los ríos

Today I did something that I've never done before: swim in a river. Our guide simply pulled the bus off the side of the road and there we were. We went to two different rivers-the first was cold and the second was hot water. The only entry way into the cold river was a rope swing which was pretty high. Considering that I do not like either heights or cold water, I need not explain further. The second river we went to was the hot water river which was heated by the Arenal Volcanoe as well. We went in under a bridge, so there was cement under the bridge. Algae has covered the cement so now the slanted slope was like a big slide. After the "slide" there was a decent sized drop into another pool of water. Silly me, I make it down the "slide successfully," but I'm just standing watching others come down, and I slipped on the algae, couldn't stop my self, couldn't reach anything to grab onto, so I went tumbling down the rocks and splashed my way into the next pool of water by landing on more rocks. Kids, please don't try this at home!

After our swim in the river, we took a 45 minute boat ride to avoid the bumpy roads leading up into the mountains. Meanwhile, our guide drove the bus up the mountain. When we got off the boat, we had another bus waiting for us. He drove us for a restauraunt where our orders had already been placed and were ready and waiting. It was all so organized and timely, and that I like. After lunch we headed to our hotel in Monte Verde: Hotel Oasis. It wasn't quite the "oasis" I expected after all of the nice hotels we have stayed at during all of our trips thus far. We had bunkbeds. Haha. It was only one night, so we made the best of it.