Día 6 - traveling to the beach!

¡hola!,
We are in Manuel Antonio National Park. It took us about 5 hours to get here from Monte Verde,due to a flat tire, a quick stop to see crocs in the wild and the Costa Rican "Oh my God roads"! The kids spent the afernoon in the beautiful crystal blue beach, and did a little bargaining at the local tent market. Right now they are in the hotel pool enjoying the beautiful warm night. Tomorrow we head inside the national park to see more wildlife and even more incredible picturesque beaches! Surfing tomorrow!

Día 5

¡Buenas tardes!

Today was a fun day! Ziplining and suspension bridges plus a rematch soccer game this afternoon or tonight. Pure adrenaline today or as it´s said in Costa Rica,"Pura Vida", which is like saying everything is great!
Everyone made it down safely in one piece.There were 15 ziplines with the last one being 1 kilometer in lenght, which they claim is the longest line in the world! In addition some of the kids did the crazy Tarzan swing. Of course, I will post pics and videos! Check them out!

¡Pura vida!

P.S. We have posted the infamous Dakota Video from our third day. We have also posted more rafting photos from day 2! Visit the new posts!

Día 4 - Monte Verde

¡Buenos días!
This morning we went horseback riding! It was a beautiful ride, a little painful but worth it! Later we drove to Monte Verde ( a town started by Quakers from the U.S in the 50's, and later invaded by hippies in the 60's and 70's) where we have just eaten at a nice restaurant, had some homemade ice cream, bought some of the local 5 star coffee, and now I am sitting in a cyber cafe in town while the kids are going through the local souvenir shops.

I had a little trouble uploading some of the videos yesterday but I will try again from this cafe and hopefully add some of the horsebacking vids too!

Tomorrow it's suspesion bridges and ziplining! Don't forget to click on the pictures to increase the size!

Día 3 ¡Feliz día de San Valentín!

Happy Valentine´s Day!

It`s quite a location we are at right now.When we walk out of our hotel rooms, we just look up and the volcano is right there. It´s incredible! Local custom is to give one sacrifice per tour group, it´s between Raffie and Dakota!










We started our day with a great Costa Rican breakfast to then drive to a spot were we saw one of the biggest colonies of iguanas.

We drove to Los Chiles to take a boat trip in Río Frío. We learned about the local flora and fauna. The students were able to see Caymans, crocs, Jesus Christ lizards, many bird species and Howler monkeys (check out our pics and video of the howlers)! We also followed the river up to the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan border. Our tour group became official ilegal aliens in Nicaragua for a few minutes! On the way back, Dakota decided do a simulated volcano pratice run! Check out the video! Warning:due to a moment in lapse of reason, extreme language may be heard on this video. Please turn the audio off in company of minors, Dr.Haubner, and Mr. and Mrs. Dinaso. After watching the video you will understand why Dakota could not help himself!

We then headed back to la Fortuna to do some shopping in town and headed back to the hotel to rest for an hour before heading to the back side of the Arenal Volcano to catch some lava flowing down. We were not lucky today, no lava, but it was fun sharing ghost stories on our way back to the hotel.

We watched some local folkloric dancers performing at the restaurant were we lunched today.

Tomorrow we are going horseback riding and heading to Monte Verde for some ziplining!

Day 2

Today we went river rafting on the Chirripo River and it was great! A few of us fell in the water, we are all safe. Some students jumped into the river from a 20 foot rock ledge. On the way to the hot springs we saw a howler monkey and a sloth.In the afternoon we drove to the Arenal Volcano and went into the hot springs which was very relaxing after all the paddling. Check out our pics! Click on the pics to maximize them!

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

We have just checked in into our first hotel. The first thing that hits getting of the plane was the welcomed humidity! Tomorrow river rafting,6 30 am breakfast!

We have just arrived in Dallas, it is 3:48 PM. Everybody safe and waiting for our next flight. We ran into James D. in Dallas. It´s a world!