Day 3: La Fortuna and waterfall rappelling

Today we went waterfall rappelling! I was honestly expecting a small very tourist non-challenging sort of thing, and was pleasantly surprised to find some real adventure. After a 30 minute off road ride (our free Costa Rican "massage" haha), we arrived at Desafio's rappelling area. A short hike into the rain forest down a steep, narrow path brought us to our first small rappel, a nice warm-up for us to all learn the equipment. The most fun part of it was that we actually controlled our descent and the "brake". It was a bit hard to trust the brake (ourselves) and most took a lot of encouragement and reminders to release their white knuckle grip on the rope enough to allow themselves to move downwards, let alone enough to allow their upper body to angle downward to be parallel to the ground. But, we all made it.

Our biggest rappel was over 220 feet high, which required us to  trust our gear and guides a bit more as we had to spin out off of the balcony and lean backwards in order for our guide to even attach us to the second safety line. Again, we had full control over letting ourselves out (no auto safety bungee, just us and our ropes. Watching our guide make it down the 200 foot drop in 4 hops (and only a few seconds) we all joked about being happy to make it down in 10 hops... I think I made it in about 6, although I panicked on the last part of the stretch which was free in the air (more like a zip line at that point) as I got going very quickly. I tested my very responsive brake and jerked to an immediate halt (brakes, check!) then finished the rest of the descent. My mom did surprisingly well on today's adventure, and most of the  others in our group were really surprised that we were doing such an adventuresome tour together (and a lot were jealous, go mom!).

It was an exhilarating and very wet 2 hours, the whole time either spent hiking down into the rain forest, crawling through the river, rappelling down waterfalls, and hiking back up the mountain (what goes down... must come up?).  Followed by lunch of... you guessed it, more rice and beans.

Okay, so a note on the rice and beans. At first, (only two days ago?) I was talking about how delicious the rice and beans were. Then, on our third day, after eating rice and beans three times a day for the last three days, I am now not so fond of rice and beans. If I never had to see or eat rice and beans ever again, I would be a very happy (and less gassy) girl. Think I'm going to stick to the stew and potatoes for a bit, oh, and their lovely spicy ketchup that I have grown so fond of (give me three more days for that one and we'll have to see).

After the hike, mom rode the bus back. I chose to walk back to town (only about 2 miles, maybe less) with a couple I met on our tour. What a small world - the lady is a newer tango dancer  (although very experienced swing dancer) from San Francisco. We found plenty to talk about on our hour hike back to town. Other than barely dodging a few close passing cars, we got to enjoy the countryside of La Fortuna and even discovered a local swimming hole that I'm hoping to get to visit on our free day on Monday. We might go out Salsa dancing tomorrow night at a local club.

This afternoon we were supposed to hike the Arenal Volcano, but due to the torrential afternoon downpours, we were able to alter our schedule a bit and go to the Bali Hot Springs instead (hike rescheduled for Monday morning to hopefully avoid the rain). The hot springs were an incredibly touristy, but ridiculously enjoyable experience. They had over 25 different pools of varying temperatures, multiple restaurants, saunas, swim-up bars (way overpriced), and even water slides and a fairly impressive and large fake waterfall.  The hot springs are the natural result of the volcanic activity of the Arenal Volcano which feeds the springs. It was an enjoyable evening, although very very touristy.

Later, we took an hour walk all around La Fortuna, which is a pretty small town. It is very safe feeling even off of the main stretches. I look forward to seeing it some more in the daylight. We found a few new "Sodas" to try eating at (smaller, more traditional restaurants with cheaper prices thn the tourist restaurants and a more local feel, which we prefer).

Now, off to bed. Tomorrow, kayaking the Arenal lake and going underground to explore some caves in the afternoon.

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Mom's language accomplishment of the day: successfully was able to greet (hola) and thank (gracias) multiple locals (only under threat of me blogging about her, lol).  Remembers how to say (although not yet use) "where is" (donde está).

Random observations/thoughts
My quick dry clothing is not so quick to dry. Although the humidity isn't bothering me, I think even my dry clothes are getting damper by the day.
I remove the previous comment about lack of dogs. Today in the countryside they were everywhere and even saw some pretty mongrelly looking dogs in the city during our walk.
No more beans. Ever again.