Arenal

So, I'm literally sitting in a hammock under some jungle trees looking at the top of a volcano.

It's quite pleasant, really. The weather is beautiful and the scenery is gorgeous. I've been here all morning sitting in the sun, doing some editing, and just relaxing. Well, I did jump in the pool to cool off. The last few days have been much more eventful than San Jose.

The place is Arenal National Park. The questionably extinct volcano has a lot of jungle trails and waterfalls with a notable hike to a lagoon in the crater. I arrived here a few days ago and quickly made friends with three Canadians, two accountants and a vet. We went to lunch where a local told us about a swimming hole around a small waterfall not far from town, so we decided to check it out. We walked up to about 10 people swimming at this absolutely picturesque swimming hole. It looked like it was designed for people to jump off the top of the 10-15 ft waterfall into a cool deep blue pool. We stayed there for several hours jumping off the waterfall and rope swing and exploring down river a little ways.

After an unremarkable dinner of chicken gizzards and a few beers in the pool, we went to bed.

The next morning we went to a much larger waterfall:

I wanted a log picture, too, but she got yelled at :( That's not even half of the waterfall.

It was very pleasant, but I think I already talked about waterfalls enough (we didn't jump of this one).

After the waterfall in the morning, Mike and I hiked to the top of the volcano (Chatto Cero), where there was a lagoon. It was a very steep hike and I definitely did not bring enough water. I sweat absurd amounts when it's cool out, but the hot, humid jungle made it worse. There was a nice, cold lagoon at the top. After cooling off for a bit, we headed around to the other side and hiked down. We found another waterfall and a few short trails.

Needless to say, I was exhausted from a full day of hiking and called it an early night. That brings me to today. I had a very nice relaxing day. I made some money and wrote two posts. Unfortunately, the internet is being finicky and I'm having a hard time uploading pictures, so sorry there aren't more.