Shades of Green.

I don't know if I have ever seen so many shades of green. The past two weekends I have visited two must see places in Costa Rica; Volcan Arenal and Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Volcan Arenal is just outside of a town called La Fortuna. It is an active volcano that supposedly erupted about this time last year when a different group of study abroad students were visiting (comforting right?). Thankfully, we had a not so dramatic experience with the volcano. The trip involved an unbelievable amount of rain, staying at an amazing hotel, and canyoning, or rappelling down waterfalls in the rainforest. Another highlight was buying some fresh coffee beans from a coffee roaster called "Down to Earth." Supposedly, this coffee is the rolls-royce of Costa Rican coffee, at least thats what the guy said (and I believed him). I'm not really sure how coffee can be compared to a car with a six digit price tag, but I'm assuming that means the coffee is good. Time will tell I guess.

Before leaving for Arenal, I learned how to make Arroz con Leche; muy rico.

Welcome to Volcan Arenal.

Crocodile. No big deal.

Does the color mean they are poisonous?

The following weekend we went to Monteverde Cloud Forest. This time we didn't have that much rain, and we didn't rappel down waterfalls. However, we did do the coolest zipline course I have ever seen.

(I forget the exact measurements, but this zipline was roughly 600 meters long and 100 meters tall.)

At the very end of the zipline course there was Tarzan swing; which essentially consisted of free falling until a bungee caught you, followed by swinging back and forth. I walked out on the sketchy bridge really slowly, and finally was greeted by the two guides at the end. They clipped me in asked me to hold onto a certain part of the rope and then asked "Are you nervous?" Before I had time to reply, one said "Bye-bye" in a tico accent and forcefully pushed me off. I dropped like Tarzan would if he were real. I didn't get any pictures of me doing it, but below are some of lance.

For the rest of the weekend, I got a little bit of hiking in, an awesome sunset, and sat on the balcony of my hotel room taking in all of the sounds. The sounds of likely thousands of insects and frogs, all of which seemed to make the clouds and stars come alive.

Until Next time.