Day 4

Day 4

We departed the Arenal Vista Lodge at 7:30am for Monteverde National Park. Along the way we stopped at La Escuela de las Nubes to watch a performance. This is a small town at the top of the mountain with only 30 families in town and only 10 of those have children in the school. There are 21 children K-6 that attend the one-room school house. They did 4 dances for us, starting by signing their National Anthem. After the performance our students played a little soccer game with their 3 boys who didn't dance. Luis and Toni we unbelievable players. I'm not sure who had more fun, our students or Toni and Luis!

Next we drove to our hotel, Atardecer, in Monteverde. Unfortunately the hotel did not have a pool, but the quaint downtown area was a 5 minute walk. After lunch (mashed potatoes, grilled chicken breast, rice and beans) about 20 people went horseback riding (an extra fee of $50).

Our first dinner at this hotel was spagetti and garlic bread. Usually each dinner comes with some sort of juice or mixture of juices. After our 7pm, we again had free time. It was very windy out, and quite cold. It was also too foggy to see the Pacific Coast, even though we were close enough.

Day 5

Today we had breakfast at 645am. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, toast with mango jelly, and rice and beans mixed. Pete and I have been enjoying the Lizano salsa that has been on almost every table in Costa Rica. In fact, Pete bought his own personal jar just in case they didn't have it.

We boarded the bus at 7:30am for the Zip line at 100% Adventure. This was absolutely awesome! (more to come--time for our night walk in the cloud canopy)