of dream.

 

 

The thick forest! It would be so easy to get lost,
 and nearly impossible to survive if you
 wandered off the pathways.

 

A hanging bridge (hundreds of feet
above the rain forest floor!)

Just gettin' ready for bed.  Our hostel had a nice balcony with
 comfy hammock-chairs to enjoy the misty view.

 

Costa Rica- the first few days

We spent a lot of time playing in the water. :) I love the beach. It is about 200 billion times better than endless cold snowy winters if you ask me. Here's a video of a monster wave that sucked everyone in and spit them out on the sand:

More fungi in the rain forest:

 

Todd's sandy hair after being tossed in the waves:

We decided to head inland and made our way to Monte Verde Cloud Forest. Apparently winds from the Atlantic and Pacific collide there on the continental divide, creating a constant cloud coverage over the area. The clouds are full of nutrients, feeding all kinds of plants that grow on trees.

 

 

The bus road was narrow, unpaved, and muddy.

Here's a video of us passing a truck on the

mountain side:

Costa Rica!!

Our Costa Rica trip was so amazing! I'm going to have to blog
about a couple days at a time because there is so much to tell!

We arrived at 6 AM and shuttled to rent a car for $100. The agency
informed us that including the required insurance, the total was over FOUR
hundred dollars! We said, "No way!" and took a cab to the bus station.

Our first stop was at Jaco (pronounced Ha-ko,) a muddy but
beautiful beach. The surfing was great! But we had to watch for crocodiles
because several rivers emptied into the ocean where we were.

We stayed at a tiny
hostel called Nathon's Hostel:

The food was Delicious. Typical Costa Rica food is called a
casada, and included rice, beans, meat, salad, and a fried banana. After really
long exhausting days, this food was the best tasting stuff in the
world.

Caution: three-toed-sloth crossing. LOL! The sloths eat
 something that makes them move vveeeerrrrryyyyyy slowly,
as if they had no cares in the world and nothing better to do
than hang around, eat, and sleep (sloth pictures to come...)

We traveled to Manuel Antonio, a small but full wild life refuge with beaches and rain forest.

Here is some hairy fungus in the rain forest

There were a lot of enormous lizards
lounging in the sun.

Las Vegas, baby!

I know this is way overdue but I had to at least mention my trip to Vegas last month... One of my best friends is getting married so we did a bachelorette party to celebrate her last days as a single woman :)
The beautiful bride:

Brooke the ladie's man. This group of guys were also doing the bachelor party-thing so we hung out with them for a bit.