Santa Elena, Costa Rica

So, where did I leave off... ah, with Cerro Chato. So that afternoon we went with a tour group and hiked to the opposite side of Arenal that we were on, the side that had the lava flows and all the expensive hotels and resorts. Our group was made up of rather dull people, and the hike itself was nothing special. However the view was spectacular, on top of black volcanic rock and Arenal behind us and Lake Arenal and mountains in front of us. Lake Arenal is a man-made lake and provides 60% of Costa Rica´s hydro-electric power. It is MASSIVE.

After the hike we went to Baldi hot springs and ran into Jake and May again. We hung out and walked around the springs. There were lots of different pools and a swim-up bar. I really have to get back into my backpacker social level. There were plenty of interesting (hot) people (girls) there, and we didn´t really talk to any of them except for one English girl, to ask where the sauna was. But even without stimulating conversation, it was a very good time.

The next morning we packed up and took a Jeep-Boat-Jeep to Monteverde. While my socialability isn´t what it once was, I can say my cleanliness standards have dropped back down to where they used to be. I´ve already started classifying clothes without any too obvious stains and an acceptable odour level as "clean".

Jake and May were also on our trip to Monteverde, and we just saw them walk by as we were having lunch here. Anyhow, the boat was across Lake Arenal and was a great boat trip. The lake was about 13 km long and is a very relaxing ride, although docking the boat seemed to be an overly complicated maneouver. After the boat was the shuttle to Santa Elena, a town by Monteverde that is a less costly place to stay. The roads were pretty frightening at times, but in the end I realized it was no worse than the Ingraham Trail, so I relaxed. Travelling by road here is kinda ridiculous. A 100 km trip will take about 4 hours. You can´t reach any kind of speed on these bumpy dirt roads.

So now were in Santa Elena. It is a town created exclusively for tourists. That is apparently the ONLY industry here. We´re only spending one more night here before going to Mal Pais, on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific coast. We were going to go to Tamarindo, but then ran into two German girls, Kersten and Stephanie, at our casita who said it was just a English/American, over-priced, party town, so we figured we´d try Mal Pais first, and pass through Tamarindo later if we feel up to it.

This morning we hiked through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve (a less crowded version of the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve). We didn´t manage to see any wildlife, but did get to confirm that it is entirely feasible that those jungle vines could hold a person´s body weight. In about an hour we´re going off on a canopy tour, which is basically taking zip lines from tree-top to tree-top, and then we´ll probably go back to our casita, grab dinner with the German girls and hit the hay for the 6am bus we have to catch to get to Mal Pais tomorrow.

PS - Camera Update: it´s drier here, so hopefully will dry out soon. It can turn on and off now, but can´t switch modes or take pictures, but it´s something.