We got back from Costa Rica yesterday. What a wonderful trip!

We drove from San Jose to a resort at the Arenal Volcano. This is still an active volcano, but it mostly spits out rocks, and occasionally lava. The top was covered in clouds the whole time we were there, so I never got to see what I hear is a very dramatic sight as molten red rocks fly into the air. This is all I saw:

The resort has several pools, one of which is fed by a hot spring. (The spring is heated by the volcano.) It has a great slide into it, and for some unknown reason they chose to put the bar here. Believe me, one drink goes a long way when you are sitting in 90 degree water. One of the cold water pools had a very long slide that goes underground before it shoots you into the pool. We also did the canopy zip lines here -- sorry, no pictures of that. There were 15 lines total; it took about 1-1/2 hours to do the whole trip. I'll be honest with you, I couldn't see the appeal. You go too fast to see much, but not fast enough for it to be a real thrill ride. The scariest part for me was when they would hook and unhook me to the line. Being so short, I had to jump up to take my weight off the hook, and the platform I was standing on was so narrow, I usually felt like I was going to fall. I'm glad I did it, because now I can say I did, but I doubt I'll do it again.

We also did a little float trip, which gave us much more opportunity to see wildlife. Here's some howler monkeys:

This was the little river we floated down. Just a lovely, peaceful morning.

Later we stopped by a restaurant where the owner kept iguanas as pets.

The Professor and I hiked down to the bottom of a waterfall and back out again -- literally hundreds of slick, steep steps and a grueling hike, but oh, so worth it!


As we were climbing -- okay, resting -- all right, gasping for air -- we noticed little green things moving on the ground. Look closely, these are leaf-cutter ants.


I have lots more to tell, but I'll have to save it for another day.