July+1,+2011

July 1, 2011

Today we got to sleep in until 7 AM! We had another breakfast of rice and beans with eggs. We are really starting to enjoy it. (At least some of us are.) We got our first view of the Arenal volcano. Mario told us that this volcano had a major eruption in the 60s that destroyed and killed everyone in two local towns. Since then it has been growing until now the one peak is larger than the other. It dominates the areas veiws. Everywhere you go, you can see Arenal. For the last few months, it has been quiet. Today we saw alittle steam coming off the top, but no lava.

Today was our workout day. We started with an early morning walk down a waterfall that came of the volcano. It was approximately 495 steps down to the falls. We then had a refreshing swim in the waterfall pool. Walking back up the 495 steps was part one of our workout.

We then traveled to a man-made lake used as a hydrodam where we kayaked around part of it. Mario pointed out howler monkeys on the way to the lake. He also showed us a CR weed - impacient flower!! They grow wild along the roads. We had a chance to swim in the lake during another rain storm. The lake was warmer than the rain. After our lower body and upper body workout, we can back to the hotel for lunch and a quick change.

We went into the local town to visit a local coffee grower (actually his farm is farther away, but this is a tourist area so he has his outlet store here.) There we learned about different qualities of coffee and had a demonstration of proper “slurping” techniques used in order to taste coffee. Many students bought sometime to bring back home - including chocolate covered coffee beans - delicious. (They may not make it back home. )

We ended the day at the Baldi Spa and Hot Springs. This was a magical amazing place filled with pools of geothermal hot springs from deep inside the volcano. I have been to many hot springs around the work, but this was the most amazing. They put millions of dollars into developing many different pools to enjoy. The temperatures range from 90 degrees to 150!! After all the exercise we had today, it was indeed heavenly sitting in the pools and trying all the different temperatures.

Tonight will be an early night. We get up at 515 AM to head to the Monteverde area for horseback riding.