Second Trip to Arenal Volcano

On Friday, my host mom asked for the day off from work, took my younger sister out of school and off we went early in the morning to go see the Arenal Volcano.  We all had our fingers crossed that the weather would stay nice.  (I'm not sure if fingers crossed is a saying in Costa Rica or not cause I found out that it's not bad luck to open an umbrella inside, and the number 13 isn't unlucky either.)  But anyway, luck was finally with us on this trip.  The volcano was partly covered when we first got there but as the day went on the clouds cleared and we got to see the entire volcano!  A great last day with my family.

When we first go there.

There was a snake in the path that looked at us and moved out of the way.

Look how long it was.  We saw it shortly after my host mom had told us to be careful cause there are poisonous yellow snakes here. 

The beautiful Arenal Lake which is a man made lake for hydroelectricity.  An entire town was moved to make this lake. 

My host mom and sister are wearing the CC hats I gave them!

We climbed up the volcano!  We actually weren't that close cause it is an active volcano and that would have been dangerous.

The white part at the top of the volcano was the gas from the volcano, not a passing cloud.

There are two points, the eruptions happen from the shorter one. This is the only volcano in Costa Rica that has a point at the top.

I'm now back in San José for the last month of my stay in Costa Rica.  It was sad to leave that host family, but I'm excited for all the adventures I will have while in San José and I hope to come back and see them some day.

The Secret Garden

I think I've found Frances Hodgson Burnett's secret garden.  It's not actually in England, it's in Costa Rica at Tirimbina Biological Reserve.  

There are magical looking benches.

Roots that aren't in the ground

Grasshopper that looks like moss.

A lot of toads

Some birds stare at you

Some birds try to hide from you
(just to clarify this is a toucan, in another post I accidentally labled it as a macaw)

Ducks have red eyes and yellow beaks

Dragonflys

Butterflys 

Shadows that look the leaves have fallen on the path

And so much more.  You will have to come visit to find out for yourself.  Unfortunately I'm leaving this magical place on Saturday, but I hope to return.

I got to hold a baby armadillo before I left!  One of the people who work here found it alone in the forest so my advisor took it with him to San José in the hopes of saving its life.

Best Compliment Ever

On Saturday we stopped by my host grandmother's house and she had all of this great stuff for me to try: sugar cane and guaba.  To eat sugar cane you peel off the outer bark and chew on the inside so all the sugary juice ends up in your mouth and guaba you eat the white fuzzy part around the seeds and then spit out the seeds.  So while we were standing outside eating these wonderful but messy foods my host grandmother told me she thinks I'm part costa rican! My host mom's response to this was that she would find me a costa rican boyfriend to convince me to stay (sorry Carson).  These things were so great to hear from my Costa Rican family.

Sugar cane

Guaba (ignore the caption in the picture, guava is a different fruit)

Anyway, the rest of my weekend was uneventful cause of unfortunate rain.  My sisters decided I needed to be educated on the twilight movies so we watched all of them in one day.  Then we just hung out for the rest of the weekend.  I leave this family on Saturday and I'm really not looking forward to it. Hopefully I will get the chance to come back to Costa Rica in the near future.

This Week End

So Friday started off with everyone in my host family being sick, including me.  My eldest host sister had been sick earlier in the week and we all got it. Yay!  But runny noses didn't stop us, we all went to school, work, etc. like normal.

Then on Saturday we went to a farm that is owned by the scouts program that my middle sister is part of (it's like boy scouts only for both genders).

After leaving there we went to La Selva which is the biological reserve that my host dad works at.  When we were there, I found out that a bunch of other family members work there too.  So we went on a hike and got lost and then found our way back out!  I had a great time, my oldest sister was less than thrilled about walking through the forest and getting her hiking boots dirty (I thought hiking boots were supposed to get dirty, but what do I know).  The only little mishap was when I was taking a picture while standing on a bridge and the cap to the camera lens fell in the river and got swept away.  Oops (fingers crossed that I will be able to find another one online).

Blue jeaned poison dart frog.

These are everywhere. 

The macaw was hiding.

Howler monkey

I have been trying the whole time I've been here to get a picture of a hummingbird.  Finally had success!

Then Sunday was a lazy day, and we just hung out at the house.  For a while my host dad and I were sitting out on the front patio and I was taking pictures of birds while he told me what they all were (of course I don't really remember what they were, but the pictures came out good).

But I got a stomach bug Sunday afternoon so that was kinda a bad way to end the weekend.  Now I'm back at Tirimbina getting ready to analyze more bat calls.  I just found out the way I was doing the analysis was wrong and now I have to start over! Yay!