Nate and I kept calling our trip to Costa Rica our "Adventure Trip" because we went on so many outdoor adventures. That's one of the things Costa Rica is best known for, and one of the reasons we wanted to go there. And I must say, it did not disappoint! My only sorrow is that we didn't have enough time to do ALL of the adventures. But isn't that always the problem when you travel?
Here are pictures of some of our adventures. Pam was so nice and let us take her nice camera, but it was a little to big (and I'm too paranoid) to take adventuring, so all these pictures are from our old small camera (aka not great quality).
Our second day was Sunday so we found the nearest congregation and went to church! That was an adventure, as we had to catch a taxi at 6 am, which took us to the local bus station where we rode the public bus for a while and then caught another taxi to get to the actual church building. I had looked up the 'address' to the church beforehand and gave it to our taxi driver but he didn't understand it at all...They don't have addresses like we do here. So finally we were like "do you know where the Mormon Church is?" and relief flooded his face and he was like "of course!" and took us straight there. It's a really pretty building.
Church was an interesting (and good!) experience. It was really really warm in there and I was still pretty tired from the travelling and I also didn't understand a word anyone was saying.....but I'm proud to say I stayed awake the entire time. I brought my Ensign to read and was still really grateful to be able to worship with other Latter-Day Saints. Nate does speak Spanish but the people down there speak so fast and slur they're words together so much that he was barely hanging on himself!
Eating a giant mango is an adventure! Nate was in Heaven!
Monday morning we went rappelling down waterfalls. It was such a blast. Here we are with one of our guides. I was really impressed with all of the guides we had the entire time we were there, they were always really happy, helpful, friendly, and joked a lot while somehow being totally professional and safe.
Rappelling the waterfalls was fun, we did several rappels over the course of a hike down a canyon/river.
Hands down, Zip Lining was both Nate and my favorite thing on this trip. Words can't do it justice and neither can pictures. So just believe me when I tell you it was amaaaaaazing.
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| Suiting Up |
In this picture we're standing on a platform built off one of the trees...basically we just zip lined from tree to tree - sometimes the line was more than half a mile long. It was better than flying! Anyway, you can see some guy coming in below and to the right of us.
We had these leather hand grippers that acted as our break on the zip line. We put our hand up lightly on the line behind us as we zipped along and when we reached the end and needed to stop we clenched our fist around the cable. 
Kayaking on Lake Arenal. It was really nice and relaxing to go out on the lake for a morning. The scenery was just breathtaking and the water was so smooth. We went early enough that we were the only ones out there and it was so nice. Also...I tried putting my camera in a ziplock bag to protect it from the water, but the pictures just turned out hazey. It was slightly foggy when we arrived at the lake but not nearly as much as these pictures make it seem.
The best part about these pictures is that even though it looks all cold and foggy (whenever I see fog and water I automatically think 'cold'...maybe because of the N. California beaches?) it wasn't at all! It was a perfect temperature.
Remove camera from plastic bag:
The lake is behind one of Costa Rica's many volcanoes, Arenal. Arenal is almost always covered in clouds, but it did peek out for a minute while we kayaked by and you can see it behind us here. Everything was so gorgeous.
La Fortuna Waterfall. This is the entrance to the steep 'hike' down.
Also, any time you see a fuzzy caterpillar it's an adventure!
Looks can be deceiving. This waterfall doesn't look very big because I'm still fairly far away from it.
Even here it doesn't look very big.
But see how tiny Nate is in the water next to it? That's about as close to it as he could get too, because the force of the water kept pushing him back. Crazy! I didn't get in very far because the water wasn't as warm and the rocks were extremely slippery, it was hard to get around.
After the falls we scouted out a local water hole we'd been told about earlier. They had a rope swing and small falls and pools and stuff. Nate went down the rope swing and I played in the pools. It was fun to get a feel for the Costa Rican people outside of the tourist areas.
Rafting was a last minute decision and I'm SO GLAD we went, it was one of my favorite things we did. Somehow I didn't know that Nate had never been whitewater rafting! When he told me we both agreed that we should go. Since it was his first time we only did a half day ride, but if we ever went back or had another opportunity I think it'd be fun to do a full day or couple day excursion.
This is our van with our rafts. We actually went with a group of about 20 on several rafts.
One of the reasons I liked this adventure so much was because our river guides we SO knowledgeable. They were constantly telling us things about the area we were in, facts about Costa Rica, etc. On the drive up (which, by the way at one point required getting the van up a road so steep that half the van had to get out and walk) they kept pulling over and picking different plants off the side of the road and telling us all about them.
This is what happens when you crush up a teak leaf in your hand. Red dye! It's what they use to make the ink for henna tattoos. The leaf itself is the size of dish towel at least, soft, and bright green. It's super weird to start ripping up the leaf and get this bright red inky stuff. I wondered if Nate would have red fingers for the rest of the trip but it washed off no problem.
The guide would pass these plants around the van and make us guess what they were. It wasn't hard, they were potent! This is citronella.
Cinnamon!
Lemongrass
I can't remember the name of this plant, but our guide placed the normal looking green fern on Nate's leg and slapped the leaf. When he removed the leaf it had left this perfect powdery mark on his shorts.
This is where we put in.
We stopped half way down the river at this waterfall.
This is the "Excited Nate"
Our guide. Too bad his hair was wet at this point because he had such an awesome fro. He lives in Costa Rica during the winter (their high season) guiding, and then Lake Tahoe during the summer (our high season) guiding there. He's been all over the world though, and was headed to Norway the week after our trip.
That's it from the adventure cam!
