A quick correction on my last post. Arenal is not the name of the province, but is instead the name of the volcano in the area. Today we went to this very volcano and hiked around the base. We did not witness many animals, although there were a few. The volcano is believed to now be entering a dormant state by local experts, and so there were no active flows that we could see, however there were remnants of multiple previous flows. Fair sized boulders (ranging from sand sized to about 3 feet in diameter) littered the landscaped, as black as coal but as porous as pumas. The hike was invigorating because up until this point, besides the hour or so we tromped through the forest, we have spent most of our days riding around in various vehicles.
After the visit to the volcano we proceeded to go to a different section of the rain forest. This one provided the opportunity to zip line over the rain forest! So obviously we tried it. We took a trolley up to the top of a fairly high hill and started our excursion. The zip line was actually made up of 5 smaller zip lines zigzagging about 600 feet above the forest floor. The longest of these was approximately half a mile in length and it took us approximately 55 seconds to cross, and so we clocked in at speeds of around 50 mph. The zip line was just that, a steel cable on which was set a pulley. You were connected to the pulley at various locations and left to dangle above the intimidating drop. A push and you were on your way, gaining momentum and spending a minimum of 30 seconds on each zip line soaring above the trees, and even in some locations dipping down into higher sections of the canopy top!
This evening we visited the town of La Fortuna. We did not get to spend much time there, and unfortunately no pictures were easily taken because we did not arrive until evening. It is a possibility that we will visit the city again tomorrow, because we are starting to have the opportunity to go on our own to various locations for meals. Tonight I had a very hardy meal and a couple of beverages, which all together totaled to around 15 united states dollars. The quantity of food and quality of food, I feel, would have fetched a far higher price in the United States, probably somewhere in the range of 22-30!
Finally, I apologize for the bad link that was used in my last post. I have attempted to fix the problem, and I believe I have succeeded. As pictures are added to the album, I have to continuously update the hyperlink. Because of this, each of my blogs will contain a link to the pictures. There you should find all the old and favorites, plus any new ones! I have also taken precautionary measures and uploaded all the pictures to Mediafire.com, a site that allows you to store, share, and even download files for free. A link to this site is below also, and so if Facebook fails me once again, I hope Mediafire will be my champion! A quick note on mediafire. You may be asked to create a mediafire account to access the page, I am not certain. If so, signup is completely free, and easy to perform. you may need to select the Costa Rica folder under the folders menu on the left hand side. One can also open up the tab in the upper right hand corner to go to "image view" and look at thumbnails of the pictures.
Pura Vida!
http://www.mediafire.com/?kiyg487vvb6mi
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