A cloud forest, white water rafting, a crazy lady and the beach

So it's been a few days since I last posted. A lot has happened since then, granted it's only been 3 or 4 days. When I last left off, I had just finished an amazing venture to a volcano and afterwards a nice bath at the hot springs in tabacon. From the city of La Fortuna, I hopped on a jeep to the lake arenal, where I took a speedboat across the lake to catch a shuttle to the town of Santa Elena & monteverde. The trip across the lake was fab, however given the fact that I lived near a marvolous lake in guatemala for 3 months, I wasn't too wow'ed. It was here i met a pretty cool daughter-dad pair from pennsylvania and we got a chance to chat a bit. The shuttle ride from the lake to monteverde was wow. If i were to die I would want to be reincarnated somewhere along those amazing luscious green hill sides. No civilization around, just pure nature. It was nice to see cows just hanging out, goats roaming around freely and carelessly, stray chihuahuas runnign around in open green pastures, and as we circles round the rolling green hills I tried to imprint this amazing picture in my head. Horses were roaming out in the open... it was as if we finally let nature be nature. No civilization around except of a bumpy gravel road with periodic shuttles skirting on the periphery with curious tourists peering out of the window. enough for the poetic rant.....

I settled at the hostel pension santa elena for the day and decided based on glowing reviews from the lonely planet guide book to check out the butterfly garden. Sad to say, butterflys are really not my cup of tea as I had a mediocre time at this garden, however i did get some amazing pictures of various butterflys which i will post sometime and eventually in the near future. The next day, I visited the monteverde cloud forest to do some hiking and wildlife watching. Didnt' really see wildlife that much but I did see lots of birds and learned a lot about trees and the various flora in the forest. our guide was amazing. Here i met a newlywed couple from charleston, SC. what a small world...

I headed out of monteverde/Santa elena yesterday morning in route to San Jose, where I would change buses to head to do some white water rafting on the rio paqure 100 miles east of San jose. 6 hours later I made it to the town of turrialba which is the base for all white water rafting ventures. Turrialba... what a cute town. Very friendly people, nice looking people, everyone with smiles in there faces. This is the central america i wanted to see. No worries about money, selling things... just happy and smiling faces. Such a cute town however i only could afford to spend one night there as i'm on a time crunch.

Today I scheduled an awesome white water rafting adventure on the rio paqure. Wow. How freaking amazing today was. Kick ass rapids, swirls, twirls and even got a chance to swim in some of the lower class rapids. Nothing like jumping in the fast flowing river... floating on your back and just letting the river take you where it desires. on all corners of my vision, besides the waves splashing constantly in my face, i was treated to awesome waterfalls, dense forest canopy and cliffs.. All this while i floated downstream. The white water rafting itself was amazing as we went through some very challenging rapids.. mostly class 3 and 4. We almost flipped over a couple of times. Our guides were amazying however and we had a blast. Straight from my rafting adventure, i hopped on a bus from the town of Squirres to puerto limon where i caught another bus to the town of puerto viajos.

The bus ride down here was pretty clowly as we had an american lady who had been living in puerto viajos for the last 10 years blabbing her mouth the entire way down here. She kinda resembled a stereotypical crackhead however, i shouldn't be mean. She was nice however, in that she recommended me some nice places to stay. I arrived at my hotel and the room that was given to me wasn't as pleasant as i had hoped. it reeked of pot and there were no windowns just one revolving fan. I switched my room to a much nicer room only after paying a little extra... but def worth it.

puerto viajos has gotten glowing reviews by many people and is considered a relaxing town. It's against the carribean ocean close to the border with panama. It's a nice carribean beach town, and just walking through town tonight, it definately has a kickin vibe. We'll see what happens tomm. i haven't scheduled anything.. i just take each day as it comes. i go to bed not knowing what the next day will bring or what city i will decide to venture to, or what attraction i will see. 2 days ago i was strolling around in a butterfly garden on the western coast of costa rica, and just ona whim 2 days letter i end up here on the eastern part of costa rica haven just sped through some class 4 white water rapids and now on the carribean coast to panama. never knew i was THAT whimsical.. but i guess that's a good thing.

we'll i guess i shall call it a night.