I just thought I'd update you on what we've been doing down south. This week has been a whirlwind of traveling, sun, fun and crazy roads! Sunday through Tuesday we were in Ponte Leona at the beach. It was beautiful! We really didn't do much more than sit on the beach, hike around the point, take pictures of crabs (they were very funny little things) and enjoyed relaxing.

We got back to Escazu on Tuesday evening and then left for Monteverde on Wednesday afternoon. The drive to Monteverde took about 5 hours. The first part of the ride (we went by bus/taxis sort of thing) was decent. The second part was terribly bumpy, full of pot holes, and not paved. It's the sort of bumbing that could result in an accident, if you had to use the restroom.

We stayed in cute little "cabinas" in the town of Santa Elena, which is near Monteverde. The next morning, Thursday, we got up early, had a yummy breakfast from the hotel and then got on the bus to go up higher into the mountain for the zip lines, "cloud forest" canapoy walk, and butterfly garden tour.

Let me just tell you...that zip line- which has 19 lines of varying lengths, heights and SPEEDS!- was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! I could have done it 3 or 4 more times that same day...well, except for the fact that I was really tired afterward. It's a lot of work to keep straight and not twist around like a helicopter and the harnesses weren't super comfy. I have a better harness to climb in- it's padded! The "cloud forest" canopy walk was decent, with suspension bridges and pathways that meandered through the rainforest-which happened to NOT have rain, because it was a rare clear day. It would have been more fun and interesting if we would have had a guide. Then we ate, because we nearly had to drag ourselves out of the forest because our blood sugar level was so low, that all we could think of or care about was FOOD!

Then, we had a nice time in the butterfly garden. The guide was good and the tour was very intesting. The butterflies were bright and beautiful.

That night we were so tired that Deana, Karina and Christi went to bed at 8:00pm. I went to sleep at 9:15pm because I was reading a good book- a book I might read with my students this next year: The Bronze Bow. We didn't get up the next morning until 7:30ish- that's 10-11 hours of sleep. Too much, really because we were all rather lathargic the whole day. We ate a leisurely breakfast and then went to the "Serpentarium" where we saw snakes and frogs and turtles. It was a decent museum/zoo-thing, and probably would have been better if we would have waited the hour and a half for the professional tour: but we didn't want to.

Next, we walked across town, which happens to be quite small, to the "Frog Pond." This was a better and more interesting tour because we had a tour guide. My favorite was the poison dart frogs. Their brilliant color was so interesting to look at and they were active in the daytime, which is nice when you've come to see frogs move about. All of the other frogs were nocturnal, so they didn't move much.

The ride up the mountain had been rough and long but the ride down the mountain was rougher and much longer. And all I can say is "Whew! I'm glad I'm not in a bumping car right now!"

Oh, yeah, one more thing, I forgot that we watched a few of the surfers out in the waves when we went to Jaco for fish tacos (which were amazingly good and yummy!). The waves weren't great, but there sure were a lot of surfers. I took some video and pictures of them. The day was very cloudy, so they didn't turn out very well. Hopefully we will have more pictures up soon so that you all can see them.

This has been a long week, with a lot of fun and exhausting things to do. But, hey, no worries, there is still more to come!

Ciao for now!