A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing : Costa Rica

8/5/17 

         The next day I went on the two volcano extreme hike, which lasts for ~9 hours. In the passenger van on the way over, I ended up with a man named Pratik, in addition to Nicole, both from my room at the hostel. There were also 3 Swedish guys we made friends with, in addition to a girl named Natalie and some Germans who spoke very little English. 
We started hiking in heavy mud through the rain forest to the Cerro Chato and Arenal volcanoes. Many parts required you to ‘bear crawl’ because they were so steep. Our guide, Erol, told us about all the things not to touch in the jungle, like a caterpillar that will give you a horribly painful rash for several weeks, an ant called the ‘bullet ant’ that is considered the most painful sting that exists and causes "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continue unabated for up to 24 hours."  We had the opportinuty to meet the second most deadly spider in all of central America. He told us not to touch anything green, because that can be a pit viper is disguise.  

so much mud

going up

            We arrived at a wooden structure that our guide’s friend lives in next to the lagoon. He lives under the shelter, but without closed walls or windows. 

A little Snack of a Rambutan fruit

……Remember the most deadly spider we were warned about? There were about 10 of them forming webs here in his home. 

            We continued our mud march up to the base of the active arenal volcano, often balancing on old chunks of lava rock from the last eruption in 1968 (which buried over 15 kilometers of surrounding land in lava). 

 

Arenal is one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world, and quite impressive if you can sneak a peek of the top of it through the clouds.  Our guide says that he’s climbed it 15-20 times in his life, even feeling the heat of the lava from the opening below him. 

coming up

Erol showed us a citronella tree and we used the leaves for bug repellent

Micko, Dennis, Daniel, and Natalie were quickly becoming our good friends.

Daniel sneaked in this photo of me at the base of the volcano. I'm absolutely dripping in sweat and tired, but I was so incredibly happy to be having this experience.

           The hike was very muddy and tough, and I actually cut my thigh on the sharp lava rock. We headed back down to the lagoon and all had a packed lunch together. There was a rope swing into the lagoon, which has a perfect view of the volcano behind it.  

   We saw a red eyed tree frog, which is one of Costa Rica’s most famous animals.

Our next hike was through more forest to swim in the cold waters of a beautiful waterfall. Our guide led some of us, who dared to go, along the rocks along the side of the swimming hole up to the falls to jump through them.

The water was so powerful that you had to cling to the rocks and face away from the waterfall so that you could  catch your breath.

We went underneath the falls and struggled to stand underneath the power of the falling water, and Erol pointed in the best direction for us to jump through it. You basically had to dive outwards and slightly to the right, so that the falls would push you down and spit you back out again in front of it. Nicole’s chest was cut from hitting a rock pretty hard when she dove through. She captured a few photos of the experience on her waterproof GoPro camera. 

After scaling the rock to the falls a few times, a rainbow appeared in the swimming hole.

We headed back up to the trail and hiked for a few more hours, seeing monkeys and some hanging bridges, to an observatory in the area. We began to hear the grumblings of a true Costa-Rican rainy-season-thunderstorm-and-downpour but we weren’t worried about it because we had been soaking wet with sweat all day hiking, and then swimming intermittently too. Everything I carried was soaking wet anyways.

After hours of hiking and us joking around with the Swedes, Dennis was clearly appalled by my "sass." Dennis looked at me and, struggling to find a similar english translation,  said "Annie you're a wolf in sheep's clothing." He meant it in a nice way, and it gave us a laugh.

We went by van on extremely bumpy and muddy roads to the Tabacon natural hot springs river, where the locals love to go (and our waiter had unsuccessfully invited us to go our first night). The downpour was so heavy that Erol told us to leave everything we had in their van and to just run to the river in our suits and bare feet. We ran to the river in the thunder, lightning, and cold rain, and were shocked to find that the water was at least 105 degrees and clear. We had to drop down a little falls (just a few feet high) to go sit in the rapids.

the crew

We all relaxed in the hot water rapids, laying in the smooth pebbles of the river, and watching the rain come down amidst a dramatic storm of thunder and lightning. Erol pulled out a liter of Chili Guaro mixed drink and shared it with us. He then showed us an underwater cave, which could fit the three Swedish guys in addition to Natalie and Nicole and myself.

Due to the rain, the lagoons, and the hot springs, everything I owned was soaking, and we all practically ruined the van we rode in on the way back. Our group from the day (the 3 swedes, Natalie, Nicole, and me) went to dinner together, which is when we all became facebook friends and planned to share our photos. 

I then learned that Daniel's last name is Hamner, too (he thought I already knew that and was pulling a prank on him) and we had a long discussion about how we may or may not be related. Although I have no Swedish heritage, he has non-Swedish heritage and there is a good chance.

            These three guys have been traveling to some really crazy places. Indonesia, Thailand, you name it. They also have been to tiny remote islands off the coast of every place you’d ever want to travel.  We all took turns telling our most fun and adventurous travel stories, and then our most embarrassing stories.

            We ended the night dancing upstairs of the restaurant, at a disco called la Terasa.