Day Five and Six: White Water Rafting, Hot Water Springs, Crocodiles, Oh My!
Sunday, May 29 – Hola! As you can see, our Spanish is improving! Saturday was an early start, as we boarded our bus and set off for an adventure on the Sarapiqui River. Our team went white water rafting for our morning/early afternoon activity
After our strenuous arm workout through the rapids, and lunch we were on the bus heading back toward La Fortuna. We stopped along the way to see iguanas sleeping in the trees and bushes just next to the road. Our tour guide said that the trees are usually home to over 20 iguanas at one time, and sunny days are the best for iguana watching. We soon arrived at the town of La Fortuna for a bit more shopping and finally to the place we were all looking forward to, the hot water springs near the Arenal volcano. These springs are natural pools of varrying temperatures heated from the volcano. This was a nice relaxing break for our sore muscles. We started at the coolest temperature for the springs and it had water slides that emptied into the pool. We took some awesome underwater pictures and relaxed. We tried various pools and each pool increased in temperature, with the hottest one that we saw posted at 113 degrees. When our soaking was complete we headed off to dinner at the on-site restaurant, of course, more beans and rice for us to enjoy! We cleaned up back at the hotel before heading out with our tour guide Gaby who decided to show us the night life of La Fortuna. She took us to a disco dance club where we got to enjoy some modern Spanish music mixed in with some American originals. What a great way to end our stay in the San Carlos area.
Today we woke up early to get on the road for our next destination ... the beach! On our way we stopped on a bridge and saw some crocodiles in the river below. A few of us tried coconut milk right from a coconut with a straw, and we realized that Americans really sweeten the taste of actual coconut. A Harry Potter movie passed the time and before long we were arriving at our beach resort, Punta Leona. Our resort is close to two different beaches and we were able to spend time at both today. Our Costa Rican tans are developing slowly but surely. After an hour or so at the first beach we checked into our rooms and changed for our team training on the sand courts near the pool. Sand is much harder to play on than on the indoor courts we usually use. Phil taught us some techniques for beach volleyball and we got to incorporate some games into our practice. To finish the training, we scrimmaged Phil, Carissa, Fabrizio (our enthusiastic bus driver), and Gaby. We prevailed by two points and celebrated by heading to the second beach to watch the sunset and enjoy the last rays of the night. After an enjoyable dinner it's now time to relax and enjoy the night. More time to catch some rays manana on the beach! Buenos noches familias!
Chelsea Magnusen, Tory Storino, Kelly Treser, Katy Vicini
