Pura Vida!! - Part 2

After our fantastic river run we headed to the city of Arenal where we stayed in an extremely cheap hotel run by a 17-year-old with a mean smoking habit. I'm sure he doesn't run it, but he was the only one we ever saw. He was nice though and loved practicing his English with Matt.



So Arenal is purely a tourist town at the base of a currently active volcano. Yes, I said an active volcano. The town is actually on the back side of the volcano so the lava runs down the opposite side. Although if it were to have a big eruption I'm sure the entire town would be lost in the ash. This is the volcano covered in clouds. It was covered in clouds the entire time we were there.



Our first adventure was going to the Hanging Bridges. It's a trail through some rainforest with a few suspension bridges that allow you to look in the actual canopy of the forest. We had a guide and were able to see a ton of wildlife and learn a lot about the rainforest. The forest is very dense and it's amazing how every tree has other trees, vines and plants growing on it. Matt, with his love of biology, couldn't stop taking pictures.

This was our first picture. It's a Macaw. We were so excited to see one!




Come to find out there are two of them, male and female, and they are pets of the owners of the park. But because they are pets they were able to get their attention and get them closer to us.



Unfortunately our picture was pretty fuzzy, and we had to get going.



But not to worry, because the Macaws decided to follow us onto the first bridge. (Don't you love my hair in humidity? This was the first and last day I let it go curly. I just didn't have the right stuff to make it look good.)



We actually got a good picture and it was fun...at first. But then they were flying from side to side and squawking at us. I think they thought we had food.



It was making me nervous and then this happened... Thank goodness the bird landed on Matt. I would've freaked out. But it made for a good photo. As we got to the end of the bridge they finally left us alone. I don't think I ever want one of those as a pet.



Here's a look at some of the wildlife we saw and actually got pictures of. We saw some amazing flowers...





...and butterflies.



This one is called the glasswing butterfly because that blue part is actually see through. Such a cool butterfly.


This is the famous Blue Morpho butterfly that's huge and bright blue on the inside of its wings. It flew right past us and when we caught up it was closed up on the leaf, trying to camouflage and hide.



There were some very unique animals like this bird, the Motmot. I love its tail.



There were a ton of lizards like this whiptail lizard basking in the sun.



This is a impossible to make out, I know, but it's a fast running squirrel. Did you know there are jungle squirrels? Neither did I! Very unique.


This insect is crazy looking. It's a wingless wasp called a spider ant, about two inches long. It's camouflaged to look like a spider and it's supposed to have wings. I was very grateful this one didn't. There was another crazy looking insect that moved way too fast to get a picture of. But it was a tarantula-eating wasp. It was busy searching tarantula holes so it could fight the spider, lay eggs in its head and then the larva would eat the spider. Gross, I know.



Here's one of those huge beetles and did you know that they fly? It was creepy having this flying around our heads. Thankfully it's pretty loud when it flies so you know when to duck.


We also saw a ton of leaf cutter ants throughout our trip. This was our first introduction to them. They are fascinating. Our guide here decided to demonstrate the strength of this ant. So he picked it up and somehow held it by the abdomen without squishing it. Then he put this stick in its pincers. So that stick is being held by an ant's head. He even swung the stick back and forth. The poor little ant. Don't worry, it survived unharmed.



But I loved watching the trail of ants, which they say goes for miles, carrying their leaves to their ant colony where they use the leaves as mulch to grow mushrooms, and then they eat the mushrooms. So cool!!



Here are my two favorite wildlife sightings in the Hanging Bridges. We found an eyelash pit viper. They are very small, maybe two feet long at most. But it has scales over its eyes that look like eyelashes.

Then my absolute favorite was this... a poison dart frog. This is the blue-jeans frog because it's wearing blue jeans. I bet you didn't know that frogs wear jeans either. A beautiful frog and so tiny! We're proud of this picture.



As we headed back to our hotel, we saw this in the road. The "Costa Rican raccoon," or coati. Doesn't it look even more sly and weaselly then our own raccoons?



That evening we continued our wildlife tour with another tour group. This time we saw a group of vultures. They are very common and one guide called them the Costa Rican Air Force.



We had a lot of fun with these "sensitive ferns". Who knew plants could move so quickly?



We were also very lucky to see two different anteaters. They said this is a rare sighting.





This second tour group then took us up to the active side of the volcano to an observation deck to see if we could see some lava. By this time it was starting to rain pretty good and we began to wonder if we would see anything. But after being there an hour and a half listening to the rain pound the tin roof (now we know why it's called the rain forest. 300 inches of rain/year), we finally saw a little lava rolling out of the volcano. And it was just in time, because our driver had just gotten word that we needed to leave right then. Water was starting to cover the road in areas. That in itself was quite the adventure as we drove through three different areas of the road where the water was at least shin deep. One of those areas was a bridge where the water had previously been ten to fifteen feet below. Amazing! It had risen ten feet in an hour and a half!

We ended our adventure at a hot spring resort, Baldi, where we had a good dinner and then got to swim in some of the 23 different hot spring pools. It was romantic being surrounded by jungle, low lighting, warm water, and a sprinkle of rain. A very good way to end a day.



One of the best adventures of Arenal, and our final one in the area, was going ziplining through the canopy of the rain forest. The only downside was that it was raining and rain hurts when you're flying 40 mph through it. As Matt said, he gained a greater appreciation for windshields.

Here's our attractive get-up. I wish I could wear it everyday.






This is a look at one of the zip lines. They each ran for close to half a mile long and 200-300 feet off the ground, over the canopy. You can barely see the platform at the end. I was slightly scared. Although that might actually be an understatement.



But, we'd already paid for it so I couldn't chicken out. I just sucked it up and did it.



It was exhilerating! I loved it! I just wish I could have seen more and that the rain wasn't hitting my face so hard. But really, it was great! We had six more lines to go and I was sad when it was done. I would love to go again. This is Matt coming in. He came in fast! I barely made it to the end a couple of times.



What great adventures in Arenal. And to think, it's not even the end of our trip. I know, you can't believe there's still more! I told you this was the best vacation ever!