Viva la Vida

“President!” Emily exclaimed, soon followed by “Vice prez!” from Greg's side of the bed. We were settled on my bed in the hotel room again for a few rounds of cards, no surprise since it had turned into tradition over the past few weeks. What was unusual, however, was Brandon's voice after a round of President to ask if we could learn how to Salsa after the next round. A sort of random request, that I assume had something to do with the combination of our stories from Friday night and knowing about all the salsa classes I took last year in Guanajuato.

Julia found some random Latin music on her ipod, which we proceeded to not really use since its difficult to start learning Salsa to music, as the beat doesn't have any flexibility and when you're learning something like a turn, its good to slow it down for a minute so that you are really able to grasp how to do it.

We began in a straight line, learning how to do the basic step, Emily sitting out because she hates dancing. Moving our feet in the standard fashion, we all counted eights to dance to, creating our own rhythm and our own sort of music, if you could call it that, our feet forming the beat. Brandon, focusing on the counts, struggled to keep still on four and eight, wanting to keep on moving, but before long he got it, just in time for us to try it with each other, which just made it more confusing. Greg paired with Julia while I paired with Brandon as I gave tips to my friends as I remembered little things that would help them in their quest for the knowledge of salsa.

As the comfort level increased we moved onto turns, and by now Emily decided it was time for her to join, Maybe salsa dancing isn't so awful. And so Julia took a break and we got Emily comfortable with the step. What followed was the attempts of everyone to learn the basic turn in Salsa, but before long, while everyone was practicing it without partners, we finally got the hang of it, and then we tried to put it together with partners. Julia took up practicing with Brandon and I let them try it out for a little bit before complicating it farther. The hardest part seemed to be for the guy to keep up the basic step as the girl stopped to do the turn.

I couldn't grab onto anything. I was just falling and falling. Granted, there was some resistance, but not enough to give me any sort of security. It didn't matter how much I squeezed my hand around the rope, it just burned my hand through the glove, and there was still at least 100 feet of the 160 foot drop left to go and I had no control. So I twisted and turned myself down the cliff wall in front of me to the yelled explanation of the guides above and below me of what I should be doing, though to my knowledge, I was already doing it... I guess I wasn't...

Today in Arenal, we awoke early to go either canyoning, that is repelling down waterfalls and canyons, or horseback riding around the volcano next to our hotel. I opted to go canyoning and after a bus ride and a hike up some mountains, we began to descend, vertically. Our first drop was the biggest and was next to a huge waterfall. A 160-foot-drop, it obviously wasn't flawless, but still was extremely fun. We were instructed to put our left hand on the part of the rope above us, and the right hand was what stopped our fall and was to go on the rope next to our hip, releasing and gripping to adjust our rate of fall. For some reason, I just couldn't pull the rope tight enough to stop or slow down and soon enough, I think the guides began to stop and start me in rhythm with my attempts to push off the cliff wall.

At our next attempt, we were to face an 80 foot repel. The first 40 feet were to be free fall, and then you had to repel of the wall behind a waterfall. “I'm going to be able to hold on this time!” I told myself. And I was right. As I turned around to plunge backwards off the ledge, I sturdied my hands on the roads and pushed off, released my hands a little bit and begin to swing back... right to the ledge. I hadn't dropped a foot. So I tried again and just landed right back on the ledge, again, even after making an effort to almost completely release my hands. Finally, on the next try, I combined releasing my hands with wiggling my body to coax the rope into slipping through my harness. I dropped right below the ledge and then got caught again. “Show me your hands!” the guide said, asking me to completely remove my hands from the ropes, but I hadn't heard him, for I finally had gotten the hang of it and was busy getting ready to start repelling off the waterfall as my sneakers flooded and water splashed everywhere.

We had a few more canyons to repel down, one of which was the the plain old dry cliff, with no waterfalls to be seen, but a good one to make sure you've really figured out this whole deal with the ropes. The last one went down another waterfall, but the second to last one was definitely the most challenging. The whole time we had been following a single river that cascaded over various cliffs. On the last repel, we were repelling off the wall behind the waterfall the whole time. This part of the waterfall began with a 45 degree angle, so this time, instead of hopping off a ledge as usual, you essentially just walked backwards until you were being completely held up by your harness and then repelled from there. The water was particularly strong here and there were also walls on either side of you, meaning you were either in the waterfall or repelling ungracefully from side-to-side.

I would say this topped the charts of the best activity we did in Costa Rica. I got to learn something completely new while exploring Costa Rica in a new and challenging way.

Our plan for when we woke up was to go to the beach, again. So, with our belongings still damp with salt water, we piled onto the bus to Manuel Antonio, a different beach from yesterday. We were hoping to do about an hour of hiking followed by about an hour of swimming, though we were leaning towards staying out of the water since yesterday's beach experience was still soaked through our swimsuits.

Once we got there, after a long walk through the forest, we reached the beach, which was absolutely gorgeous and pristine. There was no way we were going to miss out on the opportunity to swim on this beach. The waves were calm, and the point at which they tended to break was close to shore, allowing us to essentially play in completely calm waters.

Too little time passed before our group was called together to start heading back. We only had an hour or so there, which was a shame. The group that went on a hike told us we should have gone on the hike, though we adamantly told them they should have gone swimming.

Just as we were about to leave, a pack of wild monkeys and a couple raccoons came out of the forest and started to steal beach dwellers' food and belongings. They were really close to us to the point where if we wanted to we could touch them. A guide popped up and started telling us a little bit about some of them. One that we found was sick, probably from cancer. This occurred because he was exposed to too much flashes from cameras, which make the monkey go blind. The experience was very surreal and cool. The monkeys acted very human-like, and it was interesting to see them in their natural habitat – in a way it actually made them more real.

After another shower and lunch, we were off to return to Heredia.

From the dolphin tour yesterday, we were dropped off at the beach. The waves were high because of the recent storm, and the beach was extremely rocky. Regardless, Emily, Greg and I braved the rocks to find a sandbar that was out a little deeper into the ocean. Emily, who had water shoes at some point even gave me a piggy-back ride to avoid the stinging of the rocks. We spent a majority of our time jumping the waves.

After going home and washing off, and washing off all of our stuff as everything was soaking wet, we went to have dinner at El Avión, a restaurant in a plane. The plane they used was a WWII cargo plane that got shot down in Nicaragua, and in the year 2000, the restaurant bought the remnants for $3000 to remodel into the restaurant. It was hard to imagine when I first heard of it, but indeed, it was an army green plane sitting on the side of the mountain. Under the wings is a further extension of the restaurant, which is where we ate our meal for the evening.

The early riser catches a glimpse of a dolphin, or so we hoped as we grouped by the buses waiting to take us to the port to sail off in search of dolphins. As we drove alongside the port, we spotted a boat with a slide coming off of it. Cries arose from our group of, “A slide? Please, please, please let that be our boat!” And as we were directed onto our home for the next few hours, indeed, the boat with the slide was to be ours.

The boat was great. We were served lunch and snacks on it and it had a great front. This front had these mesh nets stretched over the water in front of the boat so that you could lay down. I spent most of my time on the boat in these nets on my stomach with my head towards the oncoming wind, mesmerized by the water.

Soon, we stopped for snorkeling in a little inset on the coast of an island. As we donned the provided goggles and fins, we excitedly jumped into the water with saltines in our hands to feed the fishes. Unfortunately, we weren't on any sort of coral reef or anything and were just in the middle of water. There were no fishes to be seen until we released our precious crackers, at which point blue and yellow striped fishes began to whirl around us. At some point, I swam away from the group a little bit so that I wasn't bumping against my peers and released my saltines. The fishes were right in front of my face and it was quite entertaining. If I stuck my finger out, they would think it was food and bite it.

Once we got back to the boat, we finally got to play with the slide. You lay down on it with your feet first and there's a sharp drop that sends you flying over the ocean some feet behind the boat. Afterwards, people started experimenting with how they went down. Everyone swore by the method that involved laying on your back and going into the water head first, and once I tried it, I swore by it too. Going in this way allowed your face to avoid the water, though more often than not, your swim suit bottoms tried to avoid their rightful place around your waist.

Once we got back on the boat, we rode around for a little bit, but the weather wasn't conducive to sailing, which was necessary to find dolphins since this way the motor doesn't scare them away. As a result, we didn't have the opportunity to view the animals we came for, though usually this company is known for finding dolphins. Overall, the boat itself and its luxuries were perfect, but the activities that we did could be improved.

After our long bus ride into Manuel Antonio yesterday, we finally arrived at the five star hotel Olivia had been endlessly telling us about. It was rainy and foggy, so we couldn't really get a good feel for the general positive atmosphere for the place, but still we were a little bit disappointed. The rooms were less impressive than the ones at Monteverde. Furthermore, though my room looks out onto a general area of the hotel, most of our peer's rooms look at the porch of a room across from them.

We've mostly attributed this to the different atmosphere of the hotel. Monteverde had a much more serene feel to it, while El Parador, the hotel we're staying at, is much more of a tropical atmosphere. You can see the ocean from some parts of the hotel which is nice. There are also lots of statues and fountains around the hotel, and their pools look nice. Of course, I understand how lucky I am to be staying at a hotel of this quality, but we've been told that this hotel was supposed to be so much better than the last one we stayed at, which was amazing. So its simply a result of high expectations.

We also went ahead and ate dinner at the hotel yesterday, which was of acceptable quality. Again, nothing stupendous for a five star hotel, but not bad. Afterwards, Emily, Brandon, and Greg congregated in our room for some card games. We passed the night with Euchre, President, and Durak, and before long it was time for bed, and though Julia and I couldn't figure out how to turn of one of the lights in our room for a while, we finally did get to sleep.

The ziplines provided endless fun for us. As we moved on, the ziplines kept getting longer and longer, and more and more people needed guides to help them get across. Some simply refused to or weren't able to stop without having the assistance of the tree trunk in front of them. Others got in trouble for releasing the grip of either of their hands to take pictures or videos as they flew across the sky. I was all set as I strapped my GoPro to my head and zoomed on.

The last couple ziplines were the most spectacular, as they were the highest, giving us an amazing view of the mountains below us. These ziplines were long enough that they gave you time to relax and stop thinking about braking in time. You could stop and smell... the greenery. In all honesty though, the air there was something different. In Monteverde, the air felt extremely fresh and just smelled amazing. There were moments where we all just stopped to breathe, and just breathe.

As a grand finale to our zipline experience, we got a chance to go on the Tarzan swing – a mix between a bungee jump of 120 feet and a swing, similar to the Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags Great America. You had to walk out on a long bridge which at some point just stopped, and you were attached to a couple ropes and would jump from there. The wait was filled with anticipation, since as you watched the people in front of you, you would see the person on the bridge, on the bridge, on the bridge, and then gone. Suddenly, without warning, they would disappear, and we were all waiting for our own turn to do just the same.

I finally got out to the platform. I was one of the first of my friends to attempt the jump and any of my friends who already did it were way ahead of me in line. And there I was, on the edge. “Las dos manos aqui.” …This is all I can hold onto? “Bend your knees.” “What?” “Bend. Your knees. Bend.” ...Umm, Okay. And then without further warning I was essentially shoved off the edge. I managed to scream for the first half second of the drop and then my stomach fell behind my body, leaving me breathless. Finally the rope caught, and I swung above the tree tops to catch one last glance at the green mountains that I got to marvel at on the ziplines.

On Saturday, we all stumbled out of our beds at 5:30 in the morning, falling into the bus one after another to drive down to Monteverde, a town in the mountains of Costa Rica. This town was originally founded by Quakers from the United States who were seeking a safe place to build their community. This city now produces amazing dairy products and boasts lush rainforests through which you can find many a canopy tour (ziplining). Some years ago, National Geographic covered this city and discovered that it was a great city for Quetzal bird sightings, so many tourists and photographers started to visit the city. The roads leading into this city were not paved back then, and because the residents of Monteverde wanted to keep the town the same, a sort of private, secluded city, they petitioned to not have the roads paved, even though this was the plan. The same unpaved roads that wound up the sides of the mountains were the ones on which we entered.

The first thing that struck us was the endless rolling mountains of green that stretched out before us as we drove. The expanse seemed endless, and pictures didn't do it justice. We were scheduled to stay at a 4 star hotel for that night, and as we drove up to the resort worthy hotel, we couldn't believe that this didn't have all five.

The rooms were absolutely gorgeous and pristine. The pillows and blankets were super fluffy, there were carpeted floors, and the bathroom sported both an oversize bathtub and a spiffy shower. This shower filled the bottom with water, so your feet were standing in water while you took your normal shower. The room also had rocking chairs to pull out on your balcony/patio, depending on what level your room was on. We got the ground floor, which was preferable as people would congregate outside and it was easy to just go out and meet up with them.

What was particularly amazing was the view. A look out your window brought you face to face with the same rolling, gorgeous, green mountains we saw as we were driving. The view was breathtaking, and I spent all my free time sitting outside, either on the rock outside our room or on a rocking chair, as did other members of our group. No matter how many photos we took, it wasn't the representation we wanted of the spectacular view.