Wonderful weekend!

Sunday, June 21, 2009
This weekend was pretty awesome. We went on an overnight trip to Arenal. It was so much fun. We started our trip off with an actual bus, instead of the teeny tiny little van we usually take. It seated 29 people, so there was plenty of room all 13 of us. We saw lots of really pretty churches on the way, but we didn't have time to stop because we had to be at the place at a certain time. Zip-lining was first. I was kind of nervous because even though someone had explained what it was, I'd never seen it before, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. We took a tractor up most of the mountain and stopped for a little while to see a howler monkey, which was pretty neat. After we put our harnesses on, we walked up the rest of the mountain. Man, I was worn out after that. I was covered in sweat by the time we reached the first platform. Coqui went before most of us and got stuck because he breaked the whole time. I ended up dropping the line and spun around a couple of times before I actually made it to the platform. The second one was a lot better because the view was awesome and I didn't spin. I messed up on the third one though. I didn't realize I was breaking and got stuck about five feet away from the next platform, which wasn't that bad. The next one was the second longest. They said I was too light and wouldn't make it without getting stuck, so I had to go at the same time as two other people. I saw Coqui get stuck again and he had to pull himself up the rest of the cable. I went by myself on the next one and made it all the way. Coqui, on the other hand, didn't. He got stuck before he got to the middle and the guy had to go out there to rescue him. Poor Coqui. A lot of people actually got stuck on this one. The next one - Coqui got stuck. Starting to notice a pattern here? He actually managed to make it twice out of ten times. Go Coqui! On one of them, almost everyone got stuck and before I even took off, the guy said I'd get stuck. I told him how much I appreciated his confidence in me. Guess what. I didn't make it. The guy had to come rescue me. I enjoyed all of the cables except the last one. It was the fastest one, which was really cool, except I let go of the line and spun around, so I ended up backwards and totally got some whiplash when I landed and the noise was super loud so it gave me a headache immediately.
After we all congratulated Coqui for sticking it up to the end, we rode the tractor to an Indian place. They talked to us and let us look around. They had some really cool masks that would have been neat for the kids at work to see, but they were crazy expensive. After we left, we went to the horses. Pretty much as soon as we got there, it started raining. So we got on our horses, some of us for our first time and our intructions were "it's raining, but let's go." No "here, pull the rein this way" or anything. So the first-timers were pretty nervous. I'd never been either up or down a hill, much less a rocky hill, on a horse before. After a while, it started pouring. Our horses were going so fast (okay not really, but for me!) and my horse was pretty girly because he refused to step in the mud. I named him Diego...if he was a him. So by the time we got back, we were all soaked and had to get back on the bus. It was a blast, all of it. It wouldn't have been as fun without the miserable moments such as the rain or the lack of instructions. Nastasia and Corey had never ridden before, and Kimberly had only ridden once. Nastasia thought she was falling off of her horse before she even got going. Oh and none of the horses had any patience at all. They were all leaders.
We checked into the hotel and went out for some grub. The restaurant was called Lava Lounge. Kimberly and I split guacamole and chips and I ordered fajitas with a banana mango smoothie. Everything was pretty good, but I couldn't finish the fajitas. After a while, we went to the volcano to look for falling lava. That failed and we headed back to the hotel. After a wonderful night of sleep, (ask me about that story one day) we had a really good breakfast. Jim, Laura and Roberto went birdwatching early in the morning and saw lots of cool birds. We went to the hot springs later on. Someone handed me lava rocks so "Sarah's boyfriend could have some for his lava lamp," as Corey said. I'd never even been near a hot spring, so I didn't know anything about them. Turns out, they're uh...hot. It was really pretty there. We had the hardest time trying to get in the perfect spot because the current was "muy fuerte" (very strong) and if your butt wasn't planted in a good seat, you ended up being carried away by the water. The water was so hot and very comfortable, but after a while it was too hot. We were there for about an hour, then we headed back to the hotel to pack up.
After leaving the hotel, we went out to eat again and I went to some souvenir shops. I tried looking for a Father's Day card for my host dad, but the only thing close to a card was a postcard and I wasn't doing that. On the way home, we stopped a couple of times to take pictures of some of those churches I told you about. And that was my weekend.