RIO CALIENTE

After connecting through Houston and narrowly missing the floods, we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at 12:30 am without complications. With a few hours of rest at the Adventure Inn hotel in San Jose, we skipped the typical Costa Rican breakfast and stuck to fruit, some of which you don't typically find en Los Estados Unidos.

Marvin, our driver, met us in the hotel lobby to take us three hours north to a resort at the base of the Arenal volcano. He was quite friendly and eager to help us practice our Spanish. He pointed out landmarks and provided information about the areas we passed through along the way. We made a short stop where he pointed out poisonous frogs and leaf ants to us.

Arriving at Tabacón, our hotel for the next three nights, we were blown away. We were greeted with drinks and nothing but friendly people. While waiting for our room we enjoyed some Costa Rican tapas, the rain forest surrounding us, and some card games. The panoramic view of the rain forest from our hotel room is astonishing. The room itself is very large and nothing like what we would have expected.

Wasting no time and jumping into our swim suits, we headed down to the hot spring pools. Simply put, the hot spring pools are "Hawaii on steroids" (Mom). The river is naturally heated by the volcano and has several pools to soak in on the way down the hill. You walked on paths through the rain forest to get from pool to pool. We sought out shelter and a nap in a swing while it poured rain. It was no drizzle, but rather a down pour of rain for about an hour. Once the rain let up we were back in the pools, and playing in the waterfalls.

Dinner included a buffet with a variety of food. Compared to my previous trip to Costa Rica, it seems that the food so far is designed for tourists rather than typical Costa Rican food. We will continue to look for traditional food as the trip progresses because it is so delicious. We rediscovered at dinner that I do, in fact, not like plantains and that Costa Rican pineapple is as good, if not better, than Hawaiian pineapple.

I do admit that it is weird not to have Joelle traveling with us currently. I'll maybe even admit that I miss her and our travel adventures, but don't tell her that. She is having her own adventures with her school friends, which, as it sounds, are plentiful and full of fun.