Week 10

We hiked to the top of the lump on the left

This was the beginning before it got steep

This is a cool bird I saw

This weekend I took a mini-vacation to La Fortuna, which is where Arenal Volcano is located. I left at 6am Friday morning and sat on 3 different buses in order to arrive at La Fortuna at 3pm it was not very fun at all. La Fortuna is one of the most touristy parts of Costa Rica, so much so that I had a hard time using my costa rican currency which I found a bit ridiculous but that is just how the town works. One of my friends from my program is working in La Fortuna so she was able to show us around. She was able to recommend probably the swankiest hostel I have ever seen to us, It is called Arenal Backpackers Hostel Resort and for $15 a night you get to lounge in nice hammocks, and swim in a really pretty pool also the rooms have ac, and the bed was probably one of the comfiest I have slept in since arriving in Costa Rica. So if you ever find yourself in La Fortuna I would recommend staying there. The one downside was that the rooms are dorm style and they are gender neutral so the first night my friend and I spent the night with 6 other guys. 5 medical school students studying to be urinologists because "The world needs more cock doctors" that quote pretty much sums them up, they were charming charming fellows who we spent very little time around. The other person was a quiet german man.

Our decent into the lagoon

Close to the end

          On Saturday morning we decided to hike to the top of Cerro Chato which is the old volcano that now has a lagoon in its center, the hike was only 3km from the start of the trail so we were pretty convinced that we could do that for the morning and go see the waterfalls in the afternoon. That was an incorrect assumption, we decided to walk to the trail so we added another 5 or 6 km onto our trip both ways by doing that and the 3 km hike was absurdly steep. It was absolutely beautiful but I did not make it through the hike with very much dignity. My friends are very good hikers and climbers and I am slow and kept getting distracted or wanting to stop and sit for a while so I made the journey by myself and every once in a while someone would yell down the mountain to make sure I didn't get bitten by a snake or something. But eventually I did make it to the top, only like 5-10 minutes behind everyone and it was worth it, we could see everything and the lagoon was beautiful so I think for a day trip it was definitely worth it. That said, I am currently very very sore and my host family finds it very comical.

Lagoon