"Eh"

Thursday, April 3rd

Posted by Kim

First let me explain the title of this day's entry. Melissa, Dave, and I have chosen the word "eh" as our motto for this trip. "Eh" has been our response almost every time one of the teens asks a question about our schedule... "What time is breakfast? What are we doing after breakfast? What are we having for lunch?"... you get the picture! The Costa Rican culture is so laid back that there are rarely answers to any of these questions, so when asked, we respond with "Eh".

Today we left camp around 4:30am in a bus with Rolando to head to La Fortuna. We arrived in La Fortuna around 9:00am and had breakfast at a really nice open air restaurant. Breakfast was delicious... We all got to try a new type of juice that is made from a fruit called guanabana. This fruit is picked before it is ripe and has to be eaten within three days of being picked or it will go bad, therefore it cannot be shipped anywhere. The juice made from this fruit was delicious!

After breakfast we went to the waterfall in La Fortuna. To get to the waterfall, we had to hike down 500 steps. Once we got down to the bottom, we realized it was worth the hike! The waterfall was beautiful! We took a few pictures of the waterfall and then we all went for a swim... the water was freezing! We stayed at the falls swimming and relaxing in the sun on the rocks for an hour or so. Then we had to hike back up the 500 steps to the bus. Melissa and I asked Rolando to go slow up the steps... yea, right! Every time we stopped to catch our breath, Rolando said "Vaminos!!" AHHHHH!

For lunch we went back to the same open air restaurant where we ate breakfast. Rolando had already ordered our lunch for us... we had roasted chicken! As soon as we finished eating we headed into town to do a little shopping.



At 3:00 we headed to the Hot Springs. The springs were beautiful and so relaxing. We stayed there soaking in the water and drinking fruity drinks for two hours. While we were there we got to see a sloth and a couple of monkeys in the trees. We didn't want to leave!

After the springs, we loaded the bus and headed for the Arenal Observatory which is where we slept Thursday night. The Observatory overlooks the Arenal Volcano, which is an active volcano. You can see the volcano from everywhere in La Fortuna but the view from the Observatory was spectacular. We even got to see the lava coming down the side of the volcano when we arrived at the Observatory. Our dinner reservations weren't until 8:00 so we had time to shower and relax before dinner. These were the first hot showers we had all week... needless to say, most of us took really long showers! The restaurant at the Observatory was really fancy. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.

After dinner we voted on MVP and Dorcas for the day... Meredith was voted MVP because she was so encouraging and caring towards those of us who had a hard time hiking up the stairs from the waterfall. Dave was voted Dorcas! Then Meredith led us in a devotion about perspective. We were all extremely tired from a very long day and everyone went to bed as soon as devotion was over.

Tomorrow we will go to the zipline first thing in the morning... we are all excited and a little nervous.