So I was in Costa Rica for two weeks.   The plan was to continue on to South America but I scratched that and came home and am looking for work as a ski instructor.

 I did not go ziplining so don't read any further if that was the first question you were going to ask.  Here's a summary of Costa Rica though

-Arenal Volcano.  Had fried chicken three consecutive nights at a local "soda", which are small little food spots.

- The volcano is almost a perfect cone.  Very pleasing to look at, I mean its basically like a giant geometric triangle and that seems to please some part of my brain.

- Second night there experienced first earthquake, once it was over and realized it wasn't that bad I thought 'that was awesome'.  Then I thought about how the last time the volcano erupted was after an earthquake hit and we were staying 5 miles from the volcano.

 -Did a guided walking tour in the primary rain forest with our guide, Oscar.  He looked like Seth Rogen.  I was most fascinated by the ants in the forest.  So get this.  The queen ant when born leaves her colony and goes off to fornicate with like 200 different colonies and retains all there little ant sperm, then settles down and makes a new colony of her own and just continuously gives birth for 12 years or so.  So I picture this little tiny queen ant being all stoked that life is just all play then all of a sudden shit gets real and she gives birth to thousands of babies.

-Pic to the left in on a bridge through the forest.  DID YOU KNOW:  Trees in Costa Rica can develop roots at any point.  So a branch 84 feet in the air can decided it wants more water up there and just start dropping a long giant root.  Crazy.



-  Our guide had two pieces of advice.  I forgot what the first one was.  The second one was don't stick your fingers in any holes.  Here's a pic of a tarantuala.

-  Had first of many 'casados' - local dish of rice and beans and salad and steak/pork and very delicious.





-  Next went to the beach.  It was remote.  Locals on bikes everywhere.  I dunno how to explain it.  But here's a pic from an afternoon at a 1/4 kilometer beach hidden in the hills.  Black sand too, from volcanos!

- Pura Vida, a Costa Rican phrase.

- Last two nites with my mom stayed at this mountain resort cos I found a ridiculous deal on tripadvisor.  Place was wicked cool.

- Did all of this without a GPS. Refused to let my mom talk me into getting one.  Only got lost once, for about five minutes.

- After saying cya later to my mum at the airport I went up to a mountain town of Monteverde for a week.  Stayed with relatives of a friend and it was awesome.  4 mile walk into town each day, two different 'cloud forest' reserves.  It kinda does this weird misting thing all the time cos the mountains catch the clouds.  Locals call it pelo de gato (hair of the cat).  That was my favorite part of the trip.  No pics.  Then decided to become a ski instructor instead of just floating around.  We'll see how that decision goes.

Mike